After years of planning, on October first the Kirkman clan will board a plane headed for Peru. Peru is a country in South America. It is about three times larger than California. Roughly one-third of Peru is coastal desert, one-third is mountains, and one-third is rainforset. Most Peruvians speak Spanish, though many speak Quechua, which is the language of the Inca Empire. Fortunately, our family understands Spanish very well, and Angela is a fluent speaker.
We plan to stay in Peru from October to mid-December. Our plane will land in Lima, the capitol of Peru. We will stay in Lima for about a week where will visit museums, practice our Spanish, and check out the many neighborhoods of this city of over seven million people. I can’t wait to visit the markets and sample the fruits, vegetables, and the roasted guinea pig.
The woman and child and child in this photo are wearing the typical dress of Peruvians from the highlands. In Peru, much of the wool used to make traditional clothing comes from llamas.
After Lima, we plan to stay in Cajamarca. This is a much smaller city and is located in Peru’s northern mountains. Cajamarca is the city where the Spanish conquistador Pizarro held the Inca Emperor Atahualpa prisoner. Atahualpa’s loyal Inca subjects filled a room twice with silver and once with gold as ransom for their Emperor, but the Spanish killed him anyway. Cajamarca is also famous for its hot springs (the Inca Baths), for its historic colonial buildings and churches, and for its large mine. The fertile soil around Cajamarca supports a thriving dairy industry. I am looking forward to sampling some of the cheese.
Here's Bella petting a llama on a hike in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains outside of Santa Fe, NM. We hope to take many hikes in Peru. Maybe we can have some llamas carry our gear.
From Cajamarca we will take a side-trip to one of the world’s deepest canyons, to the ruins of Kuelap, and into the Amazon side of the Andes Mountains. We will investigate the forests around the city of Tarapoto and report to students in Santa Fe, New Mexico. This spring, many Santa Fe students will raise money to protect forest habitat in the area around Tarapoto as a way to offset their carbon footprints. We will use this website to show them the diverse ecosystems around Tarapoto and the threats to the forests.
We plan to depart Peru on December 15th when we fly to Brazil. We will leave the mountains and forests of Peru for the tropical Atlantic coastline of South America’s largest country. We’ll have to practice our Portuguese.
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I am excited about your family adventure and very excited to share it with our teachers and students in Socorro, NM. Cliff Ross, Earth’s Birthday Project, told me about what you are doing. In Brazil, the Pantanal and Amazon are wonderful places to visit, you can learn about some of my projects there on a couple of website, http://www.socorro.k12.nm.us/amazon and http://www.internationaledcenter.org. I have great contacts there and Ghana (West Africa), if you decide you want to visit. I’ve done some educational projects there over the past few years. Enjoy! I am really looking forward to learning about what you experience! Tchau!
Cyrus and Bella, I can’t wait to start virtually travelling with you! Make sure you post plenty of pictures everywhere you go–pictures of your surroundings, of course, but pictures of yourselves and that cutie little brother too! I’ll want to know it if one of you does something crazy like, oh, say, shaves his head!
But seriously, I’m so excited to start this big field trip! First stop: Kansas! See you soon.
Hey Bella and Cyrus,
I am so excited to hear what you guys have been doing and learning! Hope you’re having a great time! Gabe and I will be checking in here freguently to see what you’re up to! We can’t wait to hear about your adventures! Love you!
Love,
Aunt Rhonda
hola estube leyendo su pajina me a encantado , pues yo soy de peru y vivi por esa zona muchos anos de mi vida pues ahora vivo en usa. conoci a Liz ella es una de mis amigas y me comento q usted sabe espanol y q es su amiga , me gustaria hablar mas con usted , escribame este es mi correo
jac-shu@hotmail.com
English – Hello, I was reading your page and I love it. Well, I am from Peru and I lived there for many years of my life. Now I live in the USA.I knew “Liz.” She is one of my friends and she told me that you knew spanish. I would like to talk to you. – Thank you! – cyrus P.S. I transulated this so it might be a little off.