Lead, kindly light ..

.. because hopefully the Sentoro ain't Luminoso any more.

It is possible that I have overachieved on obfuscation on this one. But here are some background notes.

  • In keeping with my normal style we'll start at the end and work forwards. At least one member of this list speaks good Spanish and is familiar with recent South American politics. Thus they will be thinking "Why is Martin writing about the Shining Path: is he going to Peru?" The short answer is yes: more on this below.
  • It seems that DFAT are not confident that the Shining Path have retired as they warn about possible issues with recidivist elements. However assuming that they have gone we'll need a light to show the way. Thus the phrase in the title entered the active area of my brain: hopefully it will shortly be joined by the Spanish I learnt through the UN while in New York.
  • On googling the phrase it turns out to be the first words of a hymn written by Cardinal Newman while stuck, for a week, in a fog bank between Corsica and Sardinia. Lima is a very foggy place, due to the cold current running up the ocean, but I don't think it is that bad.
This is actually a holiday trip being led by Ian Fraser from Envronment Tours in Canberra, with focuses on birds, mammals, orchids and Inca history. We'll be covering Cusco, Mattu Pichu and the Inca Trail and the manu Biosphere reserve. Quite a bit of travelling by canoe on tributaries of the Amazon. We leave on September 25, stopping for a couple of days in Santiago before the formal tour begins and returning on 16 October. We haven't yet told the rat that she is going to the kennels for three weeks!

Here are a few photos from my mission to Peru in 2005.


The coast at Miraflores, where we will be staying for the last night.








A Civic Park along the top of the cliffs in the previous photo.












A mixture of the old and new somewhere in Lima.










This establishment is possibly very familiar with the works of Cardinal Newman.











These signs were everywhere. However it is only now that I have spotted the amusing juxtaposition of Calle Colon and a sign about no doggie -doo! Proving that some of the Spanish is re-emerging - with the aid of context - the sign says "Be clean".




Updates will be provided as they arise. Just as a small teaser, I usually have some difficulty coming up with a consistent title for the trip report so this time will try to log the various manifestations. Yesterday Frances and I were talking about food on the trip and she thought Baccala (salted cod) could be on the agenda. My view was that the most likely piscine dish would be "pirranha and chips". So that is version 1.

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