Peru on Chantal-Denise Ortega Tan

Huaca Pucclana and More of Lima, Peru

Wed, 03 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0000

I have been meaning to update this blog for the longest time.

(In part due to seeing Alex update his - just go to his photo blog to see where we have been more recently!)

This set of photos show the day back in November 2022 when we went to Huaca Pucllana, one of the oldest ruins of Peru! It’s older than Machu Picchu, and was constructed in 200AD. It’s conveniently located in Lima, and seeing how the city developed around it was cool.

It was also used as a site for the ritual of human sacrifice, and seeing the figures was kind of :|.

An interesting thing was how after the tour, you are greeted with a group of Peru’s well known animals! Llamas, alpacas, and the cuys! There were some coca plants, too.

We also walked around Lima and admired the local art around the city.

Chantal

Extreme Desert Experience in Huacachina, Peru

Sun, 06 Aug 2023 00:00:00 +0000

After exploring the seaside Paracas, we headed off to the desert oasis of Huacachina in Ica, Peru!

It’s my first desert experience. It was nothing short of amazing to see the tallest sand dunes in South America towering over the little oasis town of Huacachina.

Part of the tour was riding on an extreme dune buggy with a group of people, and zipping through the tall sand dunes!

I just wanted to share that our driver was also texting while driving… I am so glad we are still alive.6

Such an amazing experience though, really love that Peru has different kinds of terrains we were able to explore.

At the end of the day, we were treated with our first desert sunset.

Life in Lima, Peru and Seeing the Paracas Candelabra

Sun, 23 Apr 2023 00:00:00 +0000

It’s been a while since my last update! 110 days to be exact.

We were in an amazing apartment overlooking the city and mountain view of San Jose, Costa Rica. Since then, Alex and I have been to Los Angeles, Cancun, and now we are currently in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.

It’s been great seeing my dad after 4 years! And of course I spent time with my 91 year old grandma who’s still winning over everyone in tongits. Being in LA really is a treat for me, I get to see amazing things, eat great food, and get to know my relatives a bit more! I haven’t posted about anything LA, so I’ll make it a point to gather my favorite photos soon.

I had my birthday recently, and it was amazing. Alex surprised me with a dinner at Elizabeth Taylor’s former residence here in PV.

April 9, 2023 - My birthday in The Iguana, PV

Life has been amazing and I hope you are good, too.

I don’t update my Instagram as much as before, but here’s a link just in case you were wondering where we really are!

And now to the real post!

Ended 2021 in Machu Picchu

Wed, 20 Jul 2022 00:00:00 +0000

I have been meaning to blog about our experience of Machu Picchu from last year, but the internet was so slow in Ushuaia that I really just lost all motivation.

Currently, we are in Mendoza, Argentina which is located west of Buenos Aires. We are staying here for three weeks, to experience the Argentine wine country (hey it’s the source of Malbec wines!) and maybe go up snowy mountains again.

The good news is, our internet connection is ten times faster than Ushuaia! I can finally import, export, upload, and write about our Machu Picchu experience. I hope I remember as much details as I can though…

We were spending the last few weeks of 2021 in Peru, staying in its capital Lima. Since covid was still raging, we were very careful not to go out as much, and to have our masks on if we do need to go out to minimize the chances of getting covid.

We didn’t have plans yet for New Year’s, so I suggested to Alex that we should go check out Machu Picchu! And what did he do? He researched and booked everything so we can have a memorable end of year memory! :)

Note: These photos were from my iPhone 11, so not as high quality as the most recent posts. Just wanted to let you know…

How beautiful! This is the view from our Airbnb when we arrived. Elevation was pretty high so it was cold.