Southern Migration

City living

I visited four major cities over the course of my three weeks in Peru, serving as base-camps for outings into the mountains and canyons and deserts and whatnot. I only stayed a day or two in each, but I was able to take in a bit of their respective vibes, plus observe some very intense Semana Santa (Holy Week leading up to Easter) processions.

View of the rooftops of Cusco, on my way up for a little walk into the hills on the outskirts of town.

A street in Cusco...some really steep hills there so it was a challenge to walk around sometimes. Plus the altitude (11,500 feet) made it tough, but I endured!

How great are they? Ok, I had to pay them each 50 cents to take their picture but it was totally worth it. They're gorgeous.

Behold El Senor de los Temblores (Lord of the Earthquakes). He gets brought out and paraded around all day on the Monday of Holy Week (this was in Cusco). Can you see how the guys holding that thing are grimacing? It must be so heavy.

I want my hair to keep growing longer and longer and I'll wear it in braids all the time. So many cool old ladies were rocking this style...I loved it.

In a market in Cusco. Why does she look so pissed? She's surrounded by beautiful flowers.

I bought chocolate from this lady. Wouldn't you? She looks like she has magical powers.

Corn. On display in the Natural History Museum in Cusco. Not much else to say about that, I guess.

And here's a shot of the rooftops of Puno (from the terrace of the hostel) with Lake Titikaka in the distance. Altitude: 12,628 ft. Also a little rough on the lungs, but by then I was sort of used to it.

I washed and line-dried my own laundry there, that was fun. Mainly I was just being stingy with my money.

Cool paddle boats at the pier in Puno. I didn't ride in one but they looked fun. 

This is an old British navy ship that was brought to Lake Puno by land in several thousand pieces and then re-constructed for use. It was really cool...I got to take a tour of it and all the parts are beautifully restored. Quite enriching.

The old lady that owned this baby sheep scolded me for taking this picture. But it's so cute. Hopefully I haven't been cursed.

Another Semana Santa procession. This one had really good music , and several different statues of all sorts of saints (including a creepy dead and bloody Jesus in a casket). It was really powerful.

A market in Arequipa. Actually, a quick word on markets in general. I came across these in every city I visited...giant building with several individual stands for meat, poultry, fish, cheese, vegetables and herbs, dried fruits and grains, etc...plus awesome counters to stop and get a super cheap lunch at. Why don't we have this in New York? Wholefoods doesn't count. I guess Essex St. Market is sort of like this. Are there others? I need to explore my city more.

A beautiful little spot inside a monastery in Arequipa...I wasn't supposed to be in there, actually, but I snuck in through the gardener's entrance. It was a special place with lots of beautiful gardens of cacti and succulents. 

And flash forward to Lima...actually this is sort of the Brooklyn of Lima, a neighborhood called Barranco. Right on the beach, it's super artsy and really lovely for walking around in. I would definitely live there.

View of the beach and the coast of Lima.

A quiet street in downtown Lima. Generally this city was actually pretty busy and crowded, I just liked this particular block for some reason. Incidentally, there were a bunch of Volkswagen bugs in Peru. Not sure why.

Gotta love them bomberos. I tried to take notice of the different firehouses and whatnot throughout my journey, even went inside a couple and got tours. It was interesting. These guys were jogging down the street and singing, army-style. They were probably super hot in those uniforms.