Saturday, January 24, 2015

Learning as we go


One of the advantages of traveling with National Geographic is the opportunity to learn from the group of experts traveling with us. 

While on the plane on our way to Lima we had 2 lectures. The first, by Rob Hernandez, was on the history of Peru, including the many societies that preceded the Incan empire. He briefly told the story of Pizarro and the colonization of the region in South America. We also learned that the potato was one of the exchanges from Peru to the rest of the world-with thousands of varieties cultivated. 

The lecture slides are preloaded on our iPads and we have Boze headsets for the talks. Very elegant arrangements for our own version of University of the Air. 

We had a talk from Jay Dickman, our resident photographer. He commented that more photos are posted on social media in 2 minutes today than were taken in the first 75 years that followed the invention of photography in the 1820's. He also said most people today take snapshots, not photographs. He says a snapshot is about the person/people in the picture and a photograph is about telling a story of the moment to others.





More about the food on the plane:  after the champagne and caviar to welcome us on the plane, they served us lunch. we had poached lobster tail and claw with truffle aioli for our first course (note the fresh pansy garnish) and for seconds, Mike had rack of lamb and and I had a tasty vegetarian potato rosti with kale, quinoa, and wild mushrooms with piquant coulis for lunch. Makes me look forward to our future meals!



They are taking great care of us. We have a plane bag , with slippers and a duvet and a pillow, a big bag of L'Occitane products, NG baseball caps and a copy of the most recent National Geographic member and Traveler's magazines. We have remote receivers with earpieces so we can wander around during our tours. They even gave us each a little packet with a small amount of Peruvian money to use in Lima and Cusco. 

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