Latina America

The end of our tip in Perú, the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu, tourist attraction numéro uno in Perú. We booked through a very good agency called All-Trek Cusco. Our group consisted of six porters, our guide Yanira, Jochem and Sabine, two Dutch people we met in Parácas before, Thomas and me.
First day, we met at 6.30 am and after about four U-turns back to Cusco, the mini-bus finally took us to Ullantabamba, where the porters prepared us a lovely lunch with a matesita de coca to go with it and then we left for the adventurous camino to Machu Picchu. The first day was quite easy, only about two to three hours of walking but I was surprised that our guide was out of breath every time we had to walk up a bit, and she was not pretending! We arrived in the early afternoon and played some card games with Christian, one of the porters, seventeen years old.
The second day was the thoughest. Twelve hundred meters of climbing up to, 4,200 meters, the highest point I have ever been so far. The last half hour was really difficult, because at that altitude you feel you get less oxigen and you have to breath deeper and deeper. But, chewing coca leaves, we got there allright and we were rewarded with a beautiful view as well as with a cold breeze. After a fifteen-minute brake we started to walk 600 meters down again and made it in three hours and fifteen minutes, which is not to bad in my humble opinion. About one hour later, our guide Yanira arrived too and we had lunch. Then we climbed another three hundred meters and walked down for another one and an half hour or so.

The third day was very easy and very short, luckikly, because it was pissing out of heavens all day. Around eleven am we arrived at the campsite with a restaurant where we could sit down, dry our clothes, have a cerveza and even take a shower for the first time. We played cards all afternoon.

The fourth day, we got up at 4 am, to get to the final checkpoint at 5 pm and walk the last two hours. We got to the Intipunku, the sun gate, around 6 and almost immediately continued our way because from the sun gate, Machu Picchu is still quite far away and you get much nicer views when you get closer. Still, people take tons of pictures from the Intipunku. Around 7 am, we arrived at the site that is in the running to be one of the new seven world wonders at http://www.new7wonders.com It was brilliant to get there after four days and the reward was very good.

It is amazing how accurate the Incas could built stone walls with stones so big. And the size of Machu Picchu... The surrounding mountains are stunning, too. Machu Picchu, however touristic it might be, is a must-see for people travelling to South-Peru.

If you have some energy left after el Camino Inca, mount the Wayna Picchu, just next to Machu Picchu. It is a though and steep way up, but it is well worth it, the view you get from there is magnificent and it is nice to spend some time on the New Mountain, high above the Old Mountain.

We walked down to Aguas Calientes, the little village where all tourists arrive by train, and saved six dollars by doing so. The way down through rainforest is very nice and for the first time I saw the butterfly I failed to see in Costa Rica, one of the symbols of C.R. though. It is the one that is black and blue from the inside and looks like a snake head from the outside. It is soo beautiful and oh soo big! In Aguas Calientes, we went to the hot springs, that were only so so and then took the train back to Cusco.

A beautiful experience, el Camino Inca!

Cusco is whitout any doubt the most beautiful city we have seen in Perú. Cusco, el ombligo del mundo, the bellybutton of the world, lies in the sacred valley of the Incas. From the terrace of our hostal, we had a beautiful view on the gorgeous Plaza de Armas so it was quite nice having desayuno (breakfast) there under the ever present sun.

Cusco has many picturesque little streets, sometimes very steep and the remains of the Incas are ever present. It is very nice to walk around for hours, especially in the San Blas bario. A tip for people travelling to Cusco, go and have lunch in el Buen Pastor in the San Blas bario. It is a bakery run by a nun and twelve orphins. It has very nice empanadas, pizzas and of course an overload of pastry. You can eat on the first floor. Do not forget to order a borracho, a tasty chocolate ball with a slight brandy flavour, delicious but quite heavy! The only annoying thing in Cusco is that people never leave you alone. All the time you are boarded by people who want to get you in their restaurant or who want to sell you postcards, souvenirs, tours, weed, cocaine or whatever crap you can imagine. Another little inconvenience could be that there is far less Chifas in Cusco than in Arequipa.

On Tuesday, we went to visit the ruins of Pesac. They are very impresive, but there is a lot of tourists and Peruvian school groups. All of a sudden we became very popular with school girls and we had to pose to be in pictures with girls tons of times, it was good fun. The walk back down from the ruins to Pisac was cool. We met a Frenchman on the way and joined him to a restaurant on the Plaza de Armas. It was way too expensive so we just had a plate of soup and had some empanadas baked in a huge oven from an old woman after. Actually, Pisac is one big market with hundreds of stalls just selling souvenirs, so not really worth going, though the ruins high in the mountains are definetely worth paying a visit. In about an hour, the bus took us from Pisac to the ruins of Qenco for two soles (0.5 euro). They were not very spectacular, especially after having seen the Pisac ruins, but it was a part of the boleto integral we had to buy to get into the Pisac ruins, so it was okay. From Qenco, we walked back to our hostal and we had gorgeous views on Cusco.

On Wednesday, Thomas and I stayed in Cusco, visited the Plaza de Armas and some museums. The museums were boring, but again, they were on the boleto integral. After a nice dinner with Mickey and Kathleen, two nice people from near Ghent, we went to Mama Africa, the place to be for tourists who want to go out. Around midnight it got just crowded enough and Thomas and I met two very nice and beautiful girls from Lima, sisters, Cindyta and Claudita, it was a good night dancing!

Next morning, after only a few hours of sleep, we woke up in panic at 8.45 am, because we had to be on the Plaza de Armas at 9.00 am to go rafting. Running the steep streets down to the centre we just made it in time. A mini-bus took us to the Urubamba river where we did a two-hour raft of category two to three. It was quite easy, but good fun. At night, we went to a Peruvian-Mexican restaurant where we took the 10 soles-menu (2.5 euros) that consisted of tacos, garlic bread with Pisco sour, a soup or a salad, a main plate and coffee, very good price-quality. We went to bed quite early because next day we had to get up early to start the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu.

Puno is worth visiting just for its huge market, you can walk on it for hours without passing the same stall. Next to vegetables, fruits and actually all you can think of, it also has very cheap woven hats and finger puppets. You can buy meat and even fish that is just lying there, without any ice, nothing. It is well woth taking a walk on the market, if you want to buy cheap souvenirs, this is the place to be and there is a lot of people walking around in traditional, very colourful clothes. But the main reason why the pedestrian street in the centre of Puno is crowded with tourists is because of the Lago Titicaca, the highest navigavable (is that an English word?) lake in the world, on the border of Perú and Bolivia. (Krickske, m´n kaart begint mooi vol te geraken, het hoogste punt van Panamá, de grootste steen ter wereld, het hoogst bevaarbare meer ter wereld, de diepste canyon en binnenkort de hoogste hoofdstad, knip, knip, knip, knip, knip)

Early in the morning, we took the boat out to the Islas Flotantes, floating islands made of reed. It was worth seeing, very bequtiful, but again, it was such a touristy thing!

After a little trip in a reed boat to another isla flotante, the boat took us to Amantani, a big island on the lake, with 4,000 people living on it. We were served lunch in a family, where we would spend the night, too, together with Ziggy and his girlfriend from Leipzig. Then, we walked up to the summit of the island, 200 meters higher than the lake, probably the first time I ever got over 4,000 meter on foot! The sunset was nice but it got very cold the moment the sun was gone. In the evening, we had to put on some traditional clothes and go for some traditional dance and contrary to my expectations it was actually quite fun. Our hostes´s daughter, Virginia, was not getting tired and every time the band started a new song, she was there again to invite us to dance. By the way, if you take the tour to the islands on the lake, make sure you do not get a guide called Zack, he is very annoying, wants to be in the centre of attention all the time and he has got very bad English.

Next day we went to Taquile, a nice island half an hour from Amantani, and walked up to the top again. We had a good lunch, trucha con arroz, of course, with a gorgeous view on the Lago Titicaca. All the time, the sky was chrystal clear and the sun was doing its best to a degree that the four English women and a German bloke on our boat got burned heavily.

Then, four hours back to Puno where we had a quarter chicken with chips, lettuce and tomatoes for 5 soles (1.25 euros), very tasty and no tourists there, loads of locals though. El rancho is the name. Night bus to Cusco, with a semi-cama and loads of space for the legs and still we did not sleep well.

Hasta pronto!

Arequipa was definetely the nicest city we had seen in Peru that far. For people travelling to South-Peru, I suggest you do the tour in the direction we did, that is from Lima, Pisco, Nasca, Arequipa, Puno and the Lago Titicaca, Cusco, Lima. Not only do cities become more beautiful that way, but you always go up in altitude as well, which makes that you get used to the altitude easier. For people doing the Camina Inca to Machu Picchu this is really important as you get to about 4,200 meters above sea level doing it, Puno is at about 3,800 meters.

Arequipa, yes, Arequipa is a nice city with a beautiful Plaza de Armas, good restaurants and a nice bario a bit outside the centre, Yarahuana. The Sanata Catalina Monastery is worth a visit very much.

If you go to Arequipa, go to a hostel called el Cansado del Fondador. It is a brilliant hostel on Jérusalen, just in front of La casa de mi abuela,which is in all travel guides. The hostel has beautiful spacious rooms with gorgeous wooden floors and with private bathroom and television. The building is very beautiful, too, and when it will be completely renovated, in about two years, it will be gorgeous with a cool terrace overlooking Arequipa on the third floor. People going to Arequipa, go there! It is twenty dollars for a double room, breakfast included and it is well worth it. Say hi to Marie-Louse from Thomas and me!

From Arequipa, you can travel to the Colca Cañon, the deepest canyon in the world! The Gran Cañon is only about 1,000 meters deep whereas the Colca Cañon is well over 3,000 at its deepest!

The trip from Arequipa to the canyon is long and the road is very bad and dusty, but it is well worth it. After about 4 hours you arrive in Chivay and after that, it is another 1.5 or 2 h of bussing. After the tiring trip, we first had a lovely lunch in a traditional restaurant and then started walking down into the canyon. It is so beautiful in there! We could see the oasis with micro-climate where we would walk the next day from above, it was gorgeous.

Our guide, Patricia, was lovely and a good cook too. First day was only a few hours of walking, and always down, so we arrived early and thus had time to play cards with our fellow travellers, Fleure and Chris, two Aussies and Felix and Cas, two Britons on their honneymoon. The second day, a two-hour walk took us to the oasis, where we had all afternoon to relax in the sun and swim in the natural springs, it was lovely.

Thomas and I went for some more walking and saw a male and female condor circling above the canyon, it was a spectacular sight! The 3d day, we got up around 4 am to start the though walk back up, 1,100 meters up in the moonlight.

By the time the sun got up, we had a gorgeous view of the canyon again. We had breakfast and then took the bus to el Mirador del Condor where there were busloads of tourists waiting to catch a glimps of the mighty birds. Unfortunately, we only saw two very far away, so it was not really worth it. Overall, the Colca Cañon was amazing, people travelling to Arequipa should not miss it. Take out three days to do it though, do not take the one- or two-day trips as you will be on the bus most of the time and you will hardly get any hiking.

Take care all of you

Peace out

Nasca as a city is not very interesting. Again, there is the Plaza de Armas to have a look at, but that is about it. Nasca is very known, though, for its lines. There are about three hundred figures drawn in the sand of the Nasca desert, amongst them a figure of a monkey, a spider, a humming bird, a dog, hands etc.
Up to today, it is still not very clear how the Incas could have drawn the figures with such an accuracy, some of the figures are over fifty meters long. Of course, some people came up with alien theories as well. The lines are in danger because locos sometimes drive over them with motorbikes to get in contact with creatures from outer space. Another threat is the pollution. Nowadays, you can get up to five years in prison for destroying them! Another thing, the Panamerican motorway runs right through one of the figures.

Anyway, the lines are best viewed from the air, well actually, they can only be seen from the air, except for two or three which can be seen from a mirador. This fact convinced some people that the incas could fly in the air some way, for example using hot air balloons. After about three hours of waiting, we finally got into the air for a 35 minute tour high above the lines. The pilote always flew over the figures from the right as well from the left, so all people in the six passenger-plane could watch the lines. Only one of the passengers was throwing up all the time.

Before all that, we had already been to el Cementerio de Chauchillas which is set in a dramatic desert landscape surrounded by mountains. It has some graves where you can watch bones, hair and ceramics.

Now a bit more about Pervian cuisine. The food here is quite good and not expensive at all. One of our favourites are the Chifas, Chinese restaurants where you can get a menu consisting of a noodle soup and a massive plate of nazi goreng with chips and vegetables for three to five soles, which is about 0,70 to 1,30 euros! You can order a Chicha to go with it. Chicha is a drink made of black mais, it is also called mais beer although it contains no alcohol. Other restaurants usually offer menus for about 10 soles (about 2,70 euros) including a vegetable or pasta soup or salad and than an alpaca steak with rice or a trucha a la plancha (trout) or a spaghetti. If you are lucky, you get a soft drink to go with it. A good choice is the Inca Cola, a very yellow drink that tastes a bit like chewing gum. Beers are quite okay, there are a lot of brands, like Cuzqueña, Arequipeña etc. but I prefer the Cristal beer

Puno is said to be the chicken city, but we have not had chicken so far, a lot of trucha though, which is always tasty. Tonight might be the night we are going to have chicken for the first time at El Rancho in Puno, 5 soles (1,30 euros) for a quarter chicken con arroz, papas fritas y verduras!
A tip for people travelling to Peru: do not order a la carte cause it is much more expensive than a menu. The plates you can order a la carte seem to be designed for tourists only!
We only still have to try the guinea pigs and the ceviche!

Take care, polare, que les vayan bien!