I loved this country so much that I had to go twice to fully appreciate the beauty of the culture, history and landscapes.

Landscapes

Peru has a vast array of landscapes, from deserts to rainforests – it is full of colour and magic. Let's explore some of them.

Sacred Valley

Colca Canyon

Quarry trail

Sillustani

Nazca

Lima

A city filled with a history that spans back to the 1500s – adrift with beautiful Spanish details but one cannot forget the destruction and sadness that washes silently across the previous civilisations that were here.

Lake Titicaca

The highest navigable lake in the world, it towers at 4,000m above sea level and stretches across Peru and Bolivia. The lake used to be the lifeline for so many people and is still used by many islanders for fishing. I got to visit both Sun and Moon islands – where I experienced the many bright cultural traditions.

Inside Lake Titicaca, Amantaní (Moon island)

Inside Lake Titicaca, Amantaní (Sun island)

Machu Picchu

An ancient site surrounded by beautiful rainforests and mountains. It was once used as a school for the learning of wisdom. I found it strange that the oldest rocks were the most advanced (earth-quake proof) and as the Inca civilisation aged, it lost that advanced masonry skill.

Amazon jungle

The minute you step into the jungle you feel the intense heat that comes upon you but one that stays. A wonderful place to explore the unseen wildlife and understand the ancient cultures that still live here.

Ancient cultures

Many of the advanced skills cannot be explained:

• Buildings were made with such precision that there was no gap between them
• Rocks weighing hundreds of tonnes were moved hundreds of miles
• They used interlocking pieces similar to lego
• Their agriculture allowed them to understand cross cultivation works between potatoes
• They built farms (terraces) on mountains because they understood how air pressures worked and allowed them to have different temperatures for different kinds of plants
• Their obsession with the trapezoid
• Drawing artwork so they can be seen from thousands of metres in the air

Music