Adventure in Peru
Presented by Tracy Hutchinson
Tracy Hutchinson will present a slide show of her adventure in Peru earlier this year. The meeting starts at 7:30 PM September 2 at the San Bernardino County Museum 2024 Orange Tree Lane, Redlands.
Tracy’s Peru trip took her to Lima, the nation’s capital, Cuzco, the ancient seat of the Inca Empire, and Machu Picchu, the mysterious lost city of the Inca.
We heard from Tracy last year when she gave us a program about her walking the Camino de Santiago Frances Route, the pilgrimage that starts in France, crosses the Pyrenees and ends at Santiago de Compostela in Spain after more than 500 miles.
Tracy’s visit to Peru was part of her grand plan to visit all seven of the Wonders of the Modern World, a list that includes Machu Picchu.
While in Lima, she stayed in Miraflores, a pleasant seaside district. She was impressed by Lima’s Parque de la Reserva (park of 13 water fountains) with its many spectacular fountains, colorfully illuminated at night. Though receiving very little rainfall, South America (mainly Peru) has twenty five percent of the world’s water from run off due to the many rivers flowing down from the Andes.
Cuzco, like Lima, has many Colonial Era churches, palaces and monasteries. Many of the old Cuzco buildings incorporate stones from earlier Inca temples and palaces. At an elevation of 10,000 feet Cuzco is also a great place to acclimate before starting the trek to Machu Picchu.
Tracy’s four-day tour from Cuzco to Machu Picchu included visits to several Inca ruins, a mountain bicycle descent from 14,000 feet into the jungles and rain forests, namely the Cloud Forest, flying over the canopy of the jungle via a zip line, and soaking in the Aguas Calientes mineral springs. Machu Picchu itself is truly a wonder of the world. While exploring the Machu Picchu, Tracy caught a child before he slipped off the edge of a sheer cliff.
Tracy is a life skills coach, tech “guru” and social media strategist residing in Riverside. She is currently working on her memoir, No Fixed Abode, to tell the story of how she came to pursue her bucket list.
