Peru - Lonely Planet Publications [7]
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TAILORED TRIPS
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ANCIENT TREASURES
Peru’s main attractions are the Inca ruins at Machu Picchu (Click here) and the Sacred Valley (Click here). Near Puno, the funerary towers of the Colla, Lupaca and Inca cultures can be found at Sillustani and Cutimbo (Click here), near Lake Titicaca.
Trujillo is an excellent base for seeing Chan Chan (Click here), as well as ongoing excavations of the Moche temple mounds of Huacas del Sol y de la Luna (Click here). If you have time in Huaraz, the 3000-year-old ruins and on-site museum at Chavín de Huántar (Click here) are worth a trip. Or keep going north to Chiclayo (Click here), another treasure-house of ancient sites. Nearby, gold and other riches from the excavated site of Sipán (Click here) are found in the museum at Lambayeque (Click here). Chiclayo is also the springboard for side trips into the northern highlands, where archaeological sites lie hidden in the cloud forest outside Chachapoyas (Click here) – such as Kuélap (Click here), a monolithic monument that gives Machu Picchu a run for its money – and it’s blissfully crowd free.
The wonderfully woven artifacts of the Paracas are best seen in museums – Lima’s Museo de la Nación (Click here) and the Museo Larco (Click here) in particular. To the south, the Nazca Lines (Click here) can only be appreciated properly from the air. Lima is also a convenient base for a quick jaunt to Caral (Click here), where you’ll see the remnants of America’s oldest civilization.
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TASTE SENSATIONS
In between all those hikes to Inca ruins and treks around Andean peaks, you’re going to build up one heck of an appetite – and what better to sate it with than Peru’s myriad regional dishes.
Start in Lima (Click here), home to hole-in-the-wall joints serving succulent ceviches (seafood marinated in lime juice), as well as trendy novoandina (Peruvian nouvelle cuisine) spots. Fill your belly with picantes (spicy stews) in Arequipa (Click here). To the interior, warm up with a cup of steaming api (a sweet corn drink) in Puno (Click here) and subsist on highland staples such as seared cuy (guinea pig) and choclo con queso (white Andean corn with cheese) in Cuzco (Click here). Huancayo (Click here), in the central highlands, is the home of papas a la huancaína (potatoes with a creamy cheese sauce), as well as mouth-watering trucha (river trout).
To the north, you can slurp chupes (seafood chowders) in Trujillo (Click here) and gobble up manta-ray omelets and duck stewed in cilantro in Chiclayo (Click here) – till the seams of your pants groan. Cajamarca (Click here), to the interior, is another fine spot to eat cuy. While in the Amazon cities of Iquitos (Click here) and Puerto Maldonado (Click here), never pass up an opportunity to feast on juanes – banana leaves stuffed with chicken or pork and rice.
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History
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EARLY SETTLERS: THE PRECERAMIC PERIOD
CLAY & CLOTH
THE CHAVÍN HORIZON
THE BIRTH OF LOCAL CULTURES
WARI EXPANSION
REGIONAL KINGDOMS
ENTER THE INCAS
ATAHUALPA’S BRIEF REIGN
THE SPANISH INVADE
THE TUMULTUOUS COLONY
INDEPENDENCE
THE NEW REPUBLIC
THE WAR OF THE PACIFIC
A NEW INTELLECTUAL ERA
DICTATORSHIPS & REVOLUTIONARIES
THE INTERNAL CONFLICT
FUJISHOCK
THE 21ST CENTURY
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In 1532, when Francisco Pizarro and his men landed on the north coast of Peru with the intention of conquering the area in the name of God and the Spanish crown, the Andes had already been witness to the epic rise and fall of various civilizations. There had been the Chavín, dating back to 1000 BC – not so much a culture, or a civilization, but a unifying cultural ethos that brought together the northern and central highlands.