Inti Raymi: How to attend Peru's Inca sun festival this June

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Source David Ducoin
Photos Flickr

The city of Cusco will dress up again to worship the Inca god as Peru's ancestors once did. The Inti Raymi ceremony brings together over 500 performers on June 24 at the center of the Sacsahuamán archaeological park esplanade. As usual, hundreds of foreigners and Peruvians are expected.

According to the Municipal Company of Festivities in Cusco (Emufec), organizer of this event, over 40 percent of tickets have been purchased by foreign tourists who come to live the most important holiday of the empire.

Tickets are priced at US $90 for adults and US $45 for children. This year a virtual system of reservations and information has been implemented. It contains data about the scenarios, schedules, and some tips for the event.

If you are interested in participating in the Inti Raymi access the web page emufec.gob.pe until June 15 and you can book your ticket.

The big celebration will begin in the morning in the temple of Coricancha. Then, the Inca and his entourage will go to the Plaza de Armas of Cusco and finally, after noon, the main ceremony will take place in Sacsahuamán.

You can enter freely to the first two venues, so be prepared to get there several hours in advance. To be part of the main ceremony, you must have tickets.

The tourism police, archaeological complex rangers and Emufec monitors will be in charge of security.

Tours recommended:

The Inca Experience - Peru Tours

Inca Odyssey

Photo Gallery Cusco

Photo Gallery Inty Raymi Celebration - David Ducoin

Qoyllur Riti

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Source David Ducoin
Photos Flickr

Qoyllur Rit'i is a religious festival held annually in honor of the Lord of Qoyllur Rit'i (Spanish: Señor de Qoyllur Rit'i) at the Sinakara Valley in the Cusco Region of Peru. According to local traditions, the celebration originated in 1780, when a young native herder called Mariano Mayta befriended a mestizo boy, called Manuel on Mount Colquepunku. Thanks to Manuel, Mariano's herd prospered so his father sent him to buy clothes for the two boys in Cusco.

Mariano took a sample of Manuel's clothes but could not find anything similar because that kind of cloth was only worn by the archbishop. The latter sent a party to investigate but when they tried to grab Manuel, he became a bush with an image of Christ hanging from it. Thinking they had harmed his friend, Mariano died on the spot and was buried under a rock. An image of Christ painted over this boulder became known as the Lord of Qoyllur Rit'i which means Lord of Star Snow.

The Qoyllur Rit'i festival attracts a large number of peasants from the surrounding regions divided in two moieties. Paucartambo groups Quechuas from the agricultural regions to the northwest of the sanctuary while Quispicanchis includes Aymaras from the pastoral regions to the southeast.

Both moieties make an annual pilgrimage to the feast bringing large troupes of dancers and musicians in four main styles: ch'unchu, qolla, ukuku and machula. Besides peasant pilgrims, attendants include middle class Peruvians and foreign tourists. The festival takes place in late May or early June, one week before the Christian feast of Corpus Christi. It consists of a number of processions and dances in and around the Lord of Qoyllur Rit'i shrine.

The main event is carried out by ukukus who climb glaciers over Mount Colquepunku to bring back crosses and blocks of ice which are said to be medicinal.

Photo Gallery recommended
Qoyllur Rit´y pilgrimage

Peru's Chamber of Tourism prepares for Machu Picchu centennial

Peru’s National Chamber of Tourism (Canatur) announced today it will lead a commission in charge of organizing the celebrations on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the discovery of the Inca citadel of Machu Picchu on July 24 2011.

Canatur President Carlos Canales said that this commission will have the active participation of Peru's Ministry of Foreign Trade and Tourism (Mincetur) and Peru’s Export and Tourism Promotion Board (Promperu).

He explained that, as part of the activities, they will begin an awareness campaign in the United States to prove how important the return of Machu Picchu’s archeological pieces is for Peru.

The pieces were temporarily taken by Yale University Professor Hiram Bingham to the US, but now this university refuses to return them.

“With this effort, we seek to build the archeological museum of Cusco. We will focus on social networks to recover these objects and make Yale graduates aware of our request and support it,” he explained.

On July 24, 1911, Professor Hiram Bingham discovered for the world the ruins of Machu Picchu, one of the most significant archaeological finds in the history of the Americas.

Suggest program, The Inca Experience

Cusco Photo Gallery

Peru’s tourist attractions to be promoted in France, US & Canada

Peru’s Trade and Tourism Ministry (Mincetur) announced Friday that Peru will promote its tourist attractions in France, USA and Canada with different “Door to Door” events.

Through a supreme decree published in El Peruano official gazette, Mincetur authorized Peru’s Export and Tourism Promotion (Promperú) to carry out the “Door to Door” event in France from May 31 to June 5 in cities such as Paris, Lille and Niza.

According to Promperu, this kind of event is an excellent way to strength Peru’s tourist image in French market, after the global financial crisis which has made European tourists hesitant to travel to any destination.

Another legal ordinance, meanwhile, authorized the trip of other Promperu’s representatives to participate in “Door to Door-North America West Coast” in cities like San Francisco, Portand, Seattle (US) and Vancuver (Canada) from June 7 to 16.

These two events are aimed at tour operators, travel agencies, airlines and specialized press as a way to directly promote updated information on Peruvian tourist attractions

Program Suggested:

Lost Cities of the Northern Peru
Treasures of the North of Peru 

Peruvian gastronomy to be featured on French Television

A 52-minute report on Peruvian gastronomy, which is attracting the world's attention, will be aired in the second half of the year on French television.

According to “I Triping” blog, French TV production company Gedeon sought the support from the Tourist Service Department at the Peruvian Consulate General in Paris.

Likewise, some reporters of this program are already in Peru visiting cities such as Lima, Cusco, Puno, Arequipa, Iquitos and Tumbes.

Its broadcast will air during the second half of 2010 on a program called Le Globe Cooker, world's cuisine explorer TV show hosted by Frederic Chesneau.

“It is rewarding to observe the increasing interest in Peru and our cuisine in France. By supporting these kinds of initiatives of some production companies, we have encouraged others to discover our gastronomy and traditions,” tourism attache of Peruvian Consulate-General in Paris Maria Elena Corvest pointed out.

The Best Peru Tour: Taste of Peru
Interested in Filming Wildlife, Archaeology or Culture in Peru ?

Dolphins in Peru: A local NGO sees tourism as the way to conservation

How many times have we watched the marvelous leaps between waves by dolphins in Peru's ocean? Something that seems so natural to us is very rare in foreign seas. The German biologist Stefan Austermühle has studied these marine mammals the past four years in Peru, which gave him the idea of an activity to promote the conservation of dolphins and improve the fishermen’s lives: dolphin watching.

Few know that Peru is a privileged country in regards to dolphin watching: while at other latitudes, the possibilities of seeing a dolphin after traveling one kilometer of coast are slim, a few miles off the beaches from Chorrillos to Paracas, you can easily find three or six dolphins. Stefan Austermühle has counted them. Not only that: As if he were managing a personal register system, he constantly photographs their fins and identifies them by their cuts or scratches.

Ever since he began counting, Austermühle has accumulated over 70 thousand pictures of fins of bottlenose dolphins, or tursiops truncates, the official name. “There are 1,512 dolphins that can be seen in this part of the coast,”  he says. “Six hundred of them live here permanently. The problem is that there is a black market for dolphin meat.”

A love for animals
Stefan Austermühle is not new to the issue. When he was 18 and a student in Germany, he joined the Greenpeace. He participated in other organizations and in 1998 ended up exchanging emails with Nina Pardo, who back then was the administrator of a group dedicated to animal protection in Peru. From topics of work, they moved on to more personal ones, and after several months, Stefan decided to come to Peru to marry her.

Together, they founded the NGO Mundo Azul, with which they work on environmental education and animal rescue, in addition to carrying out scientific studies that include the evaluation of our marine and sub-marine biodiversity and the types of habitats there are in our coasts.

In 1996, the NGO with which Nina worked had promoted the adoption of Law 26585 that banned dolphin hunting in Peru's ocean to sell the meat. However, shortly after initiating is operations, Austermühle found alarming evidence that suggested that this law was not being respected nor enforced. While poaching of dolphins near the coast had stopped, the biologist started to find slices of dolphin further from the coast (specifically, the Dusky Dolphin, or delfin oscuro in Spanish), where the crime is less evident.

Dolphin meat at four soles per kilo
While before 1996 it was possible to find muchame (dolphin meat) at high prices in the local supermarkets, after the ban the business migrated to a different sector. “Now, fishermen don’t touch the bottlenose dolphin; they hunt the darker dolphins instead,” says Austermühle. “Once offshore, they cut out the meat in the ship’s hold and throw the bodies back in the sea to get rid of the evidence.” This mild meat is sold at S/. 4 per kilo. Guanays, sea lions and sea turtles face the same fate.

The director of Mundo Azul estimates that, due to the lack of control and difficulty to catch the poachers red-handed, it could well be three thousand dark dolphins a year that end up filleted and illegally sold at a fish market. In the fishing town of Salaverry in Trujillo, the biologist identifies a family of fishermen that sold muchame. He reported them and three members of the family were captured but they claimed that it was the "first time" they had done it and were released shortly.

If there are so many dolphin bodies floating in the ocean or washed up on the shore, how many live dolphins are there left and what can be done to protect them? That is why Austermühle has counted over 1,500 dolphins between Chorrillos and Paracas. They are not merely decorative in the sea, they are crucial for their environment. Due their long lives (from 30 to 80 years depending on the specie), dolphins and whales are excellent indicators of the marine ecosystem’s health for their sensitivity to changes in their life conditions. Their deaths or sicknesses clearly say that something is wrong. Additionally, they are at the top of the food chain so they are in charge of eliminating sick or weak fish and cooperating in avoiding the propagation of sicknesses among other species.

Tourism for conservation
Mundo Azul makes an effort to protect dolphins while studying them and promoting them among the population giving them the possibility of sustainable development off our coasts: touristic watching of these wonderful animals playing and jumping in the waves. After working on the registering of these mammals for three years thanks to foreign donations (expeditions are expensive; an offshore 25 day investigation can cost up to 10 thousand dollars), Mundo Azul raises money for further research by guiding tourist expeditions to watch dolphins and night-time scuba diving in Pucusana.

There is no better way to maintain them in their habitat than with tourism. Stefan is sure of that. Both artisanal fishermen and dolphins alike can take advantage of this.

Program: The Best Peru Tour Peru Explorer 
Pisco - Nazca Map

Peru; Machu Picchu received more than 38,400 tourists in April

More than 38,400 tourists visited Inca citadel of Machu Picchu, one month after its official reopening to tourism, reports the National Institute of Culture, or INC.

The citadel remain closed for almost two months, due to the severe damage that last January's rainfalls and floods caused to the railways, which is the only access.

According to Andina news agency, more than 33,000 of those visitors were foreigners, which indicates that the place still draws lots of attention.

Machu Picchu was officially reopened on April 1, with a special ceremony with the presence of the American actress Susan Sarandon; that day the citadel had 1,688 visitors.

The average number of daily visitors was higher than 1,000 during all April.

More photos about Machu Picchu
Best Peru Tour: Luxury Inca Trail Private service

Peru: Chachapoyas airport to restart operations on May 17

Several years after the awful accident of TANS fligh company, Amazonas local airport will restart operating on May 17, with a daily flight served by LC Busre airline company, which will cover the Chiclayo-Chachapoyas route.

Airports of Perú (AdP) informs that this has required an investment of S/. 6.5 million (some US $3.25 million).

Rosa Jaico, Commercial Manager of LC Busre, said they had detected an interesting bussiness oportunity at the zone, since many foreign and Peruvian tourists want to come visit Kuélap and the Gocta Falls, which ranks third among the tallest waterfalls worlwide.

Amazonas airport requires a radar to operate safely, but Corpac has not consider installing one in Chachapoyas yet; instead, Corpac has purchased eight radars, one of them to be located in Cajamarca, to cover Amazonas from there, report TNews and El Comercio.

The Interior: Chachapoyas, Kuelap and Cajamarca
Chiclayo, Trujillo, Cajamarca, Kuelap and Chachapoyas Tours

Peru, special guest at International Trade Fair of Nancy in France

Peru will be the guest of honor at the International Trade Fair of Nancy in eastern France, one of the most visited, important, cultural, trade and culinary exhibitions in Europe, which gathers some 200000 attendees, and will introduce the world to the richness of Peruvian history and cuisine.

This event will be held from May 28 to June 7 and bring together some 700 exhibitors from 40 countries, who will be showcasing products related to different categories.

Those categories are furniture, appliances, home remodeling and decorating, gardening, wine shop, gastronomy, media, entertainment, crafts, banking, and insurance.
The star will be Peru, which is why a 3000-square-meter pavilion will be decorated with Peruvian motifs, including a Machu Picchu replica and a cultural exhibition entitled "The Sacred gold of the Incas."

According to organizers, the purpose is to showcase the cultural economic diversity of the country guest of honor, in this case Peru.

Organizers will also include a restaurant offering the best of the national cuisine as well as a Peruvian traditional and contemporary crafts exhibition.

Previous guests of honor were Brazil, Indonesia, Himalayas, Thailand, Russia, China, Madagascar and Egypt.

The Best Peru Tour
Tour: Taste of Peru
 

Spanish deputies willing to promote Cusco as tourist destination

A delegation of Spanish deputies visited the city of Cusco and Machu Picchu, getting a good impression about the safety of these places after the rainy season, Cusco’s governor Hugo Gonzales Sayan reported Tuesday.

"They were greatly impressed by the work undertaken after the emergency situtation caused by heavy rains and amazed at how tourism develops in Cusco," he told Andina news agency.

The regional authority was confident that some members of the Spanish parliament will emphasize the positive aspects of the Imperial City, and indirectly help increase foreign visits.

This delegation arrived as part of the Peru-Spain Parliamentary Friendship League.

Inca Trail to Machu Picchu

Lima, Peru to have its first historic hotel-museum in 2011

Real Estate company Arte Express announces that they will invest some US $5 million to build  the first hotel-museum in Lima, located in the heart of the historic downtown.

Arte Express is planning to build this hotel using two historic buildings, according to the present norms for such cases, since some of these constructions were originally built 400 years ago.

One of these historic buildings is at the first block of Miro Quesada street, and the other on the neighboring Carabaya street, and both are connected.

According to Fernando Palazuelo, from Arte Express, they are currently finishing the project, aiming to start the works as soon as possible so they can open doors in Sept. 2011.

He told the press that this hotel will be a low-cost, thus a shared room may cost some US $8 per night, and that there will be a piece of Peruvian art in each one.

The Best Peru Tour: Lima/Cusco/Inca trail Classic/Cusco/Lima