Peru

And so I moved on to Peru. Got there by bus from Guayaquil. Writing about it… It seems like ages ago. Back in Curacao I met the sweetest girl, Femke, and she flew over from Curacao to Peru to see what backpacking really is about.:-) When she arrived we stayed in Lima for just 2 days before we went on a trip recommended by the friendly hostel owners from HQ villa in Peru. (cool place!) From Lima we took an early bus to Nazca. We arrived to the small town at 16.00h. We raced to the small local airport and got in a small 6 person air plain taking us over the Nazca sites in 35 minutes, the last flight of the day. The Nazca lines, according to some made by aliens, where nice to see and the flight over the site was roller coaster worthy. Although it might have been a better idea to read about it first, for all we knew it looked like it could have been made just a year ago as a tourist trap. Maybe we should have stayed here for the night but we decided to take a night bus to Arequipa. Arequipa is a very nice old town and has close to it the Colca canyon. We took a day tour to the canyon departing 02.30h in the morning…. (so again no sleep) The canyon was nice and amazing where the Condors flying around. Very cool. Not spotting from a big distance as I would have expected, they came over so close you could hear the sound of the wind on their massive wings. The trip there brought us to an altitude of as high as 4900m. This was very cold and altitude sickness was pretty much inevitable, but on a day trip doable. The next day we took an other night bus, this to Cuzco. (again no sleep) Cuzco, as one of the highest cities in the world, lies at 3300m. Upon arrival we were both pretty much dead already. We both got fever and diarrhea, probably worsened by the altitude sickness, nice…. welcome to backpacking, ahum. In Cuzco we met with two friends of Femke and together with them booked a guided 4 day tour. Because of this we only had one day to get better and unfortunately we didn’t. We drugged ourselves with medicine through the first day which was worse for Femke than for me. Must have been the altitude sickness again because we were brought to an altitude of 4800m or so. At that altitude we started a massive downhill on a mountain bike. Me eating coca leaves and Femke drugged and having smelled pure alcohol (according to the driver good for altitude sickness) we started the ATB trip. Quite surprisingly it got to be a very nice trip. When we got lower Femke felt better and better and the roads and views were amazing. Also being on bicycle for hours without the need to pedal was nice. The second day we had to hike from 0700h to 1700h with about 2,5h pause in total. 28 kilometer according to my GPS, but with some steep climbs and just a hard day walking/hiking. Day 3 was hiking again. We were told we could take a taxi if needed, but when the need arose we were told that would only help us as much as 1 hour of walking. And so another day of hard hiking while not feeling to well needed to be done. The last day we explored the ancient Inca city Machu Picchu. We also climbed up the mountain behind it, Wayna Picchu, to have a nice overview over the site. (only 400 persons a day are allowed to do this, so come very early if you want to do this on a MP trip) The MP ruins are very nice, although not decorated as for example Asian ruins. The beauty of the place is for a part the history of it and the absolute remote place on a mountain where the ruins are located. Just sitting there is already amazing. The mountains are so beautiful, the river flowing very low beneath, its all very impressive. Peru is a nice traveling country with a lot to offer. I didn’t know so much about it but it surprised me and I recommend it for sure as a traveling destination. The buildings made by the Spanish are beautiful. The food is good, the clothes worn by people living remote are as in guide books, the lamas, other animals, mountains… I really liked it. After the tour Femke went back to Curacao and I stayed in Cuzco for 2 more days. I did some (very mild) white water rafting on the first day, and on mothers day, the 9th of May, I picked up my mother from Cuzco airport. She was in Peru for research and of course we met up. We spend the better part of the day at the a bar/restaurant at the Plaza de Armas, and after dinner it was time for me to get on the bus to La Paz, Bolivia.

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