Grand Tour

Machu Picchu. A favorite place in my travels, Alicia Graham © 2005

 

In this Grand Tour post, the description of the trip as written in 1967 may be read in the "South American Trip Diary". The 12 pages of that document may be found below.

Each Peace Corps Volunteer received two paid vacation days per month of service. Many volunteers used a major portion of this time to travel to nearby countries.  My South American Grand Tour took 30 of these days (September 15, 1967 to October 15, 1967). Most of the trip was traveled with a fellow volunteer from my group.

 

South American Trip Diary

Pages 3-4, Cusco and Machu Picchu

Pages 1-2, Lima and Cusco

Pages 7-8, La Paz, Såo Paulo, Rio

Pages 5-6, Machu Picchu, Boat-Train & La Paz

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pages 11-12, Santiago, the desert, home

Pages 9-10, Montevideo, Bueno Aires, Mendoza

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Three maps are included to provide a better sense to readers not familiar with the continent. A quick overview of my travels may be found in the image to the left. A more detailed view is contained in two maps; the first of the Andean portion of the trip and the second of the remainder.

 

Supplementing the written pages, photos of places traveled to and through on this trip are included.  To satisfy the curious about changes in the subsequent decades, I am including photos from the 1960s and more recent times.  In the following years I both traveled to Ecuador (2007) and Brazil (2012) and a daughter in 2005 traveled on the Inca trail to Machu Picchu, my favorite discovery on the 1967 trip..

 

 

Showing the route through the Andes of the first part of South American Tour,
Map courtesy of Wikipedia

 

Lima

These two photos are current images of Lima, Peru. I seem to have taken no pictures of the city on the trip.  With an average yearly rainfall of 18.2 mm, Lima is a desert city. Strangely, despite the aridity, Lima has overcast skies much of the year. It seems that cloudy skies does not guarantee rainfall. Lima is Peru's capital city, with a metropolitan population of 10 million people.

 

 

Coastal Lima

Central Lima

 

 

 

 

Cuzco

As our Faucett Airlines plane neared Cuzco, I was mesmerized by the window view of range after range of glacier covered mountains as we neared our destination. Cuzco is located in a broad valley at over 11,000 feet in elevation. Its population is a little over 400,000 persons. Before the arrival of the Spanish conquistadores, it was the capital of the Inca Empire, the "Roman Empire" of the Americas.

Glacier covered mountain wall west of Cuzco

Historic section of Cuzco

Llama and woman resting on Cuzco sidewalk

Sacsayhuaman, Inca fortress overlooking Cuzco

Machu Picchu

Machu Picchu remained a "hidden" Inca citadel for 400 years. In 1911 American explorer Hiram Bingham reached the site and brought it to international attention. Most archaeologists believe that Machu Picchu was constructed prior to the Spanish conquest as an estate for the Inca emperor Pachacuti (1438–1472). 

 

It is located about 80 kilometers northwest of Cuzco in the Eastern Cordillera of southern Peru, on a mountain ridge about 2,400 meters (8,000') high. A canyon cut through the Cordillera by the Urubamba River lies below it.

 

The image on the right illustrates the fine quality stonework customary with the Incas

 

Illustration of steep terrain upon which
the citadel was constructed

Close up of the terraces constructed to hold fertile
soil transported up from river in canyon below

 

 

 

 

Lake Titicaca

The next objective for my tour of the South American continent was La Paz, Bolivia. Our mode of transport for that travel segment was a boat-train across Lake Titicaca which is shared between Peru and Bolivia. 

 

The daylight portions of this trip leg would occur in two trains. The night would be on the boat crossing the lake. The travel modes would include a train from Cuzco to the lake, a boat ride across the lake, and the Bolivian train from the lake to La Paz. The total distance is about 500 miles.

On the shores of Lake Titicaca

The SS Olanta, which I believe was our ferry across
the lake

La Paz

The Altiplano is a plateau at an elevation of about 3500 meters, with scattered mountains located on its surface above that height.  Most of the altiplano is located in Bolivia. The rest may be found primarily in Peru, with a southern extension in Argentina and Chile. Only in Tibet is there a plateau of this size and height on the planet.  

The section between Lake Titicaca and La Paz is flat. The eastern edge of the plateau drops off sharply in a significant escarpment. La Paz is located at the bottom of that escarpment where it appears a chunk was bit out of the edge of the Altiplano. 

High rises of central La Paz come into view as
the train continues its descent.

The beginning of the train's descent to La Paz.
Note the almost flat altiplano just below the higher
mountain peaks. Alicia Graham © 2005

Second Half of Trip

Showing the route through the southern part of the South American Tour,
Map courtesy of Wikipedia

 

Såo Paulo

Other than Ecuador, Brazil is the only South American country I have returned to since my Peace Corps service. Most of that 2012 trip visited  places I missed on my 1967 tour.

 

1960s overview of the city

Såo Paulo is the largest city in South America with a population of about 12 million. The city is located on a plateau about 50 km inland from its Atlantic Ocean port of Santos. It is separated from the ocean by the Serra do Mar, which rises as part of the Great Escarpment. on the eastern margins of the Brazilian Highlands, 

 

Both in the 1960s and today, Såo Paulo is a city of skyscrapers.The first two images are a postcard and photo from the 1960s. The last ones were taken during my 2012 visit. The more recent visit felt more pedestrian friendly.

 

A pedestrian bridge to remember

Pedestrian way weaving through the city

 

2012 Såo Paulo skyline

Rio de Janeiro

Thanks to its setting on one of the most beautiful sections of the Brazilian coast, Rio is a city with few peers. Even the favelas seen on my 2012 visit have a unique beauty of their own.

Classic view from 1967

Copacabana beach in the 1960s

School in favela

2012 favela view from above

 

Favorite Rio view

Volleyball on Copacabana in 2012

Montevideo

Photo from a stroll during my
1967 city visit.

This city was not exactly memorable. I even had the building at the far end of the street to the right in another city until I noticed its unique design in an image from Montevideo. Other memories from 1967 were the old cars. Something about exchange rates made new cars unaffordable to most Uruguay citizens.

Very old cars found  in 1967 streets of Montevideo

Postcard from the 1960s

 

Buenos Aires

According to Wikipedia, Buenos Aires is the seventh largest city in South America, with a population of slightly over 3 million. Two days I shot photos according to my trip diary. Now I find nothing of those days of picture taking. Those images disappeared into a bottomless pit of time. Hope the two following images some 35 years apart give some substitute sense of the changes in the city over time.

 

I do remember the steaks memorized in the diary. Not only were they good, but the least expensive steaks of memory.

 

Puerto Madero, Buenos Aires, Deensel, 2018

9 de Julio Avenue, Buenos Aires,
Nathan H. Hamilton, Flickr, 1986

 

Mendoza and mountain passage

Mendoza is a small provincial capital city with a population of about 125,000. It is the center of a wine growing region in the foothills of the Andes mountains. The city is pedestrian friendly with outdoor cafes and tree lined avenues indicating the city's European heritage.

 

My evening encounter with Argentine students was one of those memory gems which can make travel a wonderful experience.

 

The city is the gateway to the Andean mountain passes providing passage to Santiago in Chile.  Those mountains are the location of my only surviving photo attesting to my time in Argentina, a picture of Aconcahua, highest peak outsie Asia.

 

Winter Mendoza mountain view

Summer Mendoza view with Andes in background

Satellite view of Andes between Santiago & Mendoza

Aconcagua in distance

 

Santiago and Return North

Santiago is the largest city and capital of Chile with a population 5.5 million. My stay was a short and pleasant one. After one full day in Santiago I took a bus north upon the coastal road through the desert to Peru.  My bus ticket was to Arica on Chile's border with Peru. From Arica I took another bus to Lima, where I was supposed to catch a plane to Quito.

 

Along the way I noticed numerous rivers flowing down from the Andes with sufficient water  to support sometimes extensive agriculture activities. Many of these river valleys had similarly supported pre-Inca nations. One of the largest was found in the valley of the Cañete River. A satellite view of the river and the extensive agriculture lands irrigated by it is shown below where it flows out to the ocean. The inhabitants of the Cañete resisted the Incas for many years before falling to their forces shortly before the arrival of the Spanish Conquistadores.

 

1960s postcard view of Santiago.

My sole photo surviver of Santiago

 

Rio Cañete, one of the rivers flowing out of the Andes which irrigates farmland in the
extremely dry Peruvian desert

Due to missed connections, I arrived late back in Quito via plane from Lima and a bus ride from Guayaquil. My travel adventure was over. Other adventures awaited me.