The much talked about United Nations Climate Change Conference 2014 begins next week in Lima. In anticipation of this important 12-day event, our friends from Amazonas Explorer, a member of One Percent for the Planet, will be working with local communities in the Sacred Valley on a reforestation project that aims to plant 50,000 Queuña trees in one single day. Projects such as this one are nothing new to the team at Amazonas Explorer. Over the last eight years they have been collaborating with the Peruvian non-profit ECOAN (The Association of Andean Ecosystems) to plant nearly 250,000 native trees in the Lares watershed area of the Andes.CEO Paul Cripps says their goal is to plant a remarkable one million trees by 2020. On November 29th, the 50,000 trees will be planted in Yanacocha, an hour from the village of Patacancha in the Ollantaytambo district of Cusco’s Sacred Valley. Amazonas Explorer has funded the planting of the first 20,000 trees. In order to plant 30,000 more, they raised money through donations; each tree costs only three soles, or one US dollar, to plant. 500 Quechua-speaking locals from the Huilloc, Rumira Sodormayo and Patacancha villages will help to plant the trees. Everyone that helps with the project, from children to the elderly, will be treated to a communal dinner, in addition to receiving a day’s salary for their hard work. Forests used to be abundant in the Andes. Now, as a result of increasing deforestation, Queuñas and other similar species have almost disappeared. Native species have also been sidelined by imported trees that grow much more rapidly, most notably the Eucalyptus which has become commonplace in the Sacred Valley. The importance of restoring native forests to the area cannot be overstated. Queuñas grow in high altitudes and have a lifespan of about
The much talked about United Nations Climate Change Conference 2014 begins next week in Lima. In anticipation of this important 12-day event, our friends from Amazonas Explorer, a member of One Percent for the Planet, will be working with local communities in the Sacred Valley on a reforestation project that…
In June of 1992 the first United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was established at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro. This treaty delineated goals for stabilizing the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere without risking human interference with the climate and was enacted in 1994. The states that signed the treaty are called ‘Parties’, and now there are 195 Parties that will meet for the twentieth Convention of Parties (COP) in Lima, Peru. From December 1st to the 12th COP20 Climate Change Conference will take place at the Westin Hotel and Convention Center in Lima’s San Isidro district. 1,951 representatives from governments across the globe will gather to draft the Sustainable Development Goals that will be signed in 2015 in Paris, setting the global environmental agenda for the next decade. The COP is the “supreme decision-making body of the Convention” and each state has a representative. The COP will review the goals determined at the conference and will decide the most effective means to implement these goals. This year the conference will concentrate on four key areas: adaptation, climate finance, mitigation and technology. The spotlight will be on Peru as the host of this year’s conference. Peru will depend greatly on domestic and global greenhouse gas reduction in order to maintain its delicate ecosystems intact. Home to 70% of the world’s tropical glaciers, since 1970 Peru has lost 39% of these glaciers. Since 1880 the global temperature has increased by 0.85°C, and the water produced by melting glaciers around the world is just one of the causes behind the 19cm rise in the oceans. Additionally, the Peruvian Amazon is the third largest expanse of tropical forest in the world after Brazil and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Rich in resources and biological
In June of 1992 the first United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was established at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro. This treaty delineated goals for stabilizing the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere without risking human interference with the climate…
As I passed through customs and stepped into the arrivals section of Lima airport, I scanned the crowd. Off to the left, away from the huge group of people eagerly awaiting friends and relatives at the entrance, I saw a man with a white sign that had ‘Aracari’ and my last name written in large, clear letters. That man is Raul Varela, a key character at Aracari for the last decade and somebody with whom many of our previous guests will be familiar. Raul smiled and waved then hurried over to me to help me with my luggage. I immediately felt relieved and happy with my decision to come to Peru, and grateful to have someone in charge of the plans, as I was exhausted from my long flight. Raul is the first person that those who travel with Aracari meet upon arrival in Peru--a crucial moment after many hours of travel and arrival in a foreign country. He is just the person to deliver a warm welcome and instill a sense of excitement for the upcoming journey. When our guests send feedback after their trip they speak very highly of him. Intrigued to find out more about a character who is an important protagonist on any journey with Aracari, we took time to interview him to find out what he likes to do in his hometown of Lima and what he loves about his job. In particular, we wanted to know what has kept him at Aracari longer than anyone else, with the exception of the company founder, Marisol Mosquera. Born in Miraflores, in 1953, Raul grew up in Lima and in the late 90’s began working in tourism. He has worked in tourism for a little over 14 years, 10 of those at Aracari. Having gained experience with
As I passed through customs and stepped into the arrivals section of Lima airport, I scanned the crowd. Off to the left, away from the huge group of people eagerly awaiting friends and relatives at the entrance, I saw a man with a white sign that had ‘Aracari’ and my…
The Andean Baroque Route is a picturesque half day tour outside the city of Cusco which primarily focuses on churches that belong to the Andean Baroque artistic movement, including the church of San Pedro de Andahuaylillas often called the “Sistine Chapel of the Americas”. The Andean Baroque Route takes in beautiful views, tall mountains, quaint villages and churches full of colorful paintings with lots of history. These rarely-visited churches are humble on the outside but impressive on the inside and were structured and designed to convert the local people of the Altiplano to Christianity during the Colonial times. The Andean Baroque Route in Cusco Specialist Guide Lisy Kuon Bright and early on Friday morning I met the rest of the group at the airport in Lima to catch our 6:35am flight to Cusco. Here we met Lisy Kuon, Aracari's specialist guide on Colonial History and Architecture, who would be our guide for the day. Lisy studied Humanities and Anthropology at the National University of Cusco and the University of Washington in Seattle, specialising in expressive anthropology, now known as visual culture, of the Southern Peruvian Andes from the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries. Her focus for the last 40 years has been on colonial art from Cusco and Puno. Learn more about Lisy Kuon. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LU55hv_VSuk Departing Cusco As we were leaving Cusco, we passed through the San Sebastián district and Lisy pointed out the Iglesia de San Sebastián. As we traveled farther southeast away from Cusco the scenery transformed from urban to more and more green, mountainous, and rural. We passed through a small town called Oropesa, famous for baking bread in large ovens made out of wood and stone. Rumiqolca Archaelogical Site Our first stop was an archaeological site called Rumiqolca. In the 9th-12th centuries it functioned as an aqueduct that provided water to the city
The Andean Baroque Route is a picturesque half day tour outside the city of Cusco which primarily focuses on churches that belong to the Andean Baroque artistic movement, including the church of San Pedro de Andahuaylillas often called the “Sistine Chapel of the Americas”. The Andean Baroque Route takes in beautiful…
A perfect luxury amazon cruise A visit to the Amazon Rainforest can be a transformative journey, allowing you to immerse in nature and experience the beauty of the planet’s most intense and diverse colors, smells and sounds as you encounter the exotic flora and fauna. Of course, the Amazon is a jungle and is not for everyone: it is hot and humid, it rains, there are bugs and mosquitoes—it is the wild at its finest! However, on the Aria Amazon cruise, you can experience the Amazon’s beauty in the luxury offered by a fine hotel. I recently went to Iquitos, in the Peruvian Amazon, where I began a 4 day, 3 night journey on the Aria cruise ship. Day 1 After a short flight from Lima, I disembarked to find the Aria staff waiting with a sign. The heat of the Amazon was intense—quite a change from Lima’s more temperate climate. From the airport, we travelled by land in vans (thankfully with air conditioning) on a paved road about two hours to Nauta. We met our guide, Julio, who talked about the Amazon, the local communities and our journey on the Aria. At the pier at Nauta, we got on a motorboat to get out to the Aria cruise ship. We were twelve people in total, a mix of Peruvians, Americans and a Japanese family with their 8-year-old son. On board the ship, we were greeted by the cruise director and then shown our rooms before the briefing in the lounge. Inside, the Aria looked like a luxury hotel with elegant, understated decorations—it just happened to be a hotel floating along the Amazon River with views to prove it! There are three decks. In the first or lower deck, there are eight staterooms and the embarkation platform. In the second
A perfect luxury amazon cruise A visit to the Amazon Rainforest can be a transformative journey, allowing you to immerse in nature and experience the beauty of the planet’s most intense and diverse colors, smells and sounds as you encounter the exotic flora and fauna. Of course, the Amazon is…
Notice something different? That would be "The Khipu", our new look blog and monthly newsletter. There's always time for a fresh, new look. Through The Khipu Blog, we will continue to inform you of the latest developments in culture and travel in Peru, Bolivia and the Galapagos Islands, with personal in-depth accounts of our journeys across the continent and throughout the world. Sent monthly, The Khipu Newsletter will round up all the latest from around the web to give you a digest of the most important stories covering our region. The first edition of The Khipu, October 2014 It's not by chance we chose to use the name "The Khipu". A system of knotted and colour-coded cords, Khipus were used by pre-Columbian peoples in Peru to record information, store data and as an aide to recount stories. At the height of the Inca Empire, Khipus were carried by messengers throughout the Andes along the network of Inca Trails to transmit messages and deliver important communications. Seeing as we are delivering you news direct from the Andean region, we felt it a most fitting metaphor for our own, rather more modern communication channels! Please do let us know your feedback on the Khipu by leaving a comment below or by writing an email to news@aracari.com. You can also subscribe to The Khipu by clicking here. We hope you find the Khipu Blog and Newsletter to be as informative as those Khipus themselves...
Notice something different? That would be “The Khipu”, our new look blog and monthly newsletter. There’s always time for a fresh, new look. Through The Khipu Blog, we will continue to inform you of the latest developments in culture and travel in Peru, Bolivia and the Galapagos Islands, with personal in-depth accounts…
