In 1987 I was living in London as an Expat working for Shell Exporo. I had a lovely exclusive apartment in the centre of town (Ebury street) and could cycle to work. One summer holiday I went to Peru for 5 weeks. It was a great trip. I stop over at a Shell colleague in Lima where I rente a VW Beatle. With this I drove up North over the mountains to Huaraz (oldest civilisation site) and on to Trujillo. There I met Ana Sanchez, a lovely Peruvian student who spoke German. She showed me the surroundings of Trujillo and the fascinating Chan Chan ruins. We drove on to Cajamarca where the Inca paid a room full off gold to the Spanish conquistador Pizzaro and still was murdered. I drove on over the Andes and the Maranon river to the lost ruins of Kuelap near Chacapoyas. These ruins had not bean cleared at the time and also the hill side urns had not been restored. After driving back to Lima and a few rest days with my colloquies I drove on South to Pisco with its Paracas national reserve and on to Nazca. Flying over the Nazca Lines had always been on my “bucket list”. Unfortunately Maria Reich was unwell to give her weekly lecture explaining what the lines mean. It would have been historical to meet such a world figure. Back again in Lima I took an internal flight to Cuzco, the center of the Inca culture.I had read so much about the last Inca stand (Villicabamba) and where it was located in the jungle. Unfortunately that was a bridge to far and I had to settle for Machu Picchu. The trip went by train on to Lake Titicaca where I stayed with the Urus people. The trip back was by bus to Arequipa and then a plane to Lima. On Monday morning I got out of the plain and went with rucksack and all to the office. Closed the door and sped nobody would miss me. It was memorable trip. I recently made this slideshow to capture the beauty of the country.
Assen, 27/10/2017
Rudy Welling's Travels 