General Travel Tips – Page 9 – Pirwa Hostels BLOG

Program for the 14th Annual Marcona Tourism Week

February 3, 2014 Pirwa

The fishing town of San Juan de Marcona is located just 44 miles from Nazca and is mainly known for its beaches and the Bay of San Fernando Reserve, which shelters diverse marine life, including boobies, Humboldt penguins, and sea lions. The most popular beaches are Playa Hermosa and La Lobera.

Each summer, it Marcona celebrates its Tourism Week in order to showcase the area for national and international tourists as well as locals. This year, it will run from Saturday, February 8th through Sunday, February 16th and will offer a series of sporting, cultural, and recreational events. Read on for the program…

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Chincha to Celebrate the Verano Negro Festival this February

January 28, 2014 Pirwa

Each February and March, the Verano Negro Festival takes place in Chincha, the community considered the country’s cradle of Afro-Peruvian culture. The Black Summer Festival, as it is translated, is the most important tourism event in the Ica region. It allows visitors to sample Afro-Peruvian cuisine, and watch traditional dances, poetry contests, and parades.

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The Santa Tierra Festival on Lake Titicaca

January 7, 2014 Pirwa

In Andean myths, Lake Titicaca, the sun, moon and stars came out of Lake Titicaca, as did Manco Capac and Mama Ocllo, the legendary founders of the Inca civilization. The lake and some of its islands are still considered sacred sites in Andean culture to this day.

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Puerto Maldonado in the Peruvian Amazon

December 19, 2013 Pirwa

This December 26th, the department of Madre de Dios in southeastern Peru will celebrate its founding anniversary. Celebrations include singing, dancing and street parades, with the largest events taking place in the capital city, Puerto Maldonado. The area boasts lush landscapes, famous sunsets, wide rivers, and lakes and lagoons surrounded by tropical flowers and palm trees. Its most famous attractions are the virgin jungle of Manu Biosphere Reserve, Tambopata-Candamo National Park, and scenic Lake Sandoval.

Visitors to Manu can expect to see many tropical birds, including blue and yellow parrots which congregate at the local clay licks and the national bird of Peru, the Cock of the Rock, with its showy mating dance. Native reptiles include the cayman and the emerald boa, while some notable mammals are the long-legged maned wolf, oncilla (tigrillo), and the highly elusive jaguar.

Manu is one of the most bio-diverse areas in the world (only recently surpassed by Bolivia’s Madidi National Reserve for the most bio-diverse). You can take a tour which will allow you to explore its rivers and paths as well as visit an indigenous community. There are a variety of ethnic communities which live in the area, although the Machiguenga and Huacaria are the most well-known.

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Visiting Santa Catalina Monastery in Arequipa

October 31, 2013 Pirwa

The 16^th century Santa Catalina Monastery in Arequipa once housed nuns from the high class Spanish families- at its peak, the huge complex housed up to 150 nuns and 300 servants. At the time, families were expected to send their second child into the service of the church, and paid very high dowries to send their daughters to Santa Catalina. Many lived lives of luxury within the cloistered walls of Santa Catalina, with slaves and servants to attend to them and tales of pregnant nuns floating around. This ended in 1871 when Pope Pius IX requested the monastery’s reform, sending in an overseer to teach the nuns humility.

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