Our mission president and the Area presidency gave us permission to travel around Peru with Scott's sister and her husband. We saw many amazing places and people. Thousands of tourists visit Peru every year. If you were to visit Peru, what might you see?
You might visit the Cathedral in the Plaza
de Armas (central square) of Lima:
... where you would see statues of Mary with her robe in the shape of a mountain--a ploy the Spaniards used to convince the Inca people to worship Mary as they did the mountain Gods:
You might visit the San Francisco chapel, with its catacombs in the basement:
Not far south of Lima is the
archaeological site of
Pachacamac:
You might visit the museums in Lima filled with wonderful examples of
pre-Inca and Inca pottery:
Or you might travel 3-4 hours south of Lima to see the
Ballestas Islands and the National Preserve at
Paracas with wildlife of many types:
On one of the
Ballestas Islands you could see the huge "candelabra" drawing. To us it looked like a "Tree of Life":
You could take a plane ride over the mysterious Nazca Lines, enormous drawings in the desert rock. The lines can only be seen from the air:
Most tourists travel to
Cusco. Here two young women pose in the ceremonial costume of
Cusco:
On a hill overlooking
Cusco, you could visit the
mammoth archaeological site of
Saksawaman:
You could see women wearing their traditional hats and sweaters selling produce and souvenirs:
An amazing Inca site you could visit is found at
Pisaq:
Here, a saleswoman and her daughter pose above the
Pisaq terraces:
On the way to
Machu Picchu, you could stop at the ancient Inca site of
Ollantaytambo:
And of course, most tourists visit this Wonder of the World,
Machu Picchu:
Machu Picchu is on the edge of the Peruvian jungle on a high mountain top:
On the train back from
Machu Picchu to
Ollantaytambo, you might be entertained by Peruvians in native masks and costumes:
You would probably want to visit Lake Titicaca. We stopped at various tourist sites, including this one, where Peruvian women sold their wares:
Some interesting Inca ruins are found at
Raqchi:
You might get a close-up view of llama, alpaca (shown here), and
vicuña:
Once in
Puno, on the shore of Lake Titicaca, it's a short boat ride out to the floating islands of Los
Uros. The islands, homes, and boats are made of reeds, which grow in the shallow western bay of the lake:
The
Uros travel from their islands and to the mainland in small rowboats:
... but they also travel in reed boats:
Not far from
Puno are the ruins at
Sillustani, a
pre-Inca and Inca burial site, with stones of granite (light colored) and basalt (dark colored):
A woman who lives near
Sillustani posed for Scott:
Such are the amazing scenes and peoples you might see if you were a tourist visiting Peru.
