Exploring northern Peru and the Chachapoyas people

 Customer feedback, Peru Holidays, Tailor Made Holidays  Comments Off
Jan 182013
 
bbc4 Exploring northern Peru and the Chachapoyas people

Lost Kingdoms of South America on BBC4

I got sucked into watching this programme last night, presumably on repeat. It’s an area of Peru we have recently started featuring on our northern Peru tailor made holiday so caught my eye. It took a while for me to get past the somewhat unusual presentation style of Dr Jago Cooper, proto-Jedward hairdo and that machete sticking out of his little backpack just itching to be used a la Indiana Jones. However, get past it I did as in fact he’s clearly enthusiastic about what he does and knows what he’s doing, that and the fact that the places he was visiting were so amazing.

The north of Peru is an area which is really the passion of David here at the office. It was he who created our holiday and he best knows just how amazing the region is. Obviously I’ve seen a lot of the images of waterfalls, citadels, mountains and lakes and they are beautiful. What is less obvious is just how undeveloped the sites are. Having seen all the impeccably preserved and managed sites around Cusco & Machu Picchu, it was striking just how wild these sites in the north are.

As David recounts, when he was at the fortress of Keulap, the jewel of the Chachapoyas region, over the course of several hours he saw perhaps 20 other visitors to the site. In fact there were more archaeologists working on the site than visitors. Imagine wandering around a major archaeological site, effectively on your lonesome, being able to talk to the people actually discovering the secrets around you. As wonderful as Machu Picchu is, and it is beautiful almost beyond words, the Chachapoyas offers something totally different but equally magical.

I know that Dr Cooper’s machete was a pose for the cameras but it’s not far off the truth for any visitors that you can expect to be peeling back the undergrowth to see the handiwork of the Chachapoyas people. The fact that the woman running  the mummy museum in Leymebamba is still the self-same archaeologist who was first on the scene two decades ago to stop the rampant sacking of the sarcophagi is remarkable.

I leave it to one of our recent clients to sum up this loop of northern Peru: “From Trujillo and north to Cajarmarca was stunning and made so by the enthusiasm of Jose whose  knowledge seemed to have no limits. He could have made anything interesting and the sites he took us to were breathtaking. The driver William also deserves a special mention as he navigated us over spectacular passes and through the chaos of Peruvian traffic and downpours.” 

To discuss this holiday, please call us on 01273 676 712 from 9am-6.30pm GMT weekdays. Or visit the Peru holidays section of our website.

The role of the compost lavatory in eco-tourism

 Customer feedback, Nicaragua Holidays, Travel musings  Comments Off
May 092012
 

totoco The role of the compost lavatory in eco tourismThe role of the compost lavatory in eco-tourism.

First the description: the seat need to be about 3 or 4 steps above ground level to allow for the emptying of the containers from the outside. The “bowl” is a large tube with a plastic funnel at the front for collecting pee and a black hole at the back descending into bottomless Stygian gloom. There is a bucket of sawdust and a trowel beside the seat.

The process: Pee goes down the funnel and is used to feed the plants in the garden. Everything else goes down the black hole and is  covered with three scoops of sawdust   and then composted for 12 months before being used as fertilizer in the organic farm. Twice a day the containers are emptied by a menial who knocks on the wall and if no one shouts “occupado” within 10 seconds they will be removed.

Design considerations: The top step was not deep (about a size 10 foot) and not very wide so a man’s toes were virtually in line with the front of the seat and your feet were forced together with no scope for a more stable legs apart stance. Only the very thin, very athletic and very well endowed would have any chance of a visual sighting of the target.

Problem users:

1. Those not very thin, very athletic and very well endowed.

2. Vertigo sufferers, the top step is very high and very narrow.

3. The slightly drunk and slightly sleepy in the night. I saved eco miles by applying the nutrient to the plants directly from the veranda.

4. The deaf. Failure to hear the knock on the wall by the menial would constitute unacceptable health and safety risk.

5. Arachnaphobes – who knows what spiders (or snakes for that matter) may be lurking below.

6. The French, who will be unable to judge their state of wellbeing by morning examination.

7. The elderly and infirm.

The benefits: these are deemed to include reuse of all waste matter without energy or water consumption but the system is very labour intensive requiring emptying and carrying twice a day and daily compost management.

The alternative: collect the water in the rainy season, store it for use in the summer, install urinals to collect directly more than 50% of urine and a treatment plant driven by the abundance of solar energy to produce deactivated sludge as fertilser.

The conclusion: For a stay of two days take Immodium and every day you enjoy the convenience and efficiency of the water closet say thank you to Thomas Crapper for his user friendly contribution to our civilisation.

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