Peru

November 4th, 2009  |  By Mary Losure

Peru Travel: Machu Picchu

At Machu Picchu, visitors can wander at will along stair-step stone terraces clinging to the mountainside. | Photo: Don Losure

At Machu Picchu, visitors can wander at will along stair-step stone terraces clinging to the mountainside. | Photo by Don Losure

It’s one of the new Seven Wonders of the World, according to a global contest. Want to see it? It’s not hard. These days, the “lost city of the Incas” lies on the end of a well-traveled tourist trail.

Of course, if you’re hardy and intrepid, you can hike through the jungle for days, get up at 4 a.m. and see Machu Picchu as the sun rises over the stone city.

But don’t let anybody tell you that’s the only way worth doing it.

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September 3rd, 2007  |  By Round Earth Media

Who Owns Peru’s Culture?

At almost 8 thousand feet, Machu Picchu perches above a lush valley in the Peruvian Andes. | Photo: Michael Beebe

At almost 8 thousand feet, Machu Picchu perches above a lush valley in the Peruvian Andes. | Photo: Michael Beebe

Machu Picchu, one of the world’s great archaeological sites, dazzles tourists from all over the world.

But those tourists who travel to Peru can’t see hundreds of treasures that were found at Machu Picchu. Those treasures are in New Haven, Conn., at Yale University’s Peabody Museum of Natural History.

Peruvians are outraged that these antiquities are so far away, and they are demanding that they be returned.

How did the treasures end up at Yale?
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September 3rd, 2007  |  By Round Earth Media

Peru’s Natural Viagra Center of Controversy

Ana Luna Derente and her husband Vicente Fijueroa sell maca liquor in the market in Junin.

Ana Luna Derente and her husband Vicente Fijueroa sell maca liquor in the market in Junin. | All photos by Don Losure

Long before the drug Viagra, Indians in Peru had their own libido enhancer — an unassuming root called maca.

Maca caught the attention of a U.S. company, which got a patent on this so-called natural Viagra. And just a few months ago, Wal-Mart started selling the tonic.

But Peru is crying foul, claiming maca was stolen from the people who knew about it first.

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