Dear Readers,
It is a pleasure to deliver this new edition for you. This is our eleventh edition, and we hope PeruTourism's Newsletter has filled your expectations.
This time we wanted to show you the magic of the Hidden Inca Trail. These group of paths, links the Sacred Valley of the Incas with many archaeological sites in a outstanding hike in the middle of the high forest until the real destination: Machu Picchu.
A glance to the peruvian folk art, news we are proud to present, fantastic facts about our country as well as mountains of information and photographs are the content of this pre-anniversary edition.
Regards,
José and Cynthia

Many countries have mountain ranges with beautiful scenery and Peru itself is richly blessed in this respect with many other areas for hiking. However the scenery is only one of the elements responsible for the magic of the Inca Trail. Can there be any walk anywhere in the world with such a combination of natural beauty, history and sheer mystery and with such an awe-inspiring destination? The various ruins along the way serve to heighten the hiker's sense of anticipation as he or she approaches what would surely find a place in any new list of archaeological wonders of the world - Machu Picchu.
Though there are many Inca trails in South America it is the 45km or so of path following the Cusichaca River up from the Urubamba before cutting through mountain passes and across valleys on the way to Machu Picchu that has become known as the Inca Trail. After abandonment with the fall of the Inca Empire the trail and its destination, Machu Picchu, became lost to the wider world since the paths were generally too narrow for the movement of the Spanish with horses and goods.
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The pottery techniques used by the craftsmen in Peru are from the Recuay and Vicus civilizations, more than 2000 years old?

The Huascaran National Park located in the city of Ancash has 663 glaciers, 269 emerald-green lakes and 41 rivers, plus 33 archeological sites?

There are more than 1,300 types of popular music through Peru?

See the Pictures

Peru boasts one of the largest varieties of arts and crafts on Earth, as can be seen from the growing network of exporters who each year exhibit the skill of Peruvian craftsmen in Europe, Asia and North America. The diversity, color, creativity and multiple functions of Peru's folk art has made it a fundamental activity not just for Peru's cultural identity, but also as a way of life for thousands of families and even entire communities, such as Sarhua and Quinua in Ayacucho.
Works of art, both big and small, spark admiration amongst Peruvians and foreigners alike, are steeped in centuries of history, imbued with pre-Hispanic shapes and symbols which have merged with others brought over by the Spaniards. Peru has forged a multiple and complex identity which is paradoxically one of the reasons why Peruvian arts and crafts are tending to shift towards naïf art, lending their works a touch of innocence.
The excellence of Peruvian artisans can be seen in the harmony of the geometric designs in weavings, the minute portraits of peasant farming life on the carved gourds called mates burilados, the cultural mestizaje or blend in the colorful retablo boxed scenes. There are also the finely carved Huamanga stone sculptures, the complex Baroque nature of the wooden carvings, the beauty of gold and silver relics and the many forms that pottery has shaped the clay into pottery.
These works are just some of the cultural manifestations of a people who communicate mainly through art, using a language whose fundamental aspects are abundance, fertility and confidence in the future.

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