PERU:  
     SACRED LANDSCAPES and        ENDURING MYSTERIES

DR. JAMES KUS and ANANDA ASPEN

our trips are private tours

(that is, not sponsored by any organization or university)

anyone is free to join us!!!

Our 2009 tour will be in

late June and early July, 2009


 UPDATE   ...   UPDATE   ...   UPDATE   ...   UPDATE   ...   UPDATE   ...   UPDATE   ...   UPDATE

We've just begun to work on the details of our 2009 Peru tour.  During February and March each year we usually make the final arrangements for our trips -- it's also when we send out notices about the tours to past participants (who have often been our best recruiters -- and several people have gone with us twice!) and when we have our main "advertising" campaign (via announcements on KVPR and at the local archaeology society meeting). 

We have, however, worked out the general outline of our 2009 trip -- this will be our traditional tour, starting with a brief stay in Lima (with an introduction to Peruvian archaeology via a tour of the National Museum), followed by an extended stay in the Cuzco area (with one night at Machu Picchu) and a visit to the Colca Canyon.   As usual, also, we'll have a double focus: Jim will lead tours to archaeological sites while Ananda will emphasize the study of Peruvian schools.  At the end of the trip, we will have an optional tour to the great new archaeological sites and museums that have been recently opened in northern coastal Peru. 

Our plans for 2009 are still flexible -- in recent years, we've been able to tailor our trips to the interests of the participants and we've added stops based on the wishes of the people traveling with us.  Also, our dates and schedule are not yet set in stone -- do not hesitate to contact us if you have special interests or needs that are not specifically accommodated by the preliminary tour itinerary shown on the attached links.   We're also prepared to develop other itineraries within Peru (or Chile and Argentina) for small groups -- we've led tours for groups as small as a single couple.

Please note that we are not running these trips through any organization.  We've done this numerous times in the past -- it gives us more flexibility and certainly reduces the costs of the trip.  We will be working directly with our travel agent in Lima and with our god-daughter, who is a guide in Cuzco.  We are thus able to provide the very best tour possible at a very reasonable price. 

Please contact Dr. Kus for info about the 2009 trips at 559-325-8020 or at:  jamesk@csufresno.edu                                                                                                           updated November 24, 2008

 

Once again, Dr. James Kus and Ananda Aspen will be leading a tour to Peru in 2009.   The focus of our trip will be on archaeology, geography, and history -- our two leaders, both specialists in their fields, will provide you with an exciting and fascinating adventure in the Andean highlands along with a brief introduction to Peru's capital, Lima.  We use very nice hotels on our trips (although not the most expensive!), which makes for a great experience in terms of comfort and convenience, while still keeping costs at a reasonable level.  Check out the rest of this website to learn more about our great tours....

Highlights of our tour will include a number of great lunches and dinners at some really nice restaurants in Cuzco and Urubamba, as well as intimate visits to a weaving center in Chinchero and to a Peruvian family in Ollantaytambo.  We will have special guided tours at several museums and at all archaeological sites that we will visit.  Our visit to the Colca Valley in southern Peru will provide an opportunity to see (and photograph) llamas, alpacas, vicuñas, and condors in the wild.  In sum, this will be a once-in-a-lifetime chance to visit Peru "up close and personal."

 

The trip organizer and tour guide will be Dr. James S. Kus, who recently retired from his position as Professor of Geography at California State University, Fresno, after a thirty six year career in higher education.  Dr. Kus has spent more than seven years in Peru and has directed several archaeology projects there as well as serving as a visiting professor in archaeology at the Pontificia Universidad Catolica in Lima (Peru's leading university).  He has published extensively about Peruvian archaeology (click here to read his Encyclopedia Britannica article on Peru) and has led more than two dozen tours to various parts of Latin America since the early 1970s, including very successful tours to Peru in 1982, 1988, 1998, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, and 2007 (for private groups, California State University, Fresno, the Fresno Art Museum, and the Archaeological Institute of America).  In recent years he has presented lectures on Peruvian archaeology at several universities in California as well as in Oregon, Virginia, Ohio, Illinois, Georgia, Florida, and at the University of British Columbia.

Co-leader for our trip will be Ananda Aspen, autism specialist for the Fresno County Office of Education and director of Early Childhood Education at Fresno Pacific University.  Ananda first traveled to Peru almost thirty years ago; since then she has traveled numerous times to various parts of Latin America (and lived for extended periods in Mexico).  She has made eight trips to Peru in recent years to study Special Education and has provided inservices for teachers working with students with autism in Cuzco.  Ananda is currently finishing her Ed.D. degree through the Joint Doctoral Program at Fresno State/U.C. Davis.

 

We will also be joined on this trip by Natividad Zevallos Sisa, a young Peruvian tour guide who is a native of the town of Ollantaytambo in the Sacred Valley.  Naty has worked with us on previous tours and is an absolute delight -- her knowledge of the people and culture of Peru will be a major addition to this trip, and we are sure that you will fall in love with her.  She spent the 2005-2006 academic year at California State University, Fresno to improve her English proficiency.

After our tour, we will be offering an add-on extension to the North Coast region -- please contact us for more details about this part of the tour (or check out the link below).  

The links below will lead you to:

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This website was created by Dr. John Cagle of the Speech Communications Department at Fresno State.  Revisions for the 2009 tour, continual updates, and any errors are the sole responsibility of James Kus.