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About Trek!Peru
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The map opposite shows the twenty five routes which are described in the guide. Together, they make a network that covers the coast and Andes, with a number of excursions into the jungle regions.
Each of these routes is described in a document which consists of one or more
maps and something in the order of 12-20 A4 page-equivalents of text, all coupled
to 50-300 full screen images. These are organised in photo essays, so clicking
on a thumbnail takes you into a long sequence showing, for example, a ceremony
or an archaeological site.
All of these are unique to the guide, having been have been taken by our staff.
What you see are selected from the database of around 50,000 photographs which
were taken in the course of the project.
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The image which is shown below is a fragment from one of these route guides,
complete with a thumbnail image of the sort discussed above. In the guide itself
(but not here!) clicking on such a thumbnail leads to a sequence of large (1024
x 768 pixel) images, describing the area, its peoples and customs. Almost all of
the images are annotated, so you can get a commentary on them by moving your mouse
onto the right part of the screen. (There are examples of such images here.)
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Please note that the guide is full of links to specialised topics - here to fishing,
for example - and people find that they spend as much time roving around as they
do on a new video game! We have organised the guide so that you can come at a topic such as shamanism head-on through a lengthy, expert discussion, or else obliquely, by reference to the topic through links of this sort. Often, one finds that one wants a summary after absorbing a lot of detail, and issues such as archaeology are also organised in this way.
All texts can be printed out, and this way you can create your own custom guide
book once you have decided what you want to do. It is up to you whether you print
them in colour or not, or on little A5 pages or big A4 ones. As much as possible
has been left open to customisation.
Once you have opened the guide, you will find that you can roam about in may
ways. For example, the map shown above is interactive - in the guide! - and your
mouse will bring up short description of each route. A click, and you are there.
Alternatively, you can use another utility which selects random images from the
database. If you like one, click it and you are taken to the description from which it came. Many
users seem to enjoy this more than a structured approach. Third, you can look at
maps of the country - showing its ecology, for example - and a click takes you
to the relevant route description.
The guide software also recalls where you got to in your last session, and give you the option of jumping back there when you start it up again. Floating menus run along side while you read, allowing you the freedom to print, exit, jump more or less anywhere in the guide or just set the thing aside for a while.
