Video: Eco Truly Park, Peru

Eco Truly Park is a beautiful Peruvian Pacific coast ecological, artistic hare Krishna community located on Chacra y Mar beach, a district of Aucallama, in the province of Huaral, one hour by bus or car (63 km) north of the capital city, Lima.

It is an international community with about 30 members living there all year long and lots of volunteers visiting as well to enjoy the community living. I specially loved being among like-minded humans who were all vegetarians and lived according to the same principles as me – namely to live in harmony with each other and nature and not kill.

This was the comment I left on their website after spending an amazing time there in 2009:

“I spent 10 days in Eco Truly Park and really loved the time there. After six months of intense travel in Latin America it was like a sanctuary of peace, relaxation, learning and introspection.Everyone were tremendously welcoming and accommodating.
I loved the delicious vegetarian food and the yoga practise as well.I would definitely recommend it to anyone with a spiritually open mind.”

For more information, please check out the volunteer website: tp://volunteeringecotrulypark.blogspot.com/

or visit their facebook page: Eco Truly Park, Peru

The video below is a tribute to the place – hopefully it will give you an idea about the beauty of the place and the people.

Podcast: South Peru – Lima, Nazca & Arequipa

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This podcast is part one of a series of two podcasts I’ll be making in Southern Peru, and it begins in Lima in the Plaza de Armas. I then head down underground into the catacombs of Monasterio de San Francisco – the old cemetery of Lima – and resting place of an awful lot of bones. I then head to the coast at Miraflores, and to the super cool Larco Mar bar complex.

Podcast Southern Peru - Lima, Arequipa and Nazca lines

The following day is museum day, with trips to Museo Larco Rafael Herrera – home to 50,000 pre-Colombian pots, and a fabulous and famous collection of erotic ceramics, and later on to the ‘main’ museum in Lima – Museo de la Nacion.

Following Lima, I get a bus 9 hours south to Nazca and take a rollercoaster flight over the Nazca lines, then head on another 10 hours South to the beautiful Colonial town (and UNESCO World Heritage Site) of Arequipa 2300m up in the Andes where I visit some frozen 500 year old Incan ice mummies in Museo Santuarios Andinos, and finish the podcast in the incredible 16th century ‘citadel’ Monasterio de Santa Catalina.

This podcast will be followed by another podcast from Southern Peru in the next couple of weeks covering the Colca Canyon, Puno, Lake Titicaca, and Cusco, followed by a long stay helping to develop an Eco-yoga community in the Sacred Valley outside Cusco, where I hope to finally get a chance to learn and practice yoga, and also learn about eco-building and organic cultivation.

Links

Photos of Nazca Lines
Video of flight over the Nazca lines
Photos of Erotic Pots from Museo Larco Rafael Herrera
Video of Arequipa
Photos of Lima
Photos of Arequipa

Ancient Peruvian porn

The wonderful Museo Farael Larco Herrera in Lima has an infamous display of pre-Colombian erotic pots, that explicitly illustrate the sexual lives of ancient Peruvian men, women, skeletons and animals in various combinations. Here’s one of them, to view the entire album, click on the link beneath the photo. It’s worth it :-).

Masturbating happy fat pot with dildo

Photo set

Video: Hervideros organic mud-baths outside Tumbes, Peru (Spanish/English)

When crossing the border from Ecuador to Peru I lost my bus onwards to the Hare Krishna village north of Lima. This meant I had to spend the night and the whole next day in Tumbes. At first I was a bit annoyed because I really wanted to move downwards towards the Hare Krishna sanctuary.

However, I met a young guy named Mauro Alexander, who was my taxi driver when I arrived in Tumbes, and he changed my point of view. He suggested that he would come and pick me up at my hotel the next morning at 10 and take me to Zorritos beach and Hervideros mud baths.

Having left Thomas in Ecuador (he had to work) I was now a woman travelling alone. This made me feel a bit vulnerable. I considered several times whether to accept Mauro’s offer and decided to say yes eventually. Why? Because I remembered when I visited Nepal back in 2006. I met a guy called Shiva in a wool shop. We talked a few times and he invited he to come and stay with him and his brother two hours outside of Kathmandu in their small village for the night. My intuition told me that I could trust Shiva and I decided to say yes. That visit is one of the most memorable 24 hours in my life. Shiva and his brother took care of me like a beloved sister and at night he gave me his bed and cover and slept himself with his brother. Shiva is one of the kindest people I have ever met in my life – he has such a good heart and always thinks about other people. Still to this day, when the world is against me, I think about Shiva – to remind myself that there are many wonderful and loving people. That’s why I said yes to the invitation from Mauro – because sometimes we have to take chances in life to fully enjoy the beauty of it.

So Mauro picked me up at 10 and we drove to Hervideros. Hervideros is placed in the south of Zorritos, in Monte Guacura (Guacura Mountain), in the department of Tumbes. Hervideros has several natural pools with medicinal high-temperature waters that contain iodised salts, minerals and special properties for skin and for health. The surrounding area is the most beautiful area I have seen in Peru. We spent a few hours at the mud-baths and afterwards we went to Zorritos beach before Mauro took me to my bus bound for Lima.

The mud baths were not in my guidebook (it had free entrance), but you can contact “Mauro Alexander” through facebook and pay him to drive you there. It is very beautiful and well worth a visit. The video above shows you me covered in mud and Mauro who also explains (in Spanish) about Hervideros.