TraveLuxe

Pucusana, Peru – A Must Visit

Peru is absolutely packed with amazing towns, cities, sites, history, culture, food, and truly interesting people. There are probably innumerable “must sees” in the country. Most of them are rather obvious – Machu Picchu, the rain forest, Cusco, for example. One town, though, that you probably won’t find on any tourist map is Pucusana. You need to go. It’s that simple.

Pucusana is a fishing village, about 45 minutes outside of Lima. We went on a private tour with Pax on Board, a Lima-based tour company that specializes in unique tours that you won’t necessarily find with your standard tour company. Our guide, Nilton, was absolutely phenomenal, and his passion about his country made the tour that much interesting – when the person taking you around for the day exudes passion for the places that he/she is showing you, the day elevates from a tour to an experience.

The first stop in Pucusana was a blow hole, quite a treat and not something we’d seen anywhere else during our time in Peru. Watching local kids wade and play in the water, running away every time the blow hole “erupted”, offered up an image of what life on a Saturday afternoon in Pucusana is like for these residents.

We then headed over to the fishing boats, where we boarded a very legitimately local boat with a very legitimately local fisherman. There was no question that this man fished for his livelihood. This wasn’t some touristy excursion, this was a couple of hours on an authentic Pucusana fishing boat. First off, the color and culture in the town is a photographer’s dream. Watching the boats wander out into the water, the fisherman bringing their catch back to the active fish market, the families and dogs (yes dogs!) working aboard the boats. It’s an ideal place to catch a cultural “action shot”.

Once we got out of the harbor area, we started to experience wildlife viewing more prolific than we’d seen even in the rainforest. Who knew this little fishing town was full of seals. Or penguins! Our boat “captain” stopped to feed some pelicans (cranes? I might not have the name correct), and they were so close I thought they may somehow manage to get into the boat. We saw endemic birds that we hadn’t spotted anyone else on our trip. It was truly an incredible example of the ecological scope that the country offered, right here in this small fishing town.

I can’t recommend this tour enough. To add to it, we also got a private tour of parts of Lima that traditional city tours don’t go to, where we say “real” Lima life, not just the downtown areas, also by Pax on Board, and highly recommended as well. I also can’t thank Nilton and his company enough, and I need to mention Donovan at Ideal South America, who connected us with Pax on Board in the first place. I would be 100 percent confident sending my Peru-bound clients on this tour, and hope to do so in the near future. Thank you, gentlemen, for a wonderful experience!

PS Let me make it very clear, I reached out to both Nilton and Donovan to ask if I could write this blog and mention them. They in no way hired or even requested that I write this. I just had to share my one-of-a-kind experience with my readers, and I couldn’t do so without mentioning those that made it that possible.

Lesser-Known Themes

Working with clients on a detailed and personal level, I tend to get to know their interests rather well. Whether it?s a passion for a country, a period of history, an activity, or a style of travel, we weave this into their trip as much or as little as they desire.

Often, it?s something not all that uncommon ? wine tours and cooking classes for those who are interested in gastronomy, day tours of famous historical landmarks for the history buff. Themed tours and travel, though, can be taken to an additional level, and whole vacations (or at least a good part of a trip) can be planned around a particular interest. In fact, tour companies, both group and private, are continually offering new travel themes, and this, coupled with a travel planner whose focus is customized vacations, allows clients to create a trip focused around virtually any interest.

Here are just a few of the themes that are gaining popularity amongst travelers.

? Music tours: Music is intrinsically linked with culture and way of life in many countries, and travelers are not only enjoying music?s lure, but specifically traveling to it. Music and Markets Tours, for instance, takes traveler and music enthusiasts to Europe to experience the countries, the cultures and of course, the music.

? Garden tours: Tulip tours in and around Amsterdam may be the most famous, but the garden tour trend is spreading across Europe. Countries such as England, Wales and Scotland are rising in popularity, and the Riviera?s of Italy and France are not to be ignored.

? Ancestry/Heritage/Genealogy tours: Programs such as ancestry.com make it easy (or easier) today to take a look into ones past. Taking it one step further, ancestry tours – also sometimes called heritage or genealogy tours- take you to the towns of your family?s past. Tours tracing ones history are, by nature, almost always private tours, though some companies do offer more general small group tours focused on particular areas, for those whose relatives might share a common region.

? British royalty tours: Perhaps spurred on by the marriage of Prince William, or the TV show The Tudors, the fascination with British royalty, all generations of it, seems to be increasing by the week. Royal castles, palaces and grounds, and the tower of London are among the common stops on these tours, and those belonging to the Tudor family are particularly popular. As specific as this niche is, numerous companies are offering a wide variety of British royalty themed tours these days.