Jaunted - pe

Summer Vacations With an Edge: Sandboarding In Peru

Omri — 2009-08-14T13:14:35-05:00

It turns out that the highest sand dune in the world is Peru's Cerro Blanco, which rises more than 2,000m above the ground and more or less resembles a mountain. It also turns out that if you want to sandboard down the side of it, Peru Adventure Tours is more than willing to put together a package for you, drive you out there in a sand buggy, and watch as you indulge in one of the world's most extreme sports.

Sandboarding is an all-season sport, one of the upshots of basing an activity out of a desert. Sandboarders either stand on snowboard-like boards or lie down on mats for "trayboarding," and try to pull off the same tricks that snowboarders do. That means catching air, doing tricks, and carving up the ground. Instead of kicking up snow, though, these athletes shred grainy sand. And instead of getting to ride sky lifts up picturesque mountains, they have to access some of the most unforgiving environments in the world.

Pirates Pop Up In The Amazon To Rob Luxury River Cruise

JetSetCD — 2009-07-28T09:04:25-05:00

Although we'd love to believe that Johnny Depp's Captain Jack Sparrow is the only noteworthy pirate of the last few years, the reality is that pirates are back in a big way, and an event this week proves that they aren't just confined to the treacherous waters off of Somalia.

On Sunday, the Aqua, a luxury river cruising boat just beginning a turn down the Amazon, was boarded and raided by six weapon-wielding bandits who robbed the vessel's 24 passengers of money and other valuables. Luckily that's all the pirates took as no cruisers were hurt. After returning to port in Iquitos, Peru, the passengers were sent home care of Aqua Expeditions, who also refunded them for the entire cruise—prices per person for the cruise began at $4,500—and tried to mollify them by offering a free future cruise.

Double The Pisco Sour In Peru, Double The Fun

JetSetCD — 2009-07-16T16:44:19-05:00

While the summer is at its peak and you're no doubt tired of chugging bottled water under the sun at tourist sites, we're going to hit some of the world's best watering holes and down their famous summer cocktails. Bottoms up!

For many, a trip down to Peru means some serious Macchu Picchu trekking, but we're frankly more interested in chasing down the best of the country's official drink: The Pisco Sour. Although Chile also lays claim to this tart concoction, the master of the double-sized, or Catedral, Pisco Sour is definitely in the center of Lima at the Hotel Bolivar.

A member of the classic grand dame hotels of the world, the Bolivar was a home-away-from-home for dignitaries and Hollywood stars like Ava Gardner, who was known to favor the Catedral Pisco Sours of the bar. We'll also freely admit to salivating at the mere mention of any "sour" cocktails, so Lima it is. No need to stay the night at the Gran Hotel Bolivar however, as only the bar and the building's architecture remember the golden days; the rooms leave something to be desired.

Nazca Lines Get Colored In By Rains

amandak — 2009-01-22T16:10:26-05:00

Travelers to Peru at the moment might be a bit disappointed that the famed Nazca Lines are not looking quite the same as usual. These dramatic two-thousand-year-old drawings are a bit worse for wear because heavy rains have "changed" them a bit.

The rains have left a layer of white clay over several of the geoglyphs. This layer's hanging around despite this confident but obviously wrong sentence in the Wikipedia entry on the Nazca Lines:

The dry, windless, stable climate of the plateau has preserved the lines to this day.

Oops. Presumably someone'll edit that soon to say almost preserved the lines. The good news is that local archaeologists say the changes are reversible, so we might get the old Nazca Lines back sometime.

Related Stories:
· Heavy Rains Alter Peru's Famed Nazca Lines [Jaunted]
· Volunteer Travel: Experience the Real Peru [Jaunted]
· Peruvian Pyramid Discovered Using Satellite Data [Jaunted]

[Photo: Scubaben]

Trendsetters Agree: Peru Is For Foodies

BS — 2008-12-12T09:50:29-05:00

It's official: The 2009 foodie trend-before-it-even-happens is Peruvian. Last week we brought you Epicurious' prediction that Peruvian cuisine would be all the rage in 2009, and we found a few stateside restos where you can chow down on the new hotness.

But now tricky Bon Appetit has gone and one-upped the 'curious. From the '09 predictions list in BA's January issue:

World's Best Vegetarian Restaurants: The Fruits of Lima

egw — 2008-10-22T16:00:49-05:00

Are you ready to expand your palate? Put down that steak and look beyond the salad plate at the world's best vegetarian restaurants.

The stereotype alone of South Americans as ardent meat eaters may put off vegetarian and vegan travelers altogether--or worse, leave them scrambling for the local equivalent of the granola bar. (Avoid!) But Lima's El Paraiso Bio Leben is not only a great source of cheap veggie food, it presents an alternative to all that churrascaria madness.

Archaeological Travel: Peruvian Pyramid Discovered Using Satellite Data

Victor Ozols — 2008-10-04T12:54:43-05:00

Sometimes it's nice to be reminded that there's still lots of cool stuff we haven't yet discovered in this world. Italian researchers announced on Friday that they had found an ancient adobe pyramid along the river Nazca, near Peru's Cahuachi Desert, along with two other structures that have yet to be identified. The three structures were likely built by the Nazca civilization, who occupied the area from about 100 B.C. to 500 A.D., when a series of disasters forced them to abandon what appears to be the world's largest mud city.