Archive for the ‘Tourism’ Category
Tuesday, January 29th, 2008
Authorities in northern Peru have set aside 43 hectares, about 106 acres, for a nature reserve to protect the Humboldt penguin, one of 17 penguin species native to South America’s Pacific coast, according to Wilfredo Sandoval in a report in the daily El Comercio. The proposed reserve is to be at La Farola, on the shores near the port of Eten, about 750 kilometers north of Lima in Chiclayo province, Lambayeque department.
According to El Comercio, the project is backed by French researchers from the Doué de la Fontaine zoo, who are in charge of creating a habitat for the penguins that will include a deep pool surrounded by protected areas for their nest burrows.
The initial investment for the reserve is reportedly $12,000, which includes the transportation cost of 12 Humboldt penguins from a Lima-based zoo to the reserve. (more…)
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Thursday, January 24th, 2008
Peru’s Foreign Relations Ministry announced Wednesday that it has begun legal action to revoke a Peruvian woman’s trademark registration of a popular Peruvian dance in Chile. Cecilia Gurmendi, a former Marinera national champion in Peru, registered “Marinera” with Chile’s Trademark Registry in the Department of Industrial Property in November 2007.
The Foreign Relations Ministry says Marinera, was declared a National Cultural Heritage in 1986, which restricts individuals and institutions from registering it as a trademark.
Marinera is a popular couple’s dance on the Peruvian coast, which traditionally uses bugles, guitars and the cajón, an Afro-Peruvian box drum played by slapping the front face with the hands. Often called the National Dance of Peru, the Marinera origins is generally traced to 19th century Peru.
The registration of Marinera in Chile has received wide coverage by Peru’s media, amid fears that it may become identified as Chilean. Peru and Chile already have many longstanding arguments over nationalistic claims to their cultural heritage including ceviche, a popular seafood dish, and pisco, a regional brandy made in the countries wine-producing regions and the main ingredient for the pisco sour.
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Tuesday, January 15th, 2008
The co-director of the Condesuyos Archeological Project, archeologist Mariusz Ziólkowski, announced a possible tourist circuit that would include 20 archeological sites in Peru’s southern Arequipa department. Ziólkowski, also a professor at the Center for Pre-Columbian Studies of Warsaw University, said the sites include ruins from different periods, including cave paintings from the archaic period and Catholic churches that were constructed shortly after the conquest, reported Agencia Andina.
Seventeen of the sites have pottery and architecture with features similar to those of the Incas, Ziólkowski said. “We’ve evaluated their importance, their potential to attract tourists, and their aesthetic features.” He added, “among these sites, there are five that could be centers for a new tourist circuit.”
An oracle dedicated to the Coropuna mountain, which was a major religious site of the Incas, could be one of the prime tourist attractions on the circuit. According to Ziólkowski, the shrine is located in the Maucallacta complex, which includes 300 structures and 4.5-meter walls. (more…)
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Friday, January 11th, 2008
A lost archaeological fortress buried beneath thick, jungle vegetation has apparently been rediscovered in southeast Peru. The Manco Pata fortress was uncovered in Kimbiri, a remote district in Cusco department and part of the Apurímac and Ene river valleys, VRAE, according to the mayor, Guillermo Torres.
Torres told Agencia Andina an expedition came across the fortress on Dec. 29, uncovering perfectly carved stones forming the base of immense walls that covered an area of 40,000-square meters.
He said the Manco Pata fortress would immediately be declared a cultural heritage site, an ecotourism reserve and promoted as part of a tourist circuit — contentions that a spokeswoman for the National Institute of Culture (INC) in Cusco declined to immediately confirm. (more…)
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Thursday, December 20th, 2007
Scientists have dated the meteorite that smashed into southern Peru last September to 4.5 billion-years-old. According to the Geological Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, INGEMMET, the meteorite was formed around the same time as the sun, Earth and other planets in the solar system.
The Institutional Relations and Cooperation director at INGEMMET, Hernán Núñez del Prado, told daily El Comercio, “when Earth was formed, there was a collision of asteroids. The meteorite from Carancas is one of the pieces that came from the collision and was flying around in the solar system until its entry into the Earth’s atmosphere.”
Nuñez del Prado added that most meteorites have this type of origin, although some come from Mars or the moon.
The basketball-sized meteorite crashed near the town of Carancas, in Puno Department, on Sept. 15. It left a 13.5-meter wide crater which was declared a natural and cultural heritage site by Puno’s regional government.
According to Núñez del Prado, the Carancas meteorite is unique because of its accessibility. “Many meteorites fall into the sea or in other areas that are difficult to access.”
Some 500 meteorites hit Earth annually, but only five or six are recovered. Very few meteorites are large enough to make a crater.
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Monday, December 17th, 2007
The Transoceanic Highway is expected to bring thousands of Brazilian tourists to Peru’s southern Madre de Dios department during the next three years.
The regional director of foreign commerce and tourism in Madre de Dios, Jorge Pineda, told Agencia Andina that the roadway cutting through the jungle shroud could usher in 150,000 tourists between 2008 and 2010. ¨Places like Acre and Rondonia have 800,000 and 2,000,000 habitants, respectively. If only 20 percent of them visit us, it would be an important number.¨
Pineda says his office is designing a tourist circuit in order to increase human traffic in the zone. The circuit will include recreational areas and restaurants serving local food in the departmental capital, Puerto Maldonado. However, the main attraction will continue to be ecotourism in Madre de Dios’ Amazon jungle, home to one of the most biodiverse ecosystems in the world. (more…)
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Friday, December 14th, 2007
Peru’s Congress has passed a law prohibiting the use of the country’s infamous ¨bus-trucks.¨
In a 77–10 vote, lawmakers also outlawed the future manufacture of the makeshift buses, which are grafted onto the chassis of flatbed trucks. Violators of the law could face up to 20 years in prison for crimes against public safety.
According to the Transportation and Communication Ministry, bus-truck passengers are almost three times more likely to be killed in an accident than passengers in unaltered buses. But according to lawmakers Yonhy Lescano and Lourdes Alcorta, who voted against the legislation, the accidents are caused by human negligence rather than defects in their structural design. (more…)
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Monday, December 3rd, 2007
Peru’s Yumbilla waterfall is over 895-meters-tall and the third highest in the world, according to the Ministry of Foreign Commerce and Tourism (MINCETUR). ¨This finding helps us to continue promoting nature tourism and bird, fauna, and flora watching¨ says Minister of Foreign Commerce and Tourism, Mercedes Araoz.
The waterfall is located in the Cuispe district, in Amazonas department, where it is surrounded by tropical mountains. Native fauna includes monkeys, reptiles, the spectacle bear and Peru’s national bird, the cock-of-the-rock. The source of the waterfall comes out of the San Francisco de Yumbilla cave which measures five meters high, nine meters wide and at least 250-meters deep. (more…)
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Monday, December 3rd, 2007
The crater left by the meteorite that smashed into southern Peru last September has been declared a natural and cultural heritage site, according to Agencia Andina. Hernán Fuentes, president of Puno’s Regional Government, said the decision was made in order to protect the crater from profit-seeking locals and foreigners and to preserve it from rain. The conservation effort will be lead by the National Altiplano University of Puno.
The chondrite meteorite fell close to the town of Carancas, near the Bolivian border and about 800-miles south of Lima, on September 15. Hernán Núñez del Prado, of the Geological Institute of Mining and Metallurgy in Peru (INGEMMET), told Radio Programas radio the meteorite was the size of a basketball. Its impact left a 13.5-meter wide crater.
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