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Peru packs a trove of ancient mystique and modern marvels.存倉 By Debbie YongLIMAWHAT if the Inca empire still ruled Peru today? What if Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro hadn't defeated the Incan army in Peru in 1532, or if Christopher Columbus before him hadn't unwittingly unleashed upon the region the smallpox epidemic that accelerated the Incas' demise?The thought increasingly seduces as one browses wall after impressive wall of artefacts at the Larco Museum. As most locals will tell you, some of Lima's finest artefacts are best taken care of in private collections, and of them, the Cornell-educated Peruvian archaeologist Rafael Larco Hoyle's is the city's most prized.There are stunning discoveries to be made about the technological advancement of the pre-historic human race here: ceramics from the Moche culture (between 100-800 AD) bear life-like details so intricate that an arsenal of carving tools was created to produce them. Textiles from the Chancay culture remain as vibrant today as they were dyed - with crushed cochineal bugs, no less - a millennium ago. Most curiously, metal-embedded skulls will sway anyone still unimpressed as proof that brain surgeries were practised as early as 2000 BC by the desert-dwelling Paracas people. At the back of the museum, an adults-only collection of erotic pottery catalogue sexual techniques so advanced, they would make even the most liberated feminist of today blush.If the pre-Columbian peoples had been allowed to progress on the same development trajectory, our iPhones and wireless technology of today probably wouldn't stand a chance against their technological advancement.But alas, wonder is all we are left to do, as beyond the museum's idyllic hacienda walls lie a city awash with indelible markers of Spanish influence.The Plaza Mayor is Lima's bustling main square and also where you're likely to find local businessmen, child-swaddling folks and tourists alike taking a break on the same park bench.On one side, Moorish-style arched pillars and dark wood balconies (once built for aristocratic ladies to peer outwards without letting outsiders peep in) clasp onto the deep-yellow walls of the Municipal Palace. Directly across, the Lima Cathedral is no less impressive. Its elaborately carved choir stalls are a visual feast, but the cathedral's most famous inhabitant, so to speak, is the late Pizarro, who was beheaded by a mob of political opponents and whose remains are housed within a bronze, marble and glass crypt within the cathedral. A few paces away, the catacombs of the San Francisco Cathedral, Lima's most visited tourist attraction, hold the remains of over 10,000 people buried underneath.Still have an appetite? Digest it all over a pit-stop at Bar Restaurant Cordano, a 100-year institution famed for its butifarra pork sandwiches, or steel yourself with a pisco sour - Peru's national cocktail - if you find your hunger's perished.Should the history lesson get too overwhelming, time travel within minutes to modern Peru by heading to Miraflores, on the southern coastal edge of the city. The ocean-facing, park-lined district (hence its name, "to look at the flowers" in Spanish) towers over 80m above sea level, and is dotted with top hotels, movie theatres and swanky restaurants from the city's top chefs such as Gaston Acurio, Rafael Osterling and Virgilio Martinez.A peculiar retail stop to pen in is Larcomar, a three-storey, ultra-modern shopping haven that hugs a steep cliff overlooking the South Pacific Ocean. The shopping's great: high-end local chain Kuna specialises in apparel made with ethically-sourced alpaca and vicuna wool (the latter, at US$1,400 and up per scarf, is one of the world's priciest wool); while the mind-blitzing display of indigenous potatoes - Peru is known for having over 1,000 varieties in all shapes and colours - at supermarket chain Wong's is a golden photo opportunity, if there ever was one to be found in a supermarket.Besides, their rags-to-riches tale of growing from a humble supermarket started in 1942 by a Chinese-Peruvian immigrant to a 34-outlet chain acquired by Chilean retail conglomerate Cencosud for US$500 million last year is a heart-warming one for visitors from a city built by immigrants.Surely, that must make a bout of shopping count as some sort of cultural immersion too, no?MACHU PICCHU AND THE ANDES REGIONEven the stray dogs in Aguas Calientes have winter outfits. One lay before me, basking in its chilli red down jacket under the mid-day sun. Hairless and wrinkled but for an unruly blond tuft on its forehead, the Peruvian Inca Orchid breed - on top of being a top contender for the annual World's Ugliest Dog Competition - has been around since the Pre-Inca times, and is highly valued among locals for having healing powers.But it is not just little Orchid who gets the luxury treatment in this town. An unruly-looking mutt scampers by in a bright blue dress, another sniffs out rubbish while togged in a four-legged doggy tracksuit.Ever since Hawaiian explorer Hiram Bingham discovered the 550-year-old citadel atop Machu Picchu (or "old mountain" in the ancient Quechua language) in 1911, with Aguas Calientes as its closest access point, the influx of tourists passing through the latter has created quite a wealthy community of local tradesmen. Hotels, restaurants, hot spring resorts, and one of Peru's largest handicrafts markets dot the once-sleepy village, and with up to 2,000 visitors passing through on a daily basis, there's plenty of economic activity to go around.But if you're of a more fussy persuasion and dread accidentally rubbing against sweat-drenched hippie backpackers on the Inca trail, luxury options to scale the 2,430 m mountain abound - many with little physical effort required.From Aguas Calientes, one can hop aboard a rickety but comfortable tourist bus, which winds right up to the entrance of the Machu Picchu reserve within 20 minutes.If you really must make the four-day, 40km trek, a luxe alternative from US$9,000 a head and up will have porters carrying your backpacks, setting up camp and cooking gourmet meals for you. Up there, everyone - whether you've taken the entry-level US$500 guided hike, the luxe version or the sneaky bus-ride up - will stand awestruck at the elaborate urban planning of the Incas. Agricultural terraces miraculously carved onto the mountain peaks bore complex irrigation systems, a giant sundial helped to tell the time and the seasons, and condor-shaped temples hinted at the elaborate ritualism of the unfortunately short-lived culture.The only hotel to be found within the Unesco World Heritage site is the 30-room Machu Picchu Sanctuary Lodge run by Orient Express, but for ease of travel, we base ourselves in the Sacred Valley for the night. From there, a 1.5 hour journey aboard the mid-ranged Vistadome train winds through salt fields and ice-peaked mountains, along the way - all of which you can take in from glass-topped train carriages.The slightly cheaper Backpacker train gets you there just as fast, but without the frills of snacks and warm drinks. Alternatively, opt for first-class service on the luxury Hiram Bingham at US$500 per person.To fully experience Peru's richness, most people make a first-stop at Cusco, a historical town of 400,000 people, which was once considered the heart of the Inca empire. Traces of its more glorious past can still be seen in the Qurikancha, an Inca temple for the Sun god which has been partially paved over with a Spanish-style monastery.Inca-built stone foundations can still be seen running through the walls of many of the buildings in the city centre. The best time to take in the city is at night, when the warm ochre street lights and the arched pillars of the buildings around the Plaza de Armas square transport one to old Europe (even the Starbucks and MacDonalds outlets on the square have muted dark brown signages). The smell of alpaca kebabs and guinea pigs being roasted by the road, however, remind you very much that you are still in Peru.Peruvian cuisine is the latest darling of the global gastronomic circle, and top chefs from Lima have been scrambling to dining outposts in Cusco. But for a real glimpse of how locals eat, head to the Mercado San Pedro, where fruit stalls selling exotic produce such as the maple honey-tasting lucuma fruit, or the soursop-like chirimoya jostle for space next to corn and quinoa stalls hawking maize kernels as big as one's thumb.Of if you need a vantage point to take it all in, scale the Sacsayhuaman, an Inca citadel fashioned out of zigzagging large rocks that towers over the city. This was where the Inca warriors were defeated in one of their last stands against the Spanish in 1536. A mile away, a giant statue of Christ glows and watches over the city - a reminder of the conquistador's triumph over the natives.The 自存倉eek of our visit to Peru happened to coincide with the annual Fiesta Virgen del Carmen celebrations from July 14 to 18, and the mountainous village of Paucartambo is where celebrations are most fervent in the region. Groups of spirited dancers take to the street in honour of the patron saint, the Virgin Mary of Mount Carmelo, with humorous masks that depict everything from corrupt lawyers to yellow fever-struck sailors.An aged dancer brushes past us and strikes up a conversation. A Cusco native, he says, he's been coming to this town to dance for the last 40 years. Why, somebody asks. And then we get a glimpse of mountain life, pure and simple:"Out of pure devotion, why else?" he asks, genuinely surprised at the question.PUERTO MALDONALDO AND THE AMAZON BASINThe timing couldn't have been worse. The last piece of news you want to hear before departing for a two-night camp deep in the Amazon rainforest in Peru, is that an English woman travelling through Peru with her husband had returned to find flesh-eating maggots lodged deep into her ear.But beyond the quite improbable prospect of having to tussle with life-threatening bugs and raving wild fauna deep in an exotic jungle, there stood a far more demanding trial for every city dweller: two full days without any telephone or Internet connection.Our eco-lodge, the Inkaterra Reserva Amazonica, was at least a 15km sail down the Tambopata river from Puerto Maldonaldo, the capital city of the southeast section of the Amazon, and the nature-loving founders of the lodge couldn't justify the costly set-up. After all, the whole point was to get close to nature.(Iquitos, in northern Amazon, is the most well-trodden path for touristy treks but the up-and-coming Puerto Maldonaldo offers a more rustic experience, we are told.) So we traipsed on. If one regrets not downloading more movies on one's iPad before being cut off from modern civilisation, there is no need to fret. For the lodge-keepers keep you very busy at Inkaterra. Upon check-in, you get presented a menu of nature trails you can go on.Visitors typically get in around lunch-time as most of the 1.5-hour flights to Puerto Maldonaldo from Lima depart in the morning, so most of the new arrivals tend to opt for the sunset river cruise on their first day. The one-hour leisurely boat-ride down the Tambopata river can be organised for anyone from private groups of two to a full boatload of 20. The boats typically set off after dusk, with nature guides armed with powerful flashlights and keen eyes trained onto the riverbeds.Quick, a black caiman here! The smaller cousin of the crocodile, its black variety is typically spotted only in lakes, not rivers! There, a dusty brown capybara standing still, the largest rodent in the world trying to disguise itself as a rock!What about the anacondas and piranhas? Does anyone want to volunteer sticking an arm out of the boat and into the river to lure them out?As the camera-toting Asian tourists on the boat strained in vain to immortalise these short-lived animal sightings, the ride perhaps also offered the rest of us a valuable lesson: that some of life's greatest miracles are best witnessed with the naked eye.The wildlife-spotting excitement continued as we trekked through the government-protected Tambopata reserve on foot and in a paddle boat over the next two days. There were exotic coloured-birds with equally exotic names: lemon-throated barbets, Andean cock of the rocks, russet-backed oropendolas and ladder-tailed nightjars. An anhiga perched on a floating branch on Lake Sandoval - so named for having necks as long as a snake's slithering body - stretched out its neck to the delight of its human stalkers; a two-toed sloth hung lazily from a tree while a family of red howler monkeys showed off their acrobatics nearby.Halfway through a trek, our guide Moises Sanchez let a trail of termites crawl onto his arm before rubbing them onto his skin, juices and all. A natural mosquito repellent, he grinned cheekily to some squeamish squeals from our party.To get literally up-close to the birds, the Inkaterra lodge also owns a 17,000 hectare private ecological reserve, on which they've constructed a treetop walk spanning 7 bridges suspended 30m above the jungle floor. For the truly nature-loving, a night for two on a specially constructed treehouse at the end of the canopy walk can be had from US$300 a night.But a word of caution: even for a urban dweller used to the sound of passing traffic and other mechnical disquietudes of living in a congested city, the jungle is no more peaceful.Crickets chatter constantly like a swarm of gossipy neighbours throughout the night, and in the mornings, you rouse to the deep-throated coos of scaled pigeons and silver-beaked tanagers.The anacondas, luckily, were nowhere to be seen or heard.PARACAS AND THE DESERTAs the driver Jesus gleefully bumps and the jeep up and down along towering sand dunes, someone in your party points to the GPS affixed to the dashboard."What if that breaks down?"Silence in the car. And nothing but sand and more sand on the horizon all around us."Oh, but it won't," Jesus says casually, unconvincingly. Further silence.You are in the middle of the desert in Paracas. Peru may be better known for its mountains and its lush Amazon rainforest but its arid flatlands pack no less of an adventure.Sources differ in their definition, but it is generally accepted that Peru has two deserts running the length of its coastline, situated along the western side of the South American continent. The entire desert coastline covers nearly 189,000 square kilometres of land, and the desert reaches inland between 20 and 100 kilometers - the widest part of which lie in the southern half of the country, where your rollercoaster-esque dune buggy rides are happening. The Lanchas Pampas, nicknamed by locals as the California desert, is one of the driest and most extensive in Peru's southern Inca region.At one point along the drive, you stop for what you think is a photo-moment, until Jesus takes out a snowboard and slides it to the very edge of the a 30m sand slope. "Who's first?" he tempts. You let two braver souls test out the board first, and a bundle of nerves - and half a minute of screaming later - you find yourself, too, at the bottom of the slope, arms and limbs intact - and itching to go again.But there is no time. The sunset is almost upon you, so you hasten your bumping along the dunes towards a green triangle marked on Jesus' trusty GPS. Moments later, you step out of the dusty jeep onto a entry walkway paved with torches on both sides.Under a large, luxe tent pitched well before your arrival, a young boy awaits you with a tray of champagne. He soon becomes your best friend as he brings out platter after platter of just-grilled shrimp and meat skewers as you plaster yourself onto the cushions and thick rugs set under the tent. A few metres away, and largely out of sight, a personal chef sends them out fast and furious.It's the kind of setting marriage proposals are made of. It's so surreal that you just want to say yes (besides, there's the awkwardness of being stuck with a jilted lover in the middle of the desert if you said no.) On the ride back to the hotel after dinner, a silence envelopes the car again. Everyone, perhaps, trying to etch deep into their minds this memory of a lifetime.Sandy seductions aside, Paracas has the luxury of being located right on the Pacific coast. So you pen in an extra day for a ride out on an open-top speed boat to the Islas Ballastes, where seagulls, sea penguins and blubbery sealions can be spotted bathing under the sun, oblivious to the tourists splashing past them.Nature has its wonders, but what mankind can get up to can be a marvel too. You ponder this as the boat passes the Paracas Candelabra, a pre-historic geoglyph etched by the Paracas culture in 200 BC on the northern face of the Paracas Peninsula. Stretching 181m tall, the three-pronged tribute to the lightning rod of the god Viracocha, worshipped throughout South America, was believed to have been etched in 200BC - and hasn't eroded over two milleniums.To view the full collection, you can board a tiny 12-seater plane from the nearby airport, which will take you on a two-hour journey over the Nazca Lines deep in the desert of Nazca to view motifs of everything from hummingbirds to spiders and monkeys - even an alien! - that range in complexity from simple lines to stylized figures.But beware the Paracas winds that blow frequently in July and August, for they are known to make flights so bumpy that many are known to have thrown up mid-flight. Or worse, they can render flying conditions too hazardous, and shut down airports altogether. And what a pity that would be.debyong@sph.com.sgThe writer's trip was sponsored by PromPeru, Peru's export and tourism agency迷你倉新蒲崗