Peru & South America Blog
A Visit to Pablo Escobar’s Prison, La Catedral, Part III
Posted on December 1st, 2015
From my travel journal: Medellín, Antioquia: My driver and I walk about the prison area, the air fresh from the recent rains, the sun out now, El Poblado like an erector set of pink rectangular skyscrapers set amidst dark green slopes below; we walk past the guard towers, once staffed by guards Escobar had hired, […]
A Visit to La Catedral, Pablo Escobar’s Prison, Part II
Posted on November 22nd, 2015
From my travel journal: Medellín, Antioquia: Pablo [Ochoa] and I arrive on the dirt road finally at the cluster of buildings that used to house Pablo Escobar, his brother and other Medellin Cartel associates. But the road to the buildings is blocked by an empty kiosk and a gate with a chain lock. No one […]
Kon Tiki 2 Rafts Set Sail from Peru for Easter Island
Posted on November 1st, 2015
Kon-Tiki Expedition Raft Trip Revived with Trip to Easter Island Oct 29, 2015 El Comercio (Translated by Kim MacQuarrie) (Note: I met Thor Heyerdahl in 1988 up in Tucume, in northern Peru, as he was excavating among the Moche pyramids. I spent about three days helping him to clear the site and he was a […]
The Author
Kim MacQuarrie
Kim MacQuarrie is a writer, a four-time Emmy-winning documentary filmmaker, and an anthropologist. He was educated in France, the U.S. and Peru. MacQuarrie is the author of four books on Peru and lived in that country for five years. During that time, MacQuarrie lived with a recently-contacted tribe of indigenous Amazonians, called the Yora. It was MacQuarrie's experience filming a nearby group of indigenous people, whose ancestors still remembered their contacts with the Inca Empire, that ultimately led him to investigate and then to write the book, The Last Days of the Incas. Currently, FX Channel is developing the book into a 13-part scripted television series, called Conquistadors. MacQuarrie's latest book is about a 4,500-mile journey, from Colombia to Tierra del Fuego, and is called Life and Death in the Andes: On the Trail of Bandits, Heroes, and Revolutionaries. During the journey, MacQuarrie investigated the lives and stories of Pablo Escobar, Che Guevara, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Charles Darwin, Thor (Kon Tiki) Heyerdahl, and even an Inca "Ice Maiden," sacrificed 500 years ago on top of a 20,000-foot volcano, yet still perfectly preserved. The book will be published by Simon & Schuster on Dec 1, 2015.
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Recommended Tours
Kim recommends the travel operator Latin America for Less and Peru For Less, and has helped design some of their travel itineraries for Peru.