I’m a bad picture-taker and lately I haven’t had much time to share via social media – so happy I got rid of my Facebook 🙂 – but occasionally I upload a few pictures to my Flickr page. I’m sometimes surprised by which pictures are rated as most popular or most interesting after some time on the site. The following are some of my most popular Peru pictures on Flickr:

Many of my most popular Peru pictures are pictures of Peruvian food. Here’s a picture of typical Andean food, I believe this was at a wedding party:

This picture was from our trip to Ancon, a beach resort just north of Lima. I can see why this picture would be popular, I mean, just look how good-looking he is 🙂

Of all my popular Peruvian food pictures, this is actually the only one of food that I cooked myself: papi’s world famous salchipapas! Salchipapas are a popular snack in Peru, french fries, fried slices of hot-dog and all the sauces you crave. I like mine just with ketchup.

Here’s a picture of Peru’s national dish: ceviche. We took this on our trip to Huanchaco. I was very sad to learn last week that our friend and host in Trujillo unexpectedly passed away last week. QEPD Sr. Alejandro.

My pictures of the shrine of Señor de Huanca near Pisac are also popular. According to the legend, the shrine of Señor de Huanca is where God made his home among men. It is believed that Señor de Huanca will grant any blessing to those who come with a pure heart. The idea of pure heart is not necessarily the definition that the Roman Catholic church might give, it is simply pure heart. The shrine of Señor de Huanca is a bit of a blend between the traditional Andean religion and the Roman Catholic religion brought to Peru by the Spanish. For any religious or spiritual person, you should not miss a visit to the shrine of Señor de Huanca when you are in Cuzco.

Another picture of the shrine at Señor de Huanca, my beautiful wife and baby at the side of the main Señor de Huanca church building. In the buildings behind them true believers enter to light candles and ask for the blessing of Señor de Huanca.

Another example of the blend of Andean and Roman Catholic influence: Chiriuchu is the typical dish on Corpus Christi. Chiriuchu is the Quechua word for “cold dish”.

More Peruvian food pictures. This soup was cooked by Patricia’s 80-something grandmother, on her fogon, traditional cooking over an open wood-fired flame.

What would all that good food be without a good drink? I don’t have any pictures of Peru’s national drink, Pisco Sour, but here is a picture of another drink more popular in the North of Peru, algarrobina.

Many visitors come to this blog searching for info on Señor de los Milagros. Señor de los Milagros is worshipped in Peru as He is believed to protect Peruvians from earthquakes and other harm. The month of October is month of Señor de los Milagros, during this time there are processions throughout Peru when the image of Señor de los Milagros is carried through any and all neighborhoods. Here is some good background on the origin of Señor de los Milagros.

Another way you will see the blend of Andean and Christian culture is at Christmas, take a look at this typical Andean baby Jesus figure, it looks nothing like the traditional Roman Catholic image of Jesus:

Finally, we haven’t really done much touristy stuff in quite some time but here is a picture of Patricia and some of her friends visiting Choquequirao. It takes 3-4 days hicking (there and back) to visit Choquequirao. Really, you shouldn’t let the picture fool you because even though they all look like tough adventurers here, the truth is all of them are very much city slickers 😉

As I said, I’m not a good picture-taker by any stretch of the imagination. If you are looking for really good Peru pictures, check out Cusquenian’s Flickr page.

Finally, I also upload some of my flying / ferry pilot pictures if you’re into that kind of thing.