Posted in Animals, Environment, Photos, tagged Ballestas Islands, birds, Hotel Paracas, Humboldt penguin, La candelabra, Las Islas Ballestas, Las lineas de Nazca, Nazca Lines, Paracas National Park, Parque Nacional Paracas, pelicans, Peru, photography, photos, sea lions, The Candelabra on June 10, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
A sea lion rests on a rock on one of the small Ballestas Islands.
My family recently returned to the United States from Peru, but before we left we took time to take a wonderful trip to Paracas National Park with my parents. It is located on Peru’s desert coast, about 4 hours south of Lima. I will let the photos speak for themselves, and invite you to look through more on Facebook if you are interested. (more…)
Posted in Environment, Peruvian News, tagged Carhuaz, climate change, earthquakes, electricity, glaciers, global warming, melting glaciers, Pedro Suarez-Vertiz, Peru, tsunamis, video, water, Yungay on April 13, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Global climate change is becoming the threat we all feared in Peru. Independent Television News has posted a video of how a large chunk of ice fell into an Andean lake, triggering a tsunami that may have killed three people.
The location of this disaster, Carhuaz, is very close to where one of the most tragic disasters occurred in modern world history. In 1970, a massive earthquake triggered a landslide that killed an estimated 25,000 people who lived in the city of Yungay.
Posted in Energy, Environment, Peruvian News, tagged alternative energy, biomass, clean energy, climate change, glaciers, global warming, hydroelectric power, micro hydro, Peru, renewable energy, solar, solar energy, solar power, wind, wind energy, wind power on February 17, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Peru may soon become a wind energy giant by developing projects along its extensive coastline. Estimates suggest that coastal wind turbines could produce around 65,000 Megawatts, 15 times the country's current energy needs.
Last week Peru’s government approved wind, solar, micro hydro, and biomass energy projects that will add 500 megawatts of clean, renewable energy, meeting 12% of the current electricity needs of the country.
This is a crucial boost for a country that currently produces 80% of its electricity via hydroelectric power– an uncertain resource of energy going forward. Peru’s Andean glaciers provide most of the water for hydroelectric dams and they are expected to melt by 2022 as a result of global warming and climate change. However, Peru’s El Comercio suggests that in addition to the more well-known alternative energy projects the government has approved, up to 500 megawatts of energy will also be produced by up to 17 small micro hydro projects that might not be dependent on the glaciers. Some of these facilities are already operational but did not have government contracts prior to this time.
Posted in Advertising / Marketing, Peruvian Culture, tagged advertisements, beer, beer commercials, Brahma, Cerveza Brahma, Cerveza Cristal, comercial Yungay, Comerciales Peruanos, commercials, commercials from Peru, Cristal, funny commercials, Peru, Peruvian comercials, videos, Yungay, Yungay commercial on January 9, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Whenever my wife and I come across a television program that highlights funny commercials from around the world we usually watch because they are good for a few laughs. In that spirit I’d like to share several old Peruvian commercials I found on YouTube. I’m sure there are more that I have missed, but I think these are pretty good.
In the first, a young Peruvian man is propositioned by an American girl who is very horny. He doesn’t understand her very well. He thinks she is saying she wants to go to “Yungay,” a city that was once famously and horrifically destroyed by an earthquake in the highlands of Peru. She’s actually saying that she wants “you guy.” This is a clever advertisement for a company offering english courses.
Posted in Animals, Food, tagged Animals, animatronic animals, Food, kids, Kilimanjaro Restaurant Café, Lima, Peru, rainforest, restaurants on December 20, 2009 | 3 Comments »
These elephants move, folks. (Photo by Levi Novey)
About three weeks ago Kilimanjaro Restaurant Café opened in the Lima district of Surco. Decorated like a rainforest, Kilimanjaro Restaurant Café is a thrill for kids. Its large interior features numerous life-size animatronic animals that periodically come to life and put on a show.
My wife and I decided to take our 2 year old daughter this past weekend to check it out. After some early trepidation, our daughter became less nervous and fully embraced the experience (as did many other children). One of the best features of the experience from her point of view had to have been the specially designed animal seats. They aren’t your typical booster seats for children. They allow kids to sit up higher than usual to watch the action. During the show, our daughter got a little scared with the thunder of the simulated rainstorm, but otherwise really enjoyed watching the big animals move and roar. They include a crocodile, giraffe, butterfly, elephants, snake, tiger, gorillas, and monkeys.
Continue reading on Living in Peru
Posted in Environment, Peruvian News, tagged bicycles, Christmas, Christmas Tree, climate change, LED, LED lights, Lima, Peru, San Borja, solar, solar energy, solar power, wind, wind energy, wind power, zero emissions on December 16, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
On Friday I wrote about how the Lima district of San Borja planned to light an eco-friendly Christmas Tree using LED lights, wind power, solar power, and bicycles. As promised, here are several photos of the beautiful tree.
San Borja's eco-friendly Christmas Tree at dusk with its wind turbine in the background. (photo © Levi Novey)
Posted in Environment, Peruvian News, tagged alternative energy, bicycles, Christmas, Christmas Tree, energy, LED lights, Lima, Peru, renewable energy, San Borja, solar energy, solar power, wind energy, wind power, zero emissions on December 13, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Tonight the Lima district of San Borja plans to light an emissions-free Christmas tree in a popular park as part of event called “Magic, Light, and Color: the Energy You Generate.”
The 11 meter high tree will display LED Christmas lights powered by a combination 10 bicycles, a wind turbine, and two small solar panels attached to the turbine. The power from these clean energy sources will be stored in batteries that will help power the tree for the nights to come.
Posted in Peruvian News, tagged beaches, Costa Verde, crime, LarcoMar, Lima, Miraflores, oceans, paragliding, parasailing, Peru, police, surveillance, water safety on December 1, 2009 | 1 Comment »
A paraglider passes over Lima's Costa Verde near the popular LarcoMar shopping center.
My friends over at the news source Living in Peru posted an interesting story last week about how Peru’s police force is planning to conduct regular paragliding patrols over Lima’s 90 beaches this year.
My first thought– “this is cool.”
My second thought– “is it really going to work?” (more…)
Posted in Environment, Peruvian News, tagged Alto Purús National Park, Amazon Rainforest, biodiversity loss, Brazil, climate change, deforestation, Environment, global warming, national park, park ranger, Peru, sustainable development, tropical rainforest on November 25, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
This article was originally published on ecopolitology.org– a website covering the politics of energy and the environment.
While it’s not news to most of us who work in or follow international conservation, Peru’s El Comercio newspaper ran a story today about how only 8 park rangers patrol Alto Purús National Park. Alto Purús is the largest national park in Peru and the third largest in all of South America.
Alto Purús “protects” 2,724,263 hectares of tropical rainforest (~ 6.7 million acres). The math’s not too challenging on this one. That’s almost a million acres for each of the 8 rangers to patrol.
