Peru Adventures — December 18-30, 2011
A Photographic Expedition Diary of Heiko and Gisela Spallek
After exploring Galapagos, Alaska and Panama/Costa Rica with Lindblad Expeditions, we were ready to try something new.
Our kids, now 10 and 13 years old, started to beg for another "family adventure".
Since they'd learned about the great explorers as well as Mayan, Aztec and Inca cultures in school, and South America's in the same time zone, we settled for a trip to Peru.
This time, we traveled with ACTIVE South America, and booked their Capybara Family Trip with stops in the Amazon Jungle, Sacred Valley, Machu Picchu, and on the Floating Islands of Lake Titicaca.
With eleven eco-regions with a unique combination of geography and climate, Peru is located in the most diverse part of the world. Peru contains one sixth of all plant life in only one percent of the planet’s land area, holding the record for highest diversity of birds, butterflies and orchids.
Peru's population is a little short of 30 million. Nearly half the people are of indigenous blood and reside in the Andean highlands. Quechua, the language of the Inca, has many dialects today as a result of the isolating effect of Peru's extreme geography.