Your Magnificent Escape: Peru Travel Packages
Peru travel packages must take into account that the country offers at least three entirely separate types of vacation. The country is best known as home to a variety of ancient civilizations which left behind an archaeologically important ruins whose allure will never fade. Then there is a different wealth, from nature expressing itself as mountains, rainforests, and beaches, each offering recreational opportunities. Finally, there is the chance to share the life of the Peruvian people, whether in the great metropolis of Lima, or in towns which preserve the colonial past.
Machu Picchu is the first and foremost tourist site in the country, drawing people who are very nearly pilgrims from around the world. At one time its Citadel was the spiritual heart of the Inca Empire, and home to as many as 10,000 people. The people long gone, the site still has a palpable spiritual charge.
Machu Picchu was hidden from the modern world in the remote depths of the Cusco jungle until it was discovered in the early years of the 20th Century. Added to its spiritual aura is the mystery of just how the Incas managed to haul the massive blocks of limestone from which it was made through the jungle and over the mountain trails. Growing in legend over time, Machu Picchu is easily one of the 7 Wonders of the New World.
The Peruvian countryside is crisscrossed with twenty-three thousand km of pathways left by the Incas. This includes the forty-three km pathway to Machu Picchu, which today is traversed by twenty-five thousand tourists every year. As steeped in legend as Machu Picchu is, it is still thought to have been built in the 16th Century. While the best-known of the Peruvian archeological sites, there are numerous others that are significantly older.
The most ancient site is the Chavin de Huantar Complex on the banks of the Monsa River, dating back as early as 1100BCE. Within the Complex, perhaps the best-known feature is the carved heads of the courtyard. The heads are thought by archaeologists to represent shamans brought into a mystic state through the use of hallucinatory drugs.
Peruvian packages offer more than fascinating ancient digs. There is the Allpahahayo Mishana and Pacaya Samiria in the Amazon jungle, home to aboriginal peoples open to being encountered by Westerners. Those jungles are equally famous for beautiful fauna and flora and exotic wildlife. There are also the high-altitude blue lakes in the Callejo de Huaylas mountains, a snow-capped Andean range known as “the Switzerland of South America”.
Offshore, the Ballestas Islands provide a variety of water-sports, including windsurfing, deep sea fishing, and scuba diving. The diversity of Peruvian environment is equal to that of much larger countries. One visit mountain peak, ocean floor, plain or jungle.
There are also well-preserved colonial towns throughout the country. Nor should Lima, the capitol, be underestimated. Lima is a fully cosmopolitan world center with a metro population of over eight million, it is home to the oldest continually operating university in the New World. It is also centrally located, and therefore a perfect point of departure for any of many Peru travel packages.
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