More than anything, what makes a place worth traveling to, living, experiencing and knowing are its people. What makes my various adventures all worth it, aside from going to and through the wild jungles, nice beaches, deathly-deep gorges, and mountain glories, are the people; nothing more, nothing less.
These Adventures to follow are a culmination of my various trips taken to all parts of Peru. I will display the places to which I traveled (geography), include some descriptions and influences of the climate (weather), but more than anything else, I'll give you a detailed description of the people of this country. People who are as vast in origin as they are in lifestyle and tradition. People who are, in general, as caring and genuine as anyone else you'll ever meet.
My hope is that in each chapter, the reader will get a palpable grasp of just how vast in every way Peru really is. Of course, the heart of Peru, the Andes, is what is visible to most due to the National Geographic documentaries, travel shows, and tourism commercials and the like. This is all valid and wonderful, but my goal here is to take that view of the heart of Peru based in Indigenous culture and the history of the Incas, and to expand it to all corners of the Peruvian map. And to, at the same time, delve into the depths of the soul of this great country in its entirety.
I invite you to join me on my quest; a quest that started when I was a child, probably at about the age of seven. I used to always "uhh-n-ahh" over the documentaries showing the ancient Inca bridge constructions and the Inca Road building methods; the Incas fascinated me in this and in many other ways. As kids, my brothers and sister and I had guinea pigs (originally from Peru, and a well-known delicacy to boot) as pets; we had four or five in a row. When one died, another would replace it. First, it was Pip-Squeak, then Ernie, then, I don't remember...
Later on, during my high school years, I would seek out any book or article on Peru. I wrote Spanish class papers on the Incas and Machu Picchu, gave presentations, researched anything Peruvian online, and loved listening to my Spanish teachers lecture about it. At the University of California, Davis, I studied Cultural Anthropology. A good chunk of my professors were either Peruvian or had lived and studied in Peru. Thus, my education was geared toward the history and anthropology of Latin America, and of Peru in particular.
So given this short description of my passion, it should appear as no surprise that I chose to dedicate five years of my life traveling to Peru and to the rest of the countries of the Andes Mountain range. I was able to do this by working at the same Italian Restaurant in South Lake Tahoe, California where I was paid sufficiently and allowed the necessary time off to explore this land of my passion and bliss. Also, a special thanks to my friends and family for their support, and especially to my father, Bob, to whom I am eternally grateful.
Now it is time to share with all of you my Adventures in Peru.
Enjoy and imagine its grandeur. Odds are, its all of this and more!
