Exploring Peru with my maths teacher

Last month we had a special visitor: my maths teacher from 45 years ago and his partner arrived in Lima and set out on a 24-day trip around Peru. We hadn’t seen each other for over 40 years so it was quite an emotional reunion! I was thrilled to organize and accompany this trip. As my teacher had expressed the wish to see some off the beaten track places we organized a rather personalized and unconventional journey.

By the way, our maths teacher had always been very popular with us as he was not only an outstanding teacher who managed to get us interested in any topic, but he was also a great comrade and a friend that we deposited our trust in.

We had an unforgettable school’s trip to the Black Forest with him, renting a big house in a remote place and doing the catering ourselves, going on splendid hikes every day (I had always liked my teacher’s love for nature!). I remember how I once split a day’s ration of wood for our big stove in the lounge. Another time I was “punished” (I can’t remember what had done wrong) and together with a classmate I had to walk to the neighboring farm and fetch a jug of milk (his “punishments” were always creative and funny).

During our journey, we stayed at vacation rentals whenever possible and provided our own meals. We stayed five days in Nazca in a rural home with horses a big garden and a swimming pool and spent our time visiting all the attractions of the surroundings, especially the archaeological sites of the Nazca culture and the Nature Reserve of San Fernando on the coast where we observed the rare Humboldt pinguin and countless seabirds and sea lions.

We drove overland to Cusco passing lonely mountain sceneries. We were blessed with the sightings of condors and vicuñas. Our next destination was our Lodge in Limatambo where we enjoyed our chef’s home cooked food with fresh garden produce. Of course, we also checked my old photo album where there were still some photos from school days.

We continued our journey to Cusco, the Sacred Valley of the Inkas and Machu Picchu as well as to some other attractions like the weavers of Chinchero. One morning we spent birding at the lagoon of Huacarpay south of Cusco.

The last part of the journey we spent in the Tambopata Reserve in the Amazon rainforest. We were extremely lucky to have amazing sightings not only of countless monkeys, macaws, and parrots but also of a Tamandua anteater that was curled up sleeping in a tree fork, as well as capybaras, caimans and a great number of exotic birds, including a large flock of king vultures.

But definite highlights were observing the Harpy Eagle at its nest and spotting a couple of jaguars lying relaxed in the vegetation on the shore of the river, licking and grooming one another.

Altogether it had been an eventful journey with lots of fun. I am grateful that I was able to spend this time with my maths teacher and his kind wife after all these years!