Dear friends,
just a very short message to tell you that I arrived safely and - after Delhi and Agra (visit of the Taj Mahal) - I have now arrived in Jaipur, the capital of Rajasthan. Internet access is not easy to find here in India and generally quite slow and expensive. Organising my trip also takes much more time than I would ever have imagined... trains are 5 hours late, buses break down or the last bus to somewhere leaves 1.5 hours earlier than indicated and you are in some lost place, it is dark and you have to find a way to get back the almost 40 km to the city where your hotel is (to mention just the major difficulties I have experienced so far...). But to be clear: as the experienced traveller I have become, I always managed in one way or another... For the rest, the country is extremely interesting and I have already seen very beautiful things - above all the Taj Mahal.
All this just to explain, why there is not much so far on this blog. I also do not want to promise that I will be able to keep up with the standards I had set during my last trips... Let's see.. I might have some time tomorrow night.. for the moment I am trying to find out what I will do tonight (new year's eve..), which is also much more complicated than I had thought...
For all those I had promised my Indian mobile number, I will just make the information public and suppose that only those of you will call / sms who had asked me the number to get in touch... but, well, if you want, feel free... ;o) : 0091-96.49.078.125.
I wish you all a good start into the new year !!
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Friday, December 19, 2008
Up to new adventures: India
I am up to new adventures: This time; I will go to India from 27 December 08 to 17 January 09. I will start in Delhi, then go to Agra (Taj Mahal) and then make a tour around Rajasthan. I wish all of you a happy new year and hope to see you soon !!
Jürgen
Jürgen
Thursday, September 4, 2008
Selection of Photos - Best of ...
I finally made a selection and managed to get the numbers down to 500 picture in total.
Here is the link to the "Best of album":
http://picasaweb.google.com/muellju/BestOfPeruAndBolivia?authkey=hYRrzjKCvPY
Here is the link to the "Best of album":
http://picasaweb.google.com/muellju/BestOfPeruAndBolivia?authkey=hYRrzjKCvPY
Friday, August 15, 2008
Lima and then back home
Just to tell everybody that in the meanwhile I arrived safely in Brussels (this morning). I still had a nice time in Lima although the city is not that fascinating.. I visited the main sites: again, a plaza the armas, with a presidential palace (where I watched the daily change of the guard at noon.. almost like in Buckingham Palace... ;-) ) and a cathedral (less impressive than many others as relatively young given the destruction of the previous one during an earthquake..). There is more left of the colonial past than in La Paz though even if only a very small part of the centre is nicely restored.. Quite nice was the San Francisco Monastery with its crypt, where more than 100.000 people are buried (of which there are only bones and skulls left that are actually displayed..), and a room with a series of beautiful Rubens paintings.. (at least from his "atelier"). After that I walked around in town, through the streets and the market area (which I found fascinating - as always.. It seems that I really have a thing for markets.. just in Brussels I never go there because once I am up on the weekends, they are usually already over..;-)). By chance I discovered the former buildings of the old University, with 5 beautiful patios, where I went through with a student who made a guided tour.. quite nice.. I had a hotel for one night in the area of Miraflores, which is quite a bit away from the centre, but the centre is really not nice to stay in .. especially at night.. Miraflores, on the contrary, is quite a chic and bourgeois area, with nice bars and restaurants and trendy "Limeños". I had some very good Ceviche in the evening... that was just sooo good, but also quite spicy because of the Chili in the marinade.. the fish was fresh and the portion quite abundant... I would say at least the double of what I had in Arequipa... it was served with sweet potatoe and corn.
On my second day in Lima, I stayed in Miraflores and took it very easy, as I wanted to rest a bit on my last day and before going on my 24 hours trip back to Brussels... I went to nice shops (there is quite a fancy shopping centre built on the rocks falling into the ocean with very nie ocean-views...), bought some Peruvian CDs and books, was sitting in nice cafés, chatting with some people.. while having lunch I met Steven as he asked whether he could sit at my table, a young Peruvian who works for a travel agency and studies in the evening economy/tourism. We had quite an interesting chat about lots of things and it was interesting that he had similar ideas than myself about the country's development / potential. The country will certainly change with this new generation (actually quite a banal of a statement as all societies change with each generation, no ? But given the developent stage of Peru, the change will probably be more important than in Western European countries...). I had also spoken quite a bit to one of the employees of the hotel in Cusco (where I stayed more than a week, so there is time to chat from time to time...) and he was a real admirer of Germany, which he considers as areal example to folow concerning the way Germans have rebuit their country after the second World War. He thinks that Peruvians shoud have the same discipline and will to tochange their country.. While following this kind o philosophy himself, he wahowever less optimistic about the will of his fellow countrymen...But he was determined to stay in Peru and to try to change things.. He also wants to learn German, but it seems that there is no possibility to do so in Cusco... Well, all the talking and chatting had quie a positive effect on my Spanish which was slowly coming back to a decent level I would say...
Oh, a propos change, or better: no change: you remember that I had written about the referendum campaign in Bolivia? Finally President Evo Morales won the referendum quite clearly (he go tmore than 65 % it seems) and will therefore stay in office. At the same time, most of the regional governors (which are the most important opponents to Morales), which Morales wanted to get rid of through the referendum, were however confirmed as well.. So the situation will more or less stay unchanged. The government already announced a further referendum for next year on a change of the constitution.
Around 21h30, I went to the airport (which took 1 hour because of traffic !!) because my flight was at 00h25 and I wanted to be there early.. However, I was almost the last one toarrive and there was an enormous queue.. it took ages to get through and then there was also a huge line for the emigration procedure and the security check.. I thought I would miss my flight, but the supervisor at the emigration was extremely cool and even 10 minutes before my flight should have left he said that there was no problem and that I should just wait.. In fact, in the end, he was right as the fight was 30 lminutes late... still, I got a bit stressed about everything and was happy once I was on board.. Before I wanted still to get rid of my about 90 soles, which I had kept in order to pay the airport tax that everybody told me I have to pay but which was finally already incuded in my ticket.. there was no way of changing the soles back to dollars.. (strangely enough). Then I wanted to buy duty free stuff but they did not accept it as they have to carry the items to the gates and as my flight was already supposed to leave by that time, they did not want to do it.. I started playing the victim and insisted with the ladies who finally accepted to make an exception and to bring the nice bottle of Pisco that I then bought still to the gate.. Ouff!! I had already bought a bottle in the supermarket, but Pisco Sours are so good, so I cannot get enough of original Peruvian Pisco as the basic ingredient.. the problem was however later in Atlanta, where I transited, but needed to go through another security check (why? don't ask mee... but it seems that this also happes in other non-US aiports..) and I was not allowed to carry liquids in the aircraft !!!! Even if it was a duty free item from another airport which was still sealed and had the documentation. How stupid is that ??? I was so mad and started arguing with the security people, but no way. They wanted to oblige me to give away my Pisco-bottle.. but they do not you my determination!! I refused to let it there and went back to a Delta-Airlines-transfer desk and asked a very nice lady for help.. she shared my view that these rules were extremely stupid and said that this happenend every day several times.. She finally found a little paper box, which I taped together and we put the bottle in and she checked it in for me... Very nice.. !! In an act of heroism, I was able to defend my bottle of Pisco against the evil US-security guards.. oh, and by the way: there are new immigration rules (even compared to 4 weeks before when I transited through Atlanta on my way to Lima): instead of two fingerprints and a photo, they now take ALL (!!!) your fingerprints: first 4 fingers of the right hand, then right thumb, then other 4 fingers of the left and then the left thumb..anfd then smile forthe photo.. and then they put signs on their desks and write on it "Keeping America's doors open and our nation secure". Bravo is the ony thing I can say..! and another cultural shock: There were several announcements informing all passengers that a plane with 350 US-soldiers coming from 18 months service in Iraq had just landed and everybody was asked to applaud and welcome them and thank them "for the great service they did for the American nation". And indeed when the soldiers walked through immigration, everybody clapped and cheered.. I was not the only one in the "non-US-citizens" line being a bit puzzled... I really wonder what kind of service these soldiers do for their NATION in Iraq.. but well, I won't start a discussion on this here.. During the 7 hours which I had to wait in Atlanta, I read the whole book "The Alchemist" by Paulo Coelho, which is quite a simple story, but also thought-provoking I have to say..
Now I am back in Brussels, a bit jet-lagged and thought I should finish the blog before leaving for another week to Zeeland with my sister and her kids (among which my new nephew Jonas, that I just saw for the first time.. !!) Unfortunately, I still need to upload my last pictures (nto many as there was not much to see in Lima as I had already said..) and I still owe you the story of the Incas and Machu Picchu as well as some facts and figures.. This will now have to wait for another week.. apologies for this.. ;-)
Hope to see you all soon !!
On my second day in Lima, I stayed in Miraflores and took it very easy, as I wanted to rest a bit on my last day and before going on my 24 hours trip back to Brussels... I went to nice shops (there is quite a fancy shopping centre built on the rocks falling into the ocean with very nie ocean-views...), bought some Peruvian CDs and books, was sitting in nice cafés, chatting with some people.. while having lunch I met Steven as he asked whether he could sit at my table, a young Peruvian who works for a travel agency and studies in the evening economy/tourism. We had quite an interesting chat about lots of things and it was interesting that he had similar ideas than myself about the country's development / potential. The country will certainly change with this new generation (actually quite a banal of a statement as all societies change with each generation, no ? But given the developent stage of Peru, the change will probably be more important than in Western European countries...). I had also spoken quite a bit to one of the employees of the hotel in Cusco (where I stayed more than a week, so there is time to chat from time to time...) and he was a real admirer of Germany, which he considers as areal example to folow concerning the way Germans have rebuit their country after the second World War. He thinks that Peruvians shoud have the same discipline and will to tochange their country.. While following this kind o philosophy himself, he wahowever less optimistic about the will of his fellow countrymen...But he was determined to stay in Peru and to try to change things.. He also wants to learn German, but it seems that there is no possibility to do so in Cusco... Well, all the talking and chatting had quie a positive effect on my Spanish which was slowly coming back to a decent level I would say...
Oh, a propos change, or better: no change: you remember that I had written about the referendum campaign in Bolivia? Finally President Evo Morales won the referendum quite clearly (he go tmore than 65 % it seems) and will therefore stay in office. At the same time, most of the regional governors (which are the most important opponents to Morales), which Morales wanted to get rid of through the referendum, were however confirmed as well.. So the situation will more or less stay unchanged. The government already announced a further referendum for next year on a change of the constitution.
Around 21h30, I went to the airport (which took 1 hour because of traffic !!) because my flight was at 00h25 and I wanted to be there early.. However, I was almost the last one toarrive and there was an enormous queue.. it took ages to get through and then there was also a huge line for the emigration procedure and the security check.. I thought I would miss my flight, but the supervisor at the emigration was extremely cool and even 10 minutes before my flight should have left he said that there was no problem and that I should just wait.. In fact, in the end, he was right as the fight was 30 lminutes late... still, I got a bit stressed about everything and was happy once I was on board.. Before I wanted still to get rid of my about 90 soles, which I had kept in order to pay the airport tax that everybody told me I have to pay but which was finally already incuded in my ticket.. there was no way of changing the soles back to dollars.. (strangely enough). Then I wanted to buy duty free stuff but they did not accept it as they have to carry the items to the gates and as my flight was already supposed to leave by that time, they did not want to do it.. I started playing the victim and insisted with the ladies who finally accepted to make an exception and to bring the nice bottle of Pisco that I then bought still to the gate.. Ouff!! I had already bought a bottle in the supermarket, but Pisco Sours are so good, so I cannot get enough of original Peruvian Pisco as the basic ingredient.. the problem was however later in Atlanta, where I transited, but needed to go through another security check (why? don't ask mee... but it seems that this also happes in other non-US aiports..) and I was not allowed to carry liquids in the aircraft !!!! Even if it was a duty free item from another airport which was still sealed and had the documentation. How stupid is that ??? I was so mad and started arguing with the security people, but no way. They wanted to oblige me to give away my Pisco-bottle.. but they do not you my determination!! I refused to let it there and went back to a Delta-Airlines-transfer desk and asked a very nice lady for help.. she shared my view that these rules were extremely stupid and said that this happenend every day several times.. She finally found a little paper box, which I taped together and we put the bottle in and she checked it in for me... Very nice.. !! In an act of heroism, I was able to defend my bottle of Pisco against the evil US-security guards.. oh, and by the way: there are new immigration rules (even compared to 4 weeks before when I transited through Atlanta on my way to Lima): instead of two fingerprints and a photo, they now take ALL (!!!) your fingerprints: first 4 fingers of the right hand, then right thumb, then other 4 fingers of the left and then the left thumb..anfd then smile forthe photo.. and then they put signs on their desks and write on it "Keeping America's doors open and our nation secure". Bravo is the ony thing I can say..! and another cultural shock: There were several announcements informing all passengers that a plane with 350 US-soldiers coming from 18 months service in Iraq had just landed and everybody was asked to applaud and welcome them and thank them "for the great service they did for the American nation". And indeed when the soldiers walked through immigration, everybody clapped and cheered.. I was not the only one in the "non-US-citizens" line being a bit puzzled... I really wonder what kind of service these soldiers do for their NATION in Iraq.. but well, I won't start a discussion on this here.. During the 7 hours which I had to wait in Atlanta, I read the whole book "The Alchemist" by Paulo Coelho, which is quite a simple story, but also thought-provoking I have to say..
Now I am back in Brussels, a bit jet-lagged and thought I should finish the blog before leaving for another week to Zeeland with my sister and her kids (among which my new nephew Jonas, that I just saw for the first time.. !!) Unfortunately, I still need to upload my last pictures (nto many as there was not much to see in Lima as I had already said..) and I still owe you the story of the Incas and Machu Picchu as well as some facts and figures.. This will now have to wait for another week.. apologies for this.. ;-)
Hope to see you all soon !!
Monday, August 11, 2008
More Inca ruins and the Sixtine Chapel of the Americas
Yesterday I went to visit 4 more Inca ruins close to Cusco. I took a bus to Tambomachay, the first one of the 4 ruins ç, which is about 8 km uphill from Cusco and then I walked down to the other ruins and then back to Cusco. Tambomachay is a ceremonial stone bath and therefore also called "el baño del Inca". The next ruin, Pukapukara (trqanslated as "red fort" becuase of the reddish stones it is built of..), was a small commanding structure looking down on the Cusco valley. After that the Lonely planet suggested some "off the beaten track" walk down to the next ruins of Q'Enqo (meaning "zigzag" because of its zigzag-shaped stone channels... As suggested in my wise guidebook I asked two different people for the indications for this little walk and their indications luckily converged, which did not mean that it was easy to find.. quite on the contrary.. very quickly I could not see any track anymore and I started to improvise.. after a while I was completely lost and more or less tried to figure out where the ruinbs should be and then walked straight through the fields, over rocks, through riverbeds, etc.. I was however not too worried as I had plenty of time.. I nevertheless started hiding my money in different pockets as my clever guidebook had also said not to do this alone as people repeatedly got mugged on their way.. But O had no choice, there was nobody else to accompany me anyway.. At some point I saw, far away, somebody walking down a path.. I was not sure whether to approach or to hide (could be some robber...;-) ) In the end I figured out that it was another tourist who also climed down some rocks as he had finally found the right path.. so I followed him.. I was quite glad when I finally arrived at the ruins after 1 hour insted of the 30 minutes... but it could have ended much much worse..no ? Q'enqo has subterranean caves with altars carved in the rocks for Lama offereings to Pachamama. The zigzag channels on the top (which visitors are now unfortunately unable to see as you are not allowed anymore to climb up the rocks..) serbçved most probably for ceremonial offereings of Chicha, the traditional corn-beer, also to Pachamama.
After this succesful mission, I went on to the next and main site: Saqsayhuaman, or as tourists and locals often say"sexy woman" as it is easier to pronounce... This is a huge siteof both religious and military importance. It was where the rebeliious Manco Inca fled during the uprising against the Spanish conquistadores in 1536. Even if it looked as if the rebellion woulkd be succesful, the Incas finally lost and Manco Inca was decapitated...The most striking element of the ruins is the zig-zag shaped fortifications with one stone weighing 300 tonnes !! The fortress was supposed to represent the head of the puma and the zigzag wall his teeth, but the walls also constituted quite an effective defence mechanism.
After this succesful mission, I went on to the next and main site: Saqsayhuaman, or as tourists and locals often say"sexy woman" as it is easier to pronounce... This is a huge siteof both religious and military importance. It was where the rebeliious Manco Inca fled during the uprising against the Spanish conquistadores in 1536. Even if it looked as if the rebellion woulkd be succesful, the Incas finally lost and Manco Inca was decapitated...The most striking element of the ruins is the zig-zag shaped fortifications with one stone weighing 300 tonnes !! The fortress was supposed to represent the head of the puma and the zigzag wall his teeth, but the walls also constituted quite an effective defence mechanism.
After haviong walked all back to the Cusco, I visitd the Museum for Pre-columbian Art with a small but extremely exclusive collection of pottery, silver, gold and shells. The museum is located on the very cute plazoleta Nazarena, where I had a nice lemon cake, a coffee and a half a liter of a freshly squeezed tropical fruit juice... yummiee!
In the evening (it was saturday !!!) I checked out the local nightlife and went to the disco "La tentación", located in a popular area of Cusco and not a place for tourists.. the main discos in the centre are just packed with tourists and mostly too expensive for locals.. La tentacion was quite different.. not fancy at all , to say the least: extremely basic, in the cellar of a hotel.. but the music and the people were just great.. Except for a Mexican guy and his friend, it seemed as if I was the only tourist... Ad they only had one liter beer bottles, I started sharing bottles with people and we danced like crazy to a fun mix of Peruvian and international music.. but definetely a lot of Latin American rhythms.. ;-) I got back at 4 am and it took me a while to wake up the night guard of the hotel, whom I had specifically asked before whether it is a problem to come home late / early..
Today, I therefore only got up at 11h30.. after some good breakfast on the main plaza, I walked to a supposed bs stop for buses to go to Andahuaylillas, a little village 45 km from Cusco with the "Sixtine Chapel of the Americas", an extremely richly decorated church with lots of frescoes... I walked and walked, asked at least 10 people one after the other and everybody told me that it was just another 2 or 3 blocks further even if I had walked already more than 10 !! I was getting angry with myself that I did not get a taxi (which costs 75 Euro-cents !!!).. Eventually, after a 40 minutes walk and almost desperate I found the stop and got on the bus..
Andahuaylillas is a very quiet place and there was not much going on while I walked through its streets in order to get to the church.. The church is located on the very idyllic main square with huge flowering trees.. I visited the church and profited from the guide of a small group of Brits and admired the amazing interior of the church. There is literally no space in the whole church which is not covered by a frescoe, an oil painting or a golden altar.. even the whole ceiling is fully painted in very rich coulours... The church dates from the 16th century and was successively decorated until the end of the 17th century.. When I was about to get out of the church I almost got a shock: the very quaint main square had suddenly transformed into a bus terminal with at least 15 tour-buses, and hords wanting to get into the church.. I was so glad that I had arrived before and could still be in peace...
In the evening (it was saturday !!!) I checked out the local nightlife and went to the disco "La tentación", located in a popular area of Cusco and not a place for tourists.. the main discos in the centre are just packed with tourists and mostly too expensive for locals.. La tentacion was quite different.. not fancy at all , to say the least: extremely basic, in the cellar of a hotel.. but the music and the people were just great.. Except for a Mexican guy and his friend, it seemed as if I was the only tourist... Ad they only had one liter beer bottles, I started sharing bottles with people and we danced like crazy to a fun mix of Peruvian and international music.. but definetely a lot of Latin American rhythms.. ;-) I got back at 4 am and it took me a while to wake up the night guard of the hotel, whom I had specifically asked before whether it is a problem to come home late / early..
Today, I therefore only got up at 11h30.. after some good breakfast on the main plaza, I walked to a supposed bs stop for buses to go to Andahuaylillas, a little village 45 km from Cusco with the "Sixtine Chapel of the Americas", an extremely richly decorated church with lots of frescoes... I walked and walked, asked at least 10 people one after the other and everybody told me that it was just another 2 or 3 blocks further even if I had walked already more than 10 !! I was getting angry with myself that I did not get a taxi (which costs 75 Euro-cents !!!).. Eventually, after a 40 minutes walk and almost desperate I found the stop and got on the bus..
Andahuaylillas is a very quiet place and there was not much going on while I walked through its streets in order to get to the church.. The church is located on the very idyllic main square with huge flowering trees.. I visited the church and profited from the guide of a small group of Brits and admired the amazing interior of the church. There is literally no space in the whole church which is not covered by a frescoe, an oil painting or a golden altar.. even the whole ceiling is fully painted in very rich coulours... The church dates from the 16th century and was successively decorated until the end of the 17th century.. When I was about to get out of the church I almost got a shock: the very quaint main square had suddenly transformed into a bus terminal with at least 15 tour-buses, and hords wanting to get into the church.. I was so glad that I had arrived before and could still be in peace...
It was just a short excursion, but exactly the right thing to do after a night out partying... Once I got back to Cusco, I took a taxi (!!!) back to the center and did some souvenir shopping.. yes, time is running out.. ;-)Photos VII
Here is the link of today's photos, almost the last ones as I have only 2 days left in Lima and unfortunately I am lagging behind with my text... sorry guys, I am quite busy... ;-)
http://picasaweb.google.com/muellju/Peru8?authkey=Fx-Sp5rqavg
http://picasaweb.google.com/muellju/Peru8?authkey=Fx-Sp5rqavg
Sunday, August 10, 2008
Photos VI
Here are today's photos.. only 26 of them... ;-) but some cute Lamas / Alpacas .. ;-)
http://picasaweb.google.com/muellju/Peru7?authkey=JaYh0uWpSJg
http://picasaweb.google.com/muellju/Peru7?authkey=JaYh0uWpSJg
Sacred Valley and Machu Picchu (chapter finally finished)
The adventure started on August 5th when I took a colectivo from Cusco to Chinchero, which was known by the Incas as the birthplace of the rainbow, and is a typical Andean villageat 3.762 m altitude. It has some very nice Inca ruins (agricultural terraces - again - but they are always different depending on the landscape they are fitted in and in any case they are always fascinating...), a nice little colonial church, which was built on the foundations of an old Inca wall, very beautiful mountain views and a on its main square a little handicraft market, with far less tourists than the one in Pisaq (but, well, it was not a Sunday...)
From there, I took another colectivo to Urubamba (couldn't this be a name of a place somewhere in Africa ???), the central transport hub of the sacred valley. Local transport is really easy: you just stand on the side of the street and you wave to one of the buses, combis or colectivos passing by and if there is availability (and there always is... as they always manage to squeeze somebody in... ;-) ) you get on it after having agreed on a price, usually between 1 and 3 nievos soles (25 to 75 Euro-cents..). In Urubamba I was dropped off at the main gas station.. the village is quite ugly, so I just lookd for a restaurant to have lunch and found a little place where locals had their almuerzo (set "business" lunch), consisting of a soup, a main dish, a desert and a drink.. the soup and spaghettis with beef meat were quite tasty...and for 3 soles (75 cents) for all this, you cannot complain...
With a combi (little mini-bus) I went to Ollantaytambo, from where the trains leave to Machu Picchu. This time, my trip was less confortable: I was the last passenger to be squeezed in and so I had to keep my head down during the 40 minutes trip in order not to bump my head against the van's ceiling. I had a bit of a stiff neck afterwards...
Ollantaytambo has splendid ruins and is the village where the original Inca-town-planning structure is best preserved, with narrow little cubblestone streets and canals in the middle, mostly set out in squares... The village is very cute and I sat on the main square for a while and observed the village-life.. I took some nice photos there with women in their traditional costumes.. it was especially cute how excited they all were about the ice cream they had.. the little girl had quite some problems to eat it properly as nobody had taken off the plastic foil around it.. but somehow she managed anyway... ;-)
I stayed one night in Ollantaytambo as I wanted to visit the ruins in the morning wothout the tour groups.. I booked a very nice cute little room in a guest house on the train platform. Actually it is situated in the old train station, but has additional little buildings aroud a big courtyard / garden.. It was nice to chill out in a hammock ... unfortunately major clouds came up and it started drizzling (for the first time on my trip except the major rain during one night in La Paz, when I was safely in my bed..). It is not cheap but definetely worth the money... http://www.elalbergue.com/en/ Unfortunately, I fogot to take pictures of the place... (how could that have happended I wonder...??) Dinner there was also exceptionally good... I complimented the Chef and he was very pleased.. I wonder whether this had happened to him for the first time ??
The next morning I got up much later than planned, but I really needed the sleep (now you will all say: That's how we know him much better... ;-) ).. So by the time I had breakfast and arrived to the ruins, the first tour groups were already there.. but well, it is a tourist attraction after all... The ruins were really interesting and as always fascinating.. But as always you had to climb up first... the special feature of this site is that it relates to another site just on the hill opposite: they carved one huge face in the rock that you can only see form the ruins on the other site (I have a photo of that one...) really impressive... As I still had time, I also climbed up the other hill.. a little bit of sports and training for Mach Picchu cannot harm..
In the early afternoon, I took my train to Aguas Calientes, or also called Machu Picchu village. The train ride was again very nice.. The interesting thing is that the train goes DOWN the valley as Machu Picchu is far lower that Cusco and the sacred valley.. the landscape quickly change from mountains to high rainforest with a completely different vegetation.. all of a sudden, there are trees everywhere and flowers in all colours... my train was almost empty: only 6 passengers !! I wonder why it was said that the train was fully booked when I tried to book it in advance... another one of these mysteries that will never be lifted.. Aguas calientes is without any interest.. I think I said that already previously .. so I went to the market and I bought a ... RUG !! Yes.. I know, I wonder myself, but it was really nice and not expensive... but it is quite heavy...:-( My hotel, the Gringo Bill's (what a name !!! ;-), was quite ok and I had a little balcony with a quite a dramatic mountain view...
During the night I was woken up by the noise of heavy rain !!! Oh noooooo!!!!!! Ansd in fact the rain did not stop until 4h45 when my alarm clock went off.. I took my shower, went to breakfast, but the situation did not improve.. I decided to wait a bit and not to take the first bus up at 5h30 as initially planned and started thinking about changing my train ticket and to postpone the visit to the next day.. At around 6 the rain was less strong and I decided to go.. I was up at the entrance at 06h30 and went in to queue for the climb up to Wayna Picchu, which is a peak next to Machu Picchu from which you have an excellent view on the whole site. There is however a daily limit of 400 people on a first come first serve basis.. Even without taking the first buses I made it among the 400 lucky ones, after quite a bit of waiting (actually 1,5 hours !!) and climbed up the very steep hill, in the rain and completely in the clouds... wondering if it is worth while the effort as there is probably nothing to see up there because of the clouds... The path was quite demanding, not only because it was steep, but also because it was extremely slippery... but I made itr and on the top there was quite a nice view on the Vilcanota/Urubamba-valley, but Machu Picchu was comletely invisible... I waited up there for about 45 minutes, when the clouds started to go higher up and the Machu Picchu appeared .. that was amazing, really !! I was down again at Machu Picchu at around 10h30 and took a lot of time visiting the quite extensive site (which first of all looked quite small..) For four hours I wandered around, sat down to admire a especially nice view and was suprised that most people visiting in groups have only 1,5 or 2 hours for the visit.. If you come all the way up here, why don't you take your time ??? The only positive thing about the groups is that you can stand and listen to what their guide is saying, which sometimes was quite interesting.. (not always though because some guides were really useless.. ;-) I met a German group from "Studiosus" (sorry for the non-Germans...but this is an insider..), which was so typical and I was so glad that I did this trip on my own... ;-) All these smart teachers, architects etc. with their arrogant attitudes... unbearable... ;-)
For the return to Aguas Calientes, I did not take the bus, but walked down a very nice path through the "rainforest" to the quite well presented museum and from there back to the hotel. I took a noce hot shower and rested a bit. I was so tired that I completely forgot that I initially had planned to go to the hot springs which gave Aguas Calientes ("hot waters") its name..
The next morning I had my train back to Ollantaytambo. From there I took a bus back to Urubamba and fortunatley found a young couple (he was Peruvian and she American), who were willing to share a taxi to visit the salinas of Maras and the circular ruins of Moray (you saw already some pictures below..) there is no other way to get there than by an organised tour or by taxi.. walking is too far.. I would have gone aso alone but sharing the price among three was certainly much better... The ruins of the agricultural terraces of Ñoray are exceptional as they are in circles, like an amphitheatre.. it seems that the Incas used them as a labaratory for testing climatic conditions certain plants need.. and this was found nowhere else.. the salinas were onte of the most impressive things I have seen after Machu Picchu: a small fountain with salty hot water actually provides the water for all these little basins spread out in a whole little valley. Then the sun dries them out and they harvest the salt. It seems that the salinas are almost 1000 years old. I took dozens of pictures from all perspectives as I found this truly amazing !! Back in Urubamaba, I took the bus all through the sacred valley back to Cusco, which actually took much longer than I thought.. but the bus stops all the time to let people out and new ones in.. the women generally have lotrs of stuff with them, which always needs to be stored on the roof of the bus or in the trunk.. but it was also quite interesting to observe all this from a nice SEAT !! ;-)
I will write a small special chapter about the Incas and the importance of Machu Picchu later as I am really tired now and need to get up early tomorrow...
Hope I am not boring you guys.. if so, just close the window and do something more interesting... ;-)
From there, I took another colectivo to Urubamba (couldn't this be a name of a place somewhere in Africa ???), the central transport hub of the sacred valley. Local transport is really easy: you just stand on the side of the street and you wave to one of the buses, combis or colectivos passing by and if there is availability (and there always is... as they always manage to squeeze somebody in... ;-) ) you get on it after having agreed on a price, usually between 1 and 3 nievos soles (25 to 75 Euro-cents..). In Urubamba I was dropped off at the main gas station.. the village is quite ugly, so I just lookd for a restaurant to have lunch and found a little place where locals had their almuerzo (set "business" lunch), consisting of a soup, a main dish, a desert and a drink.. the soup and spaghettis with beef meat were quite tasty...and for 3 soles (75 cents) for all this, you cannot complain...
With a combi (little mini-bus) I went to Ollantaytambo, from where the trains leave to Machu Picchu. This time, my trip was less confortable: I was the last passenger to be squeezed in and so I had to keep my head down during the 40 minutes trip in order not to bump my head against the van's ceiling. I had a bit of a stiff neck afterwards...
Ollantaytambo has splendid ruins and is the village where the original Inca-town-planning structure is best preserved, with narrow little cubblestone streets and canals in the middle, mostly set out in squares... The village is very cute and I sat on the main square for a while and observed the village-life.. I took some nice photos there with women in their traditional costumes.. it was especially cute how excited they all were about the ice cream they had.. the little girl had quite some problems to eat it properly as nobody had taken off the plastic foil around it.. but somehow she managed anyway... ;-)
I stayed one night in Ollantaytambo as I wanted to visit the ruins in the morning wothout the tour groups.. I booked a very nice cute little room in a guest house on the train platform. Actually it is situated in the old train station, but has additional little buildings aroud a big courtyard / garden.. It was nice to chill out in a hammock ... unfortunately major clouds came up and it started drizzling (for the first time on my trip except the major rain during one night in La Paz, when I was safely in my bed..). It is not cheap but definetely worth the money... http://www.elalbergue.com/en/ Unfortunately, I fogot to take pictures of the place... (how could that have happended I wonder...??) Dinner there was also exceptionally good... I complimented the Chef and he was very pleased.. I wonder whether this had happened to him for the first time ??
The next morning I got up much later than planned, but I really needed the sleep (now you will all say: That's how we know him much better... ;-) ).. So by the time I had breakfast and arrived to the ruins, the first tour groups were already there.. but well, it is a tourist attraction after all... The ruins were really interesting and as always fascinating.. But as always you had to climb up first... the special feature of this site is that it relates to another site just on the hill opposite: they carved one huge face in the rock that you can only see form the ruins on the other site (I have a photo of that one...) really impressive... As I still had time, I also climbed up the other hill.. a little bit of sports and training for Mach Picchu cannot harm..
In the early afternoon, I took my train to Aguas Calientes, or also called Machu Picchu village. The train ride was again very nice.. The interesting thing is that the train goes DOWN the valley as Machu Picchu is far lower that Cusco and the sacred valley.. the landscape quickly change from mountains to high rainforest with a completely different vegetation.. all of a sudden, there are trees everywhere and flowers in all colours... my train was almost empty: only 6 passengers !! I wonder why it was said that the train was fully booked when I tried to book it in advance... another one of these mysteries that will never be lifted.. Aguas calientes is without any interest.. I think I said that already previously .. so I went to the market and I bought a ... RUG !! Yes.. I know, I wonder myself, but it was really nice and not expensive... but it is quite heavy...:-( My hotel, the Gringo Bill's (what a name !!! ;-), was quite ok and I had a little balcony with a quite a dramatic mountain view...
During the night I was woken up by the noise of heavy rain !!! Oh noooooo!!!!!! Ansd in fact the rain did not stop until 4h45 when my alarm clock went off.. I took my shower, went to breakfast, but the situation did not improve.. I decided to wait a bit and not to take the first bus up at 5h30 as initially planned and started thinking about changing my train ticket and to postpone the visit to the next day.. At around 6 the rain was less strong and I decided to go.. I was up at the entrance at 06h30 and went in to queue for the climb up to Wayna Picchu, which is a peak next to Machu Picchu from which you have an excellent view on the whole site. There is however a daily limit of 400 people on a first come first serve basis.. Even without taking the first buses I made it among the 400 lucky ones, after quite a bit of waiting (actually 1,5 hours !!) and climbed up the very steep hill, in the rain and completely in the clouds... wondering if it is worth while the effort as there is probably nothing to see up there because of the clouds... The path was quite demanding, not only because it was steep, but also because it was extremely slippery... but I made itr and on the top there was quite a nice view on the Vilcanota/Urubamba-valley, but Machu Picchu was comletely invisible... I waited up there for about 45 minutes, when the clouds started to go higher up and the Machu Picchu appeared .. that was amazing, really !! I was down again at Machu Picchu at around 10h30 and took a lot of time visiting the quite extensive site (which first of all looked quite small..) For four hours I wandered around, sat down to admire a especially nice view and was suprised that most people visiting in groups have only 1,5 or 2 hours for the visit.. If you come all the way up here, why don't you take your time ??? The only positive thing about the groups is that you can stand and listen to what their guide is saying, which sometimes was quite interesting.. (not always though because some guides were really useless.. ;-) I met a German group from "Studiosus" (sorry for the non-Germans...but this is an insider..), which was so typical and I was so glad that I did this trip on my own... ;-) All these smart teachers, architects etc. with their arrogant attitudes... unbearable... ;-)
For the return to Aguas Calientes, I did not take the bus, but walked down a very nice path through the "rainforest" to the quite well presented museum and from there back to the hotel. I took a noce hot shower and rested a bit. I was so tired that I completely forgot that I initially had planned to go to the hot springs which gave Aguas Calientes ("hot waters") its name..
The next morning I had my train back to Ollantaytambo. From there I took a bus back to Urubamba and fortunatley found a young couple (he was Peruvian and she American), who were willing to share a taxi to visit the salinas of Maras and the circular ruins of Moray (you saw already some pictures below..) there is no other way to get there than by an organised tour or by taxi.. walking is too far.. I would have gone aso alone but sharing the price among three was certainly much better... The ruins of the agricultural terraces of Ñoray are exceptional as they are in circles, like an amphitheatre.. it seems that the Incas used them as a labaratory for testing climatic conditions certain plants need.. and this was found nowhere else.. the salinas were onte of the most impressive things I have seen after Machu Picchu: a small fountain with salty hot water actually provides the water for all these little basins spread out in a whole little valley. Then the sun dries them out and they harvest the salt. It seems that the salinas are almost 1000 years old. I took dozens of pictures from all perspectives as I found this truly amazing !! Back in Urubamaba, I took the bus all through the sacred valley back to Cusco, which actually took much longer than I thought.. but the bus stops all the time to let people out and new ones in.. the women generally have lotrs of stuff with them, which always needs to be stored on the roof of the bus or in the trunk.. but it was also quite interesting to observe all this from a nice SEAT !! ;-)
I will write a small special chapter about the Incas and the importance of Machu Picchu later as I am really tired now and need to get up early tomorrow...
Hope I am not boring you guys.. if so, just close the window and do something more interesting... ;-)
Saturday, August 9, 2008
Photos V - back from Machu Picchu
Today I came back to Cusco from my 4 day excursion to the Sacred Valley and Machu Picchu. It was just great !!! I will follow up with all the details tomorrow. Before any accidents happen to my photos I preferred uploading them immediately...
here they are.. as an exceptional appetizer, you will find four of the pictures within this post...
http://picasaweb.google.com/muellju/Peru6?authkey=FJMEAn8aSOg
you will certainly get tired of the repetitions of Machu Picchu, but also from the site of Moray (circular agricultural terraces) and from the salinas of Maras... but I wanted to be ultra-sure to have some good shots from these sites as they were incredibly beautiful.
The photos include a whole series of people (thanks for the suggestion, Jan..!! ;-) ) which I took while sitting on the main square of Ollantaytambo, also one of the main sites of the Sacred Valley, where I stayed a night (I mean in the village and not on the site..) ..
Given the amazing biodiversity, I also tried to take quite some flowers / plants as I was surprised how many different flowers I could see along my way and especially on the site of Machu Picchu. After Brazil and Congo, Peru is the third country in the world as regards biodiversity and is therefore in the category of "ultradiverse" countries.
here they are.. as an exceptional appetizer, you will find four of the pictures within this post...
http://picasaweb.google.com/muellju/Peru6?authkey=FJMEAn8aSOg
you will certainly get tired of the repetitions of Machu Picchu, but also from the site of Moray (circular agricultural terraces) and from the salinas of Maras... but I wanted to be ultra-sure to have some good shots from these sites as they were incredibly beautiful.
The photos include a whole series of people (thanks for the suggestion, Jan..!! ;-) ) which I took while sitting on the main square of Ollantaytambo, also one of the main sites of the Sacred Valley, where I stayed a night (I mean in the village and not on the site..) ..
Given the amazing biodiversity, I also tried to take quite some flowers / plants as I was surprised how many different flowers I could see along my way and especially on the site of Machu Picchu. After Brazil and Congo, Peru is the third country in the world as regards biodiversity and is therefore in the category of "ultradiverse" countries.
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
Photos IV
A new series of photos before I am heading off to the sacred valley and Machu Picchu..
I tried to take more photos of people and will try to do so even more from now on, as my friend Jan suggested, but most of the times you have to give a "propina" (tip) if you want to take picture.. but well, YOU as my public are worth it... ;-)
http://picasaweb.google.com/muellju/Peru5?authkey=lqBrfd_jFf8
I tried to take more photos of people and will try to do so even more from now on, as my friend Jan suggested, but most of the times you have to give a "propina" (tip) if you want to take picture.. but well, YOU as my public are worth it... ;-)
http://picasaweb.google.com/muellju/Peru5?authkey=lqBrfd_jFf8
Cusco / Cuzco
Cusco is just an amazing city, I think I could spend weeks here.. and I am glad that I have 8 days for Cusco, the surrounding sacred Inca valley and the Machu Picchu, there is so much to see and the atmosphere is really nice as well. It is just great so sit down somewhere, have a drink.. (I mean a tea or an inka cola or a fanta..., the piscos are for the evenings... ;-) ) and watch the city's life..
Cusco was the former capital of the Inca empire and even if the Spaniard did everything to destroy most of the Inca-buildings, they integrated parts of it in their own buildings, even monasteries... the Quorikancha (meaning golden courtyard in Quechua) palace / Santo Domingo Monastery is the best example... The Palace was the main one of Cusco and the walls were all covered in gold. Everything was destroyed but the walls were left after the gold had been taken off...
As it was the centre of the Inca culture, the Spaniards had to deploy some special effort here to convert the locals to the Christian religion: There are a lot of churches and monasteries here and they are all especially rich in decoration, there is literally gold everywhere.. all the altars are made out of cedar wood and are covered with gold... well, the Inca-gold that the Spaniards did not put in the churches, they brought it back to Spain..., so at least, they left it here... the Cathedral is stunning, I think I have never seen anything comparable...
I visited lots of the churches and monasteries, walked through the little streets with craftsshops everywhere... The main square, called Plaza de Armas like in almost all Peruvian town / city, is beautiful.. it is sourrounded by colonial arcades with shops, bars and restaurants.. the former Inca square was actually double the size !
Yesterday, I took the local bus to Pisaq, a town 30km away from Cusco, where there is a market on Sundays... First of all, it was difficult to find the "terminal", which was well hidden in some courtyard.. I asked a lady passing by (tere were actually not that many people out there in that area at 7 in the morning...) and she was going there as well.. fortunately I still got a ticket with a seat.. as the bus is just filled up until literally nobody fits in anymore.. after not even 10 minutes of travel, we were stopped by the police (as the bus was too full) and , in addition, it seems that the driver did not have all the papers.. So we were stopped for more than half an hour.. then, 5 minutes after we had started we stopped again: a tire had gone flat !!! This took another half an hour.. It was actually quite funny to see the local people's reactions... they strongly complained that the bus was too full and yelled at the driver and the accompanying person, "thiefs" was probably one of the less strong expressions used... but in the end, I made it to Pisaq, where I walked through the market, which , unfortunately, is not that traditional anymore.. most of it is a pure tourist market with local handicraft - some of it in good quality, but also a lot of crap.. I ate a chocolate chip chessecake at "Ulrike's café", the owner of which is A german lady who lives here for quite some time already.. The French couple, Céline and Gildas, had praised this cheesecake so ch that I had to try it.. and it was reallllyy good !! Then I started my climb up to the ruins, which is a 1,5 hours walk very steep up with a lot of "Inka stairs". The landscape is just beautiful with all the Inca-agricultural-terraces on the hillside.. Whn I saw the first ruins, I though I had arrived, but that was just an illusion: the site is ebormous and I actually walked around there for around 2,5 hours. I made some extensive breaks on the site in order to escape the tour groups which arrived in hords between 11 and12 but were rushed through by their guides, which were yelling "faster, faster!" all the time.. In the end, I also decided to walk down again, so in total I was walking around 5 hours, which was quite a challenge given the altitude and the fact that I have cought a nasty cold, whic provokes quite some breathing problems... but the walk was very rewarding ..
The bus-trip back was also a bit challenging as - this time - I did not get a seat and was one of those squished in the bus. I had to stand in an impossible position for almost an hour and eqach time the driver was changing gear, he hit me with the gear stick... not very nice... :-( but I survived... but extremely exhausted...
The night was very hard, as I could not sleep as I was freezing.. even with my sleeping bag and the little heater on.. I suppose I had some fever as well... so, today, I just visited a few other sites within Cusco and bought my train tickets up to Machu Picchu (for which I had to stand in line fo 2 hours.. !!!) But finally I got exactly the trains I wanted even if by e-mail, Perurail had told me that these trains were fully booked...
Tomorrow, I will leave for Ollantaytambo (in the sacred Inca valley9, where I stay one night and from there I will take the train up to Aguas Calientes, the village closest to the site of Machu Picchu, where I will stay for two nights. This allows me to visit the ruins of Ollantaytambo and Machu Picchu in the early morning before the tour-group-hords arrive on the spot... You will therefore probably not hear from e for a while as I read that Internet access is not so wide spread up there or extremely slow.. we will see...
Cusco was the former capital of the Inca empire and even if the Spaniard did everything to destroy most of the Inca-buildings, they integrated parts of it in their own buildings, even monasteries... the Quorikancha (meaning golden courtyard in Quechua) palace / Santo Domingo Monastery is the best example... The Palace was the main one of Cusco and the walls were all covered in gold. Everything was destroyed but the walls were left after the gold had been taken off...
As it was the centre of the Inca culture, the Spaniards had to deploy some special effort here to convert the locals to the Christian religion: There are a lot of churches and monasteries here and they are all especially rich in decoration, there is literally gold everywhere.. all the altars are made out of cedar wood and are covered with gold... well, the Inca-gold that the Spaniards did not put in the churches, they brought it back to Spain..., so at least, they left it here... the Cathedral is stunning, I think I have never seen anything comparable...
I visited lots of the churches and monasteries, walked through the little streets with craftsshops everywhere... The main square, called Plaza de Armas like in almost all Peruvian town / city, is beautiful.. it is sourrounded by colonial arcades with shops, bars and restaurants.. the former Inca square was actually double the size !
Yesterday, I took the local bus to Pisaq, a town 30km away from Cusco, where there is a market on Sundays... First of all, it was difficult to find the "terminal", which was well hidden in some courtyard.. I asked a lady passing by (tere were actually not that many people out there in that area at 7 in the morning...) and she was going there as well.. fortunately I still got a ticket with a seat.. as the bus is just filled up until literally nobody fits in anymore.. after not even 10 minutes of travel, we were stopped by the police (as the bus was too full) and , in addition, it seems that the driver did not have all the papers.. So we were stopped for more than half an hour.. then, 5 minutes after we had started we stopped again: a tire had gone flat !!! This took another half an hour.. It was actually quite funny to see the local people's reactions... they strongly complained that the bus was too full and yelled at the driver and the accompanying person, "thiefs" was probably one of the less strong expressions used... but in the end, I made it to Pisaq, where I walked through the market, which , unfortunately, is not that traditional anymore.. most of it is a pure tourist market with local handicraft - some of it in good quality, but also a lot of crap.. I ate a chocolate chip chessecake at "Ulrike's café", the owner of which is A german lady who lives here for quite some time already.. The French couple, Céline and Gildas, had praised this cheesecake so ch that I had to try it.. and it was reallllyy good !! Then I started my climb up to the ruins, which is a 1,5 hours walk very steep up with a lot of "Inka stairs". The landscape is just beautiful with all the Inca-agricultural-terraces on the hillside.. Whn I saw the first ruins, I though I had arrived, but that was just an illusion: the site is ebormous and I actually walked around there for around 2,5 hours. I made some extensive breaks on the site in order to escape the tour groups which arrived in hords between 11 and12 but were rushed through by their guides, which were yelling "faster, faster!" all the time.. In the end, I also decided to walk down again, so in total I was walking around 5 hours, which was quite a challenge given the altitude and the fact that I have cought a nasty cold, whic provokes quite some breathing problems... but the walk was very rewarding ..
The bus-trip back was also a bit challenging as - this time - I did not get a seat and was one of those squished in the bus. I had to stand in an impossible position for almost an hour and eqach time the driver was changing gear, he hit me with the gear stick... not very nice... :-( but I survived... but extremely exhausted...
The night was very hard, as I could not sleep as I was freezing.. even with my sleeping bag and the little heater on.. I suppose I had some fever as well... so, today, I just visited a few other sites within Cusco and bought my train tickets up to Machu Picchu (for which I had to stand in line fo 2 hours.. !!!) But finally I got exactly the trains I wanted even if by e-mail, Perurail had told me that these trains were fully booked...
Tomorrow, I will leave for Ollantaytambo (in the sacred Inca valley9, where I stay one night and from there I will take the train up to Aguas Calientes, the village closest to the site of Machu Picchu, where I will stay for two nights. This allows me to visit the ruins of Ollantaytambo and Machu Picchu in the early morning before the tour-group-hords arrive on the spot... You will therefore probably not hear from e for a while as I read that Internet access is not so wide spread up there or extremely slow.. we will see...
Saturday, August 2, 2008
Photos III
Here is a new link with photos.. I am slowly getting there... I just added all of today's photos, which means that I am finally up to date..... again: I have made no selection (so don't be surprised to see the same thing several times or that some pictures are a bit blurry...) I also now added some titles..
I also realised that the order of the photos is not correct, as each time that I change the battery, the photos get mixed up as I do not set the date/time.. I should do this in the future... ;-)
http://picasaweb.google.com/muellju/Peru4?authkey=pqxsOMb9ubs
I also realised that the order of the photos is not correct, as each time that I change the battery, the photos get mixed up as I do not set the date/time.. I should do this in the future... ;-)
http://picasaweb.google.com/muellju/Peru4?authkey=pqxsOMb9ubs
By train through the Andean mountains / Altiplano
Yesterday, I took the bus back from La Paz to Puno. From there I took, today, the "Andean Explorer", a very nice luxury train, whith which I arrived in Cuzco after 10 hours. 10 hours seems very long, but this was not about transport, the train ride as such was a real pleasure. The train goes really slowly (which explains why we needed 10 hours for 385 km...), but at this speed, you can actually profit a maximum from the landscape around you.. the train crosses villages, beautiful mountain landscapes, passes by charming mountain rivers etc. Most of the time, the landscape was however flat as we crossed the Altiplano, a plain very high up in the Andes...
Each passenger has a comfortable armchair to sit in with an individual table in front. There is a comfortable bar and at the end of the train a very nice panoramic coach with windows all over and open at the back.. you just felt like on a luxury train 100 years ago... we got two very good meals as well and the staff was really nice and funny... all quite young..
At 18h00 I arrived in Cuzco, the most touristy place in Peru I would guess and starting point to the excursions to Machu Picchu, but a sight in itself... This time, I was lucky again with my hotel: it is a really nice place, an old colonial house with two inner courtyards and a fountain in one of them: http://www.hotelmarqueses.com/
In addition, Marco, the guy at the reception with whom I had extensive e-mail exchanges about availability, reservation and other stuff, gave me a luxury room for the normal price for the first three nights (out of the 7 I will stay here...).
From here I will discover the city and its sourroundings, notably the sacred Inca valley and Machu Picchu. I will however interrupt my stay here after 4 nights, will stay three nights in the sacred valley and then come back...
More on Cuzco tomorrow, as I am hungry now.... à propos: food.... Yesterday I had finally the Peruvian speciality: grilled guinea pig.. that was really yummiee - even if there is not that much meat on it... !! For the rest, other delicacies which I have already tried are Lamas and Alpacas... Even if all three animals are quite cute, they also taste realllly good... ;-) sorry, guys.... especially Sarah Catlein (hope I write her name correctly...), who is so fond of my Lama pictures... (special sorry to you.... ) ...
Each passenger has a comfortable armchair to sit in with an individual table in front. There is a comfortable bar and at the end of the train a very nice panoramic coach with windows all over and open at the back.. you just felt like on a luxury train 100 years ago... we got two very good meals as well and the staff was really nice and funny... all quite young..
At 18h00 I arrived in Cuzco, the most touristy place in Peru I would guess and starting point to the excursions to Machu Picchu, but a sight in itself... This time, I was lucky again with my hotel: it is a really nice place, an old colonial house with two inner courtyards and a fountain in one of them: http://www.hotelmarqueses.com/
In addition, Marco, the guy at the reception with whom I had extensive e-mail exchanges about availability, reservation and other stuff, gave me a luxury room for the normal price for the first three nights (out of the 7 I will stay here...).
From here I will discover the city and its sourroundings, notably the sacred Inca valley and Machu Picchu. I will however interrupt my stay here after 4 nights, will stay three nights in the sacred valley and then come back...
More on Cuzco tomorrow, as I am hungry now.... à propos: food.... Yesterday I had finally the Peruvian speciality: grilled guinea pig.. that was really yummiee - even if there is not that much meat on it... !! For the rest, other delicacies which I have already tried are Lamas and Alpacas... Even if all three animals are quite cute, they also taste realllly good... ;-) sorry, guys.... especially Sarah Catlein (hope I write her name correctly...), who is so fond of my Lama pictures... (special sorry to you.... ) ...
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Photos II
I managed to upload some more photos. Same problem than before: no selection !! This time I have however no titles yet.. apologies... but you do not have to look at all of them... ;-)
http://picasaweb.google.com/muellju/Peru3?authkey=Fyfu8j9oOgw
http://picasaweb.google.com/muellju/Peru3?authkey=Fyfu8j9oOgw
Tihuanaco / Tiwanaku
Today I visited the very important pre-Inka site of Tiwanaku, a UNESCO world heritage. This culture developed around 600 before Christ and had its height between 700 and 1200 after Christ, when it finally disappeared because of internal conflicts due to the change of climatic conditions and the dramatic decrease of harvests. It had around 20.000 inhabitants at its best time. Around 1400 the site was rediscovered by the Inkas, who decided to stay there.. A lot of the site is however destroyed as the Spaniards used most of the stones from the pyramids and temples to build churches in the surroundings, notably the Church of Tiwanaku village, but also the San Francisco Monastery in La Paz... There are huge carved monoliths representing Tiwanaku rulers, up to 7 meters high, which the Spaniards "baptised", meaning that they carved the Christian cross as well as the triangle as a symbol of Trinity over the very precious ancient carvings in order to destroy the magic power, which the locals attributed to them. This helped them to christianise the local population.
The probably most famous monument there is the Gate of the Sun, which is made out of one single block of andesite stone and weighs around 44 tons. The most heavy monoliths, which were found there, weigh more than 440 tons.. The gate is oriented in such a way that the sun shines through on the 21st June - start of summer and equinox - at midday... all the temples are arranged in such a way, that the sun, on the specific dates of 21st March, June, September and December, respects a specific constellation compared to the temple.. this is quite impressive...
We also witnessed an offering with an Aymara priest on the archaeological site, as it seems to be a tradition that an offering to Pachamama, Mother Earth, takes place before a new excavation starts or if something important has been found.. the ceremony not only invloved the priest, but also several people from the archaeological team.
The probably most famous monument there is the Gate of the Sun, which is made out of one single block of andesite stone and weighs around 44 tons. The most heavy monoliths, which were found there, weigh more than 440 tons.. The gate is oriented in such a way that the sun shines through on the 21st June - start of summer and equinox - at midday... all the temples are arranged in such a way, that the sun, on the specific dates of 21st March, June, September and December, respects a specific constellation compared to the temple.. this is quite impressive...
We also witnessed an offering with an Aymara priest on the archaeological site, as it seems to be a tradition that an offering to Pachamama, Mother Earth, takes place before a new excavation starts or if something important has been found.. the ceremony not only invloved the priest, but also several people from the archaeological team.
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
La Paz
Yesterday I visited La Paz. There are not much sights in the typical sense: The Murillo square with the cathedral and the Presidential Palace, San Francisco church and monastery, some colonial houses which now host museums (but most of the colonial houses are already destroyed or about to fall apart..). In one of the museums, they display the few gold and silver juwelry which was found in Tihuanaco (see separate chapter). Unfortunately most of it was stolen either by the Spaniards or by others later... One of the museums is the former house of Murillo, the leader of the 1809 revolution against the Spaniards. This revolution will have its 200th anniversary next year and this is already announced everywhere on posters.. That will be quite an event... Another nice mansion (19th century) has a glass roof and stained glass panels which were designed by Gustave Eiffel...
It is more the city´s life and dynamic which makes it interesting.. especially the life in the streets and on the markets. At the so-called "witches' market" you can find herbal and folk remedies for all kind of troubles you might have.. the ingredients, such as dried Toucan beaks or Lama fetus... (not so cute actually), are intended to supplicate the various good and bad spirits. The Lama fetus is widely used. For example it is buried beneath one of the cornerstones of a newly built house as an offer to Pachamama, the Mother Earth, to bring luck and happiness to the people living inside. For each illness or spook, the "witches" assemble coulourful plates of herbs, seeds and other stuff. This is then taken to a "Yatiri", an Aymara priest/witch doctor (depends on your perspective..), who uses it for a ceremony and finally burns the whole stuff in the presence of the people concerned.
I also visited the Coca-museum, which I found extremely interesting.. it shows the coca leaf's role in the traditional societies, its discovery and use by the soft drink industry and then the pharmaceutical industry as well as the production of cocaine as an illicit drug.
The atmosphere in La Paz is however extremely tense as on the 10th August there will be a referendum on whether or not there will be anticipated presidential elections. Current president Evo Morales, the first president of the country being an indigenous, faces quite some opposition, mainly in the south of the country. If I understood well, he actually organised this referendum himself, which is intended to become a vote of confidence for him... There is propaganda (and it is really just that - nothing to do with election campaigns in Europe..) everywhere, but for both sides: posters, on the TV and on the radio. However, Morales' propaganda outweighs by far.. There are also demonstrations everyday, as the guide of the San Francisco monastery explained to me. Actually, there was a demonstration going on while I visited the monastery and at some point we could hear shots and smell the lacrimonic (??) gaz which the police used.. Today, there was even a bigger demonstration of miners, supported by employees of the city of La Paz, teachers and organisations of retired people, who all called for a "solution" to their problems, mainly increases of their pay (if I understood correctly the slogans). They seem to use this crucial moment before the referendum to get concessions from the government.... The whole city center was blocked, which ended in a super-chaos as the traffic during rush-hour (which is already bad enough) got completely stuck... They shouted: "Fuerza compañeros, la lucha es dura pero venceremos" ("Strenght, comrades, the fight is tough but we will win") and "Evo y Alvaro, queremos solución" ("Evo (the president) and Alvaro (the Vice-president) we want a solution"). Then they entered the terrace of the building of the central post office, which even a massive presence of police could not prevent. I observed the event from a certain distance. It was also interesting to see, that quite some "ordinary" people gathered around and supported the demonstrators.. others walked by, ignoring completely what was going on.. there was also a lot of national and foreign TV and journalists present... Will all this lead to a change in Boliva ?? Well, we will see on the 10th August, when I will already be back in Peru...
By the way: again, I lost plenty of time with the photo stuff and still I am not able to share new photos with you.. I am just computer illiterate it seems.. there must be some better and more efficient way to do all this.. anyway...
It is more the city´s life and dynamic which makes it interesting.. especially the life in the streets and on the markets. At the so-called "witches' market" you can find herbal and folk remedies for all kind of troubles you might have.. the ingredients, such as dried Toucan beaks or Lama fetus... (not so cute actually), are intended to supplicate the various good and bad spirits. The Lama fetus is widely used. For example it is buried beneath one of the cornerstones of a newly built house as an offer to Pachamama, the Mother Earth, to bring luck and happiness to the people living inside. For each illness or spook, the "witches" assemble coulourful plates of herbs, seeds and other stuff. This is then taken to a "Yatiri", an Aymara priest/witch doctor (depends on your perspective..), who uses it for a ceremony and finally burns the whole stuff in the presence of the people concerned.
I also visited the Coca-museum, which I found extremely interesting.. it shows the coca leaf's role in the traditional societies, its discovery and use by the soft drink industry and then the pharmaceutical industry as well as the production of cocaine as an illicit drug.
The atmosphere in La Paz is however extremely tense as on the 10th August there will be a referendum on whether or not there will be anticipated presidential elections. Current president Evo Morales, the first president of the country being an indigenous, faces quite some opposition, mainly in the south of the country. If I understood well, he actually organised this referendum himself, which is intended to become a vote of confidence for him... There is propaganda (and it is really just that - nothing to do with election campaigns in Europe..) everywhere, but for both sides: posters, on the TV and on the radio. However, Morales' propaganda outweighs by far.. There are also demonstrations everyday, as the guide of the San Francisco monastery explained to me. Actually, there was a demonstration going on while I visited the monastery and at some point we could hear shots and smell the lacrimonic (??) gaz which the police used.. Today, there was even a bigger demonstration of miners, supported by employees of the city of La Paz, teachers and organisations of retired people, who all called for a "solution" to their problems, mainly increases of their pay (if I understood correctly the slogans). They seem to use this crucial moment before the referendum to get concessions from the government.... The whole city center was blocked, which ended in a super-chaos as the traffic during rush-hour (which is already bad enough) got completely stuck... They shouted: "Fuerza compañeros, la lucha es dura pero venceremos" ("Strenght, comrades, the fight is tough but we will win") and "Evo y Alvaro, queremos solución" ("Evo (the president) and Alvaro (the Vice-president) we want a solution"). Then they entered the terrace of the building of the central post office, which even a massive presence of police could not prevent. I observed the event from a certain distance. It was also interesting to see, that quite some "ordinary" people gathered around and supported the demonstrators.. others walked by, ignoring completely what was going on.. there was also a lot of national and foreign TV and journalists present... Will all this lead to a change in Boliva ?? Well, we will see on the 10th August, when I will already be back in Peru...
By the way: again, I lost plenty of time with the photo stuff and still I am not able to share new photos with you.. I am just computer illiterate it seems.. there must be some better and more efficient way to do all this.. anyway...
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
La Paz - Bolivia
This afternoon I took the bus from Copacabana to La Paz. Gildas and Céline, the French couple were on the same bus and we chatted quite a bit, with my seat neighbour, a guy from Uruguay living in Bolivia since 3 years and working for an environmental non-governmental organisation. On our way, we had to get off the boat at the Tiquina strait, which separates the two parts of the Titicaca lake.. there is no bridge and the buses go on quite basic ferries while we had to go on small boats for the 15 minutes crossing. When we saw how the buses went on the ferries, we knew why we had toi get off and, actually, I was very glad not to be in the bus on that ferry-thing... The bus made it however safely as well...
La Paz is actually not the judicial capital of Bolivia (which is Sucre), however, most of the governmenbt institutions are located here and often it is referred to as the de facto capital. You enter the town through "El Alto", the area on top of the hill, where most of the poor people live and which has become a city of its own, which is actually the fastest growing city of Southern America. Form the bus we could oberserve the dynamic life there.. traffinc was just crazy... then the road winds down almost 500 m to the city centre of La Paz.. which is built on a slope.
Fortunately, my hotel was in short walking distance from the point where the bus dropped us off.. we were warned in advance of the various dangers waiting in La Paz and therefore I was glad I did not have to walk far. The hotel turned out to be extremely ugly in a not so nice (though safe..!!) area in the centre of the city. Just opposite, there is a huge ruin of several houses which were torn down and a few meters further, there is probably the city's largest construction site.. the hotel is old fashioned, the decoration (if you can call it liek that) horrible and there is no heating in the room... The fact that the rooms is clean is probable the only reason why the Lonely Planet recommended it.. I thought of changing, but then I did not as this is quite a hassle... Tonight I walked around a bit in the safe central area (which is full of people...) and had a nice traditional dinner... now going for a good night drink ... Cheers !!!
La Paz is actually not the judicial capital of Bolivia (which is Sucre), however, most of the governmenbt institutions are located here and often it is referred to as the de facto capital. You enter the town through "El Alto", the area on top of the hill, where most of the poor people live and which has become a city of its own, which is actually the fastest growing city of Southern America. Form the bus we could oberserve the dynamic life there.. traffinc was just crazy... then the road winds down almost 500 m to the city centre of La Paz.. which is built on a slope.
Fortunately, my hotel was in short walking distance from the point where the bus dropped us off.. we were warned in advance of the various dangers waiting in La Paz and therefore I was glad I did not have to walk far. The hotel turned out to be extremely ugly in a not so nice (though safe..!!) area in the centre of the city. Just opposite, there is a huge ruin of several houses which were torn down and a few meters further, there is probably the city's largest construction site.. the hotel is old fashioned, the decoration (if you can call it liek that) horrible and there is no heating in the room... The fact that the rooms is clean is probable the only reason why the Lonely Planet recommended it.. I thought of changing, but then I did not as this is quite a hassle... Tonight I walked around a bit in the safe central area (which is full of people...) and had a nice traditional dinner... now going for a good night drink ... Cheers !!!
Monday, July 28, 2008
Titicaca Lake - Bolivia
Two days ago, I took the bus to Copacabana, a village on the Bolivian shore of the lake. By the way: The Brazilian Copacabana "stole" its name from this sacred place. The name comes from the Quechua words "Qupa" (clear, happy, serene) and "Qhawana" (place from which you can see far) and was transformed to Copacabana by the Spaniards. With the splendid views you get over Lake Titicaca, the name of the village could not have been chosen better.
The three hours bus trip there was quite nice: I chatted with an American lady living since 20 years in Hong Kong and asmired the landscape: most of the time, we had nice views on the lake. The border crossing was quite an adventure. The border was quite chaotic and there was no real border control. You had to go to border police / immigration offices on both sides to fill in form and get your stamps.. however, nobody would have realised if you crossed the border without these formalities.. and in fact, the local people just croiss the border like that.. with however some routine controls of customs.. I observed a surprising egg and beer trade their as the prices on the Bolivian side are MUCH cheaper, it is worth while importing it in huge quantities into Peru. This is however done in small portions: mostly women, in their traditional dresses (several skirts and a too small of a bow hat and long black hair in two tails..) carry the stuff over the border.. buses and trucks (or should I use the British word lorries ??? ;-) ) are stuck on the narrow road, which makes it impossible for the traffic in the other direction to pass... All in all, it took as about an hour to have everybody in the bus through the formalities.. especially Americans and Maltese (don't ask me why Maltese...) had to pay 130 $ for the visa and had quite some trouble with more forms, photocopies to be made etc. In the meanwhile I could obsever the interesting and quite dynamic life at the border.. I especially liked the egg-trading.. ( I have some pictures of this later..)
Once arrived in Copacabana I checked into my nice hotel, the cupola, which offers a nice view over the lake. http://www.hotelcupula.com/default.asp Unfortunately, but luckily, I still got a room with shared bathroom, because this stupid guy in the hotel in Puno lied to me and said that he had confirmed the reservation for me, but actually had never called there.. even if he had called, the hotel was fully booked and only by chance somebody cancelled the reservation just some minutes before I arrived. The room is very nice and has heating !!! Then I went for lunch and had a very nice grilled trout with papas fritas in one of the food stalls along the Copacabana beach (Bolivia's only beach !!). Yummie...
From there I discovered the village, its nice cathedral.. yes, it is a village but has a cathedral as it is religiously a very important place because of its famous Madonna of Copacabana ("the dark virgin of the lake"). The cathedral itself is white, has several domes and also has coloured tiles ("azulejos")everywhere, which makes it very beautiful. In front of the cathedral, there is a strange thing going on every morning: the blessing of cars by a priest. All the cars line up (and there is almost a traffic jam there) and their owners put flowers and other ornaments on their cars. Then, after the blessing by the priest, the owners spray beer or sparkling wine on their cars. The whole ceremony should prevent any breakdown or accidents. In addition, they put little houses and cars, copies of fake diplomas and fake dollar bills on it, and ask the madonna to fulfil their wishes for a better life. The whole thing is really strange... but the church seems to support this "business" through the priests... In the late afternoon I climbed up the "cerro calvario", a hill next to the village from which there is an amazing view over the lake. To climb up there was quite a challenge because it was really steep and with the altitude this kind of physical effort is quite tiring.. especially you very quickly get breathing problems and have to pause for a bit... Almost on top, there were stands where some older men practiced weird semi-christian semi-pagan ceremonies: again, this involved spraying beer all over after having shaken the bottle, burning of some paper with which beforehand he had touched the couple which came to him.. at the same time he was murmuring some prayers..
I stayed on the top of the hill for the sunset and met a French couple (Gildas - a typical name from Brittany that I had never heard before but it seems that there is even a saint called like this... - and Céline) and a Slovenian girl, Andrea. After the sunset and a debate on Belgian politics (following their question "What is happening there ??") we tried to find a place for dinner... that wasn´t an easy task at all.. not so much because there was no offer, but rather because the Slovenian girl had very precise ideas about what shje wanted (very cheap, very nice and cosy place, a lot of food, etc..) After walking around for more than half an hour, we finally settled down in a quite cheap place (10 Bolivianos = 1 Euro for a menu with soup and a main course), but then she complained that there was not enough food.. I thought it was a nice place and good food.
From Copacabana, I also went by boat to the Isla del Sol (Sun Island), the legendary Inca island, which is the birthplace of the sun in Inca mythology. The god-king Viracocha and the first Incas, Manco Capac and his sister/wife Mama Occlo mystrically appeared there under direct orders from the sun. Most of Aymara and Quechua people in Peru and Bolivia still accept this legend as their creation myth.
This incredibly scenic island has one of the greatest views ever: To the east are the snow capped mountains of Bolivia (Cordillera Real) and to the west the rolling green hills of Peru. Just great. I did a half day hike from the North down to the South of the Island and visited some Inka and pre-Inka ruins on the way. The sun was so strong that I got a bit of a sunburn even though I had put plenty of sunblock, several times during the day...
The three hours bus trip there was quite nice: I chatted with an American lady living since 20 years in Hong Kong and asmired the landscape: most of the time, we had nice views on the lake. The border crossing was quite an adventure. The border was quite chaotic and there was no real border control. You had to go to border police / immigration offices on both sides to fill in form and get your stamps.. however, nobody would have realised if you crossed the border without these formalities.. and in fact, the local people just croiss the border like that.. with however some routine controls of customs.. I observed a surprising egg and beer trade their as the prices on the Bolivian side are MUCH cheaper, it is worth while importing it in huge quantities into Peru. This is however done in small portions: mostly women, in their traditional dresses (several skirts and a too small of a bow hat and long black hair in two tails..) carry the stuff over the border.. buses and trucks (or should I use the British word lorries ??? ;-) ) are stuck on the narrow road, which makes it impossible for the traffic in the other direction to pass... All in all, it took as about an hour to have everybody in the bus through the formalities.. especially Americans and Maltese (don't ask me why Maltese...) had to pay 130 $ for the visa and had quite some trouble with more forms, photocopies to be made etc. In the meanwhile I could obsever the interesting and quite dynamic life at the border.. I especially liked the egg-trading.. ( I have some pictures of this later..)
Once arrived in Copacabana I checked into my nice hotel, the cupola, which offers a nice view over the lake. http://www.hotelcupula.com/default.asp Unfortunately, but luckily, I still got a room with shared bathroom, because this stupid guy in the hotel in Puno lied to me and said that he had confirmed the reservation for me, but actually had never called there.. even if he had called, the hotel was fully booked and only by chance somebody cancelled the reservation just some minutes before I arrived. The room is very nice and has heating !!! Then I went for lunch and had a very nice grilled trout with papas fritas in one of the food stalls along the Copacabana beach (Bolivia's only beach !!). Yummie...
From there I discovered the village, its nice cathedral.. yes, it is a village but has a cathedral as it is religiously a very important place because of its famous Madonna of Copacabana ("the dark virgin of the lake"). The cathedral itself is white, has several domes and also has coloured tiles ("azulejos")everywhere, which makes it very beautiful. In front of the cathedral, there is a strange thing going on every morning: the blessing of cars by a priest. All the cars line up (and there is almost a traffic jam there) and their owners put flowers and other ornaments on their cars. Then, after the blessing by the priest, the owners spray beer or sparkling wine on their cars. The whole ceremony should prevent any breakdown or accidents. In addition, they put little houses and cars, copies of fake diplomas and fake dollar bills on it, and ask the madonna to fulfil their wishes for a better life. The whole thing is really strange... but the church seems to support this "business" through the priests... In the late afternoon I climbed up the "cerro calvario", a hill next to the village from which there is an amazing view over the lake. To climb up there was quite a challenge because it was really steep and with the altitude this kind of physical effort is quite tiring.. especially you very quickly get breathing problems and have to pause for a bit... Almost on top, there were stands where some older men practiced weird semi-christian semi-pagan ceremonies: again, this involved spraying beer all over after having shaken the bottle, burning of some paper with which beforehand he had touched the couple which came to him.. at the same time he was murmuring some prayers..
I stayed on the top of the hill for the sunset and met a French couple (Gildas - a typical name from Brittany that I had never heard before but it seems that there is even a saint called like this... - and Céline) and a Slovenian girl, Andrea. After the sunset and a debate on Belgian politics (following their question "What is happening there ??") we tried to find a place for dinner... that wasn´t an easy task at all.. not so much because there was no offer, but rather because the Slovenian girl had very precise ideas about what shje wanted (very cheap, very nice and cosy place, a lot of food, etc..) After walking around for more than half an hour, we finally settled down in a quite cheap place (10 Bolivianos = 1 Euro for a menu with soup and a main course), but then she complained that there was not enough food.. I thought it was a nice place and good food.
From Copacabana, I also went by boat to the Isla del Sol (Sun Island), the legendary Inca island, which is the birthplace of the sun in Inca mythology. The god-king Viracocha and the first Incas, Manco Capac and his sister/wife Mama Occlo mystrically appeared there under direct orders from the sun. Most of Aymara and Quechua people in Peru and Bolivia still accept this legend as their creation myth.
This incredibly scenic island has one of the greatest views ever: To the east are the snow capped mountains of Bolivia (Cordillera Real) and to the west the rolling green hills of Peru. Just great. I did a half day hike from the North down to the South of the Island and visited some Inka and pre-Inka ruins on the way. The sun was so strong that I got a bit of a sunburn even though I had put plenty of sunblock, several times during the day...
Saturday, July 26, 2008
Photos
the photo stuff is far too complicated and takes far too much time.. What I had figured out before in order to improve compared to last time, does actually not make things easier at all..
For the moment - until I figure something out, I will give you this link, where you can see all my photos which I uploaded on a website in order to safely store them... there is therefore no selection !! I added however already some titles / captions to the pictures I wanted you to see... so, please do not watch all of them in detail... ;-)
If you click on the link, you get the photo-overview and the titles are not fully readible, you therefore have to click on one of the photos, it will then be visible in full size. Then you can go back and forth with the arrows which appear. Or you can chose a slide show and you can chose the number of seconds the picture should appear on your screen...
here you go:
http://picasaweb.google.com/muellju/Peru?authkey=JuFFMyGfbzo
For the moment - until I figure something out, I will give you this link, where you can see all my photos which I uploaded on a website in order to safely store them... there is therefore no selection !! I added however already some titles / captions to the pictures I wanted you to see... so, please do not watch all of them in detail... ;-)
If you click on the link, you get the photo-overview and the titles are not fully readible, you therefore have to click on one of the photos, it will then be visible in full size. Then you can go back and forth with the arrows which appear. Or you can chose a slide show and you can chose the number of seconds the picture should appear on your screen...
here you go:
http://picasaweb.google.com/muellju/Peru?authkey=JuFFMyGfbzo
Titicaca lake
The Titicaca Lake is the highest navigable lake of the world (3.800 m). "Titi" means "Puma" and "caca" means "grey", it is the Lake of the grey Puma. There are two explanations to this, one is that the grey Pumas lived around here in the mountains in the past and came down to the lake to drink, the other is more recent as - following NASA space-pictures - it turns out that the shape of the lake is the one of a puma catching a rabbit... and the water of the lake from above looks grey.. as for the Nazca lines, it would however be a mystery how they could see this from above at the time the lake got its name... were the people here in the pre-Inka times already able to fly??? Well, I will not start this discussion here.. plenty of crazy scientists have already elaborated on it..
I left - yet again at 7h00 - to take the boat to visit the floating Islands and Taquile. The floating Islands (there are actually over 40 of them) are made of reed only, to be precise, the floating basis is made of the compact of roots of reed and then they put several layers of reed on top of it. It was actually an old tradition of the Uros, but the last Uro-woman died in 1956 and then the Aymara, from the land next to Puno, settled down on these floating islands. They use reed for everything: to build the island itself, to build the houses on the island, to build their ships, to use it to make fire for cooking (after having dried it..) and they also eat the interior of it (which has actually absolutely no taste whatsoever.., which means that it is not disgusting either...)! They explained to us the techniques of "how to build an island" (which is always useful to know in case you need one... why not somewhere in the Carribbean ??) and told us a bit about their traditions. Usually four to six families live on the same island and if there is trouble, you can just split the island in two or several parts. This makes conflicts between neighbours very easy to solve... Then we got a boat ride in their traditional boats to the main island, which mainly consisted of shops and bars and a guesthouse.. nothing spectacular. To be noted however, that the only real house there (also floating) was a Seven Days Adventist Church built in stone it seemed (but then how does it float??) or at least in wood. This "Church", it is actually rather a sect, seems to "buy" their followers by promising "real" houses... for the moment the success does not seem to be enormous given that almost all houses are still made out of reed and floating on a reed base.
From there we had a 3 hours boat trip to the island of Taquile, which is still organised in a real community / cooperative: They share - depending on the needs of everyone - their harvests and also successfully resist since quite a while to initiatives to build a hotel on the island, which would certainly endanger the whole community structure. Guests can still stay there but they pay the community and the community decides in which house the stranger will sleep (on an equal burden sharing basis). The profits therefore do not go to just a few but to the collectivity. The island is beautiful with extremely nice views on the lake and very nice agricultural terraces. By pure luck, I arrived the day of their annual big festivity: the harvest festival, quite an event: The whole main square was full of locals all dressed in their traditional costumes and playing music and dancing.. Something is quite extraordinary on this island: it is actually the men's task to knit their own hats, which symbolize their social and marital status (together with the rest of their clothes). So you can easily distinguish, who is married and who is single, who has a function in the administration of the island and even among the non married, you can distinguish whether they have a girl friend or whether they are "looking". After we had got this explanation you just had to examine all the people around in order to decrypt their life.. this was quite an amusing activity. We had a very tasty grilled trout ("trucha") for lunch.. it is a specific species living in the lake and actually does not reseemble at all to the trouts I know from Europe..
We also had a very nice walk around the island, which actually meant to climb first steep uphill to get from the first harbour to the main village and then from there, 580 steps down back to the main harbour.. quite a physical effort at such an altitude...
To say a word about the climate: during the day it is actually mostly warm as the sun always shines (!!! yes my friends in Belgium, this is true !!!). Given the altitude of over 3.800 m the sun is also very strong.. however, there can be a chilly breeeze and as soon as the sun goes down, it gets really cold... (below 10 degrees) and in the early morning, it is below zero...
The hotel here in Puno has no heating (!!!), which is almost normal, but it has hot water around the clock (which in many hotels is not the case.. ) I heard some pretty scary stories about this since the water is so freeeeeezing cold that I would not even want to wash my face with it, not speaking about having a shower !!!! But there are public baths it seems somewhere in town... Anyway, I am glad that I bought this sleeping bag just before leaving because I use it underneath all the duvets they have and then it is actually bearable... I think I would not be able to live in such a cold place for long...
So, that was the story of the day.. hope you enjoyed it... tomorrow I am leaving to the Bolivian side of the lake. Hasta luego, amigos !!!
I left - yet again at 7h00 - to take the boat to visit the floating Islands and Taquile. The floating Islands (there are actually over 40 of them) are made of reed only, to be precise, the floating basis is made of the compact of roots of reed and then they put several layers of reed on top of it. It was actually an old tradition of the Uros, but the last Uro-woman died in 1956 and then the Aymara, from the land next to Puno, settled down on these floating islands. They use reed for everything: to build the island itself, to build the houses on the island, to build their ships, to use it to make fire for cooking (after having dried it..) and they also eat the interior of it (which has actually absolutely no taste whatsoever.., which means that it is not disgusting either...)! They explained to us the techniques of "how to build an island" (which is always useful to know in case you need one... why not somewhere in the Carribbean ??) and told us a bit about their traditions. Usually four to six families live on the same island and if there is trouble, you can just split the island in two or several parts. This makes conflicts between neighbours very easy to solve... Then we got a boat ride in their traditional boats to the main island, which mainly consisted of shops and bars and a guesthouse.. nothing spectacular. To be noted however, that the only real house there (also floating) was a Seven Days Adventist Church built in stone it seemed (but then how does it float??) or at least in wood. This "Church", it is actually rather a sect, seems to "buy" their followers by promising "real" houses... for the moment the success does not seem to be enormous given that almost all houses are still made out of reed and floating on a reed base.
From there we had a 3 hours boat trip to the island of Taquile, which is still organised in a real community / cooperative: They share - depending on the needs of everyone - their harvests and also successfully resist since quite a while to initiatives to build a hotel on the island, which would certainly endanger the whole community structure. Guests can still stay there but they pay the community and the community decides in which house the stranger will sleep (on an equal burden sharing basis). The profits therefore do not go to just a few but to the collectivity. The island is beautiful with extremely nice views on the lake and very nice agricultural terraces. By pure luck, I arrived the day of their annual big festivity: the harvest festival, quite an event: The whole main square was full of locals all dressed in their traditional costumes and playing music and dancing.. Something is quite extraordinary on this island: it is actually the men's task to knit their own hats, which symbolize their social and marital status (together with the rest of their clothes). So you can easily distinguish, who is married and who is single, who has a function in the administration of the island and even among the non married, you can distinguish whether they have a girl friend or whether they are "looking". After we had got this explanation you just had to examine all the people around in order to decrypt their life.. this was quite an amusing activity. We had a very tasty grilled trout ("trucha") for lunch.. it is a specific species living in the lake and actually does not reseemble at all to the trouts I know from Europe..
We also had a very nice walk around the island, which actually meant to climb first steep uphill to get from the first harbour to the main village and then from there, 580 steps down back to the main harbour.. quite a physical effort at such an altitude...
To say a word about the climate: during the day it is actually mostly warm as the sun always shines (!!! yes my friends in Belgium, this is true !!!). Given the altitude of over 3.800 m the sun is also very strong.. however, there can be a chilly breeeze and as soon as the sun goes down, it gets really cold... (below 10 degrees) and in the early morning, it is below zero...
The hotel here in Puno has no heating (!!!), which is almost normal, but it has hot water around the clock (which in many hotels is not the case.. ) I heard some pretty scary stories about this since the water is so freeeeeezing cold that I would not even want to wash my face with it, not speaking about having a shower !!!! But there are public baths it seems somewhere in town... Anyway, I am glad that I bought this sleeping bag just before leaving because I use it underneath all the duvets they have and then it is actually bearable... I think I would not be able to live in such a cold place for long...
So, that was the story of the day.. hope you enjoyed it... tomorrow I am leaving to the Bolivian side of the lake. Hasta luego, amigos !!!
Friday, July 25, 2008
Lake Titicaca / Puno
After a 5 hours bus ride through the beautiful Andean high mountain landscapes - with nice blue lakes (this time with another more reliable company...), I arrived at the shores of the Titicaca lake, this lake that I already dreamt of as a child (at the time purely because I found the name very funny...) In the afternoon, I still made an excursion to Sillustani, an archeological site with burial towers, on the shore of a nice mountain lake.. even if there is not much left from these pre-Inka and Inka towers, the spot itself and its surroundings is just spectacular. On the ride back (I had to take a taxi as all the organised tours had already left and there is no bus goig there..) I accepted to take a peruvian lady and her 11 year old daughter along, which was quite funny, as she kept talking the hole hour we were driving.. I almost did not say anything and the taxidriver also had quite some difficulties of throwing in a word.. I have to admit that I did not understand everything she said as she had a very wird accent and did not speak very clearly.. ans, anyway, afer 15 minutes, I started to ignore what she was saying... For the rest, I aactually understand most people very well and do all my guided tours in Spanish.. that is quite a good exercise..
Tonight, I had a very nice simple dinner for 0,65 Euros.. incredible... it was a soup, a main dish with meat and a Mate de Coca tea... very tasty and a very interesting local atmosphere: people actually do not take any time to eat. They come in, eat (extremely quickly) and then leave immediately.. the whole thing is done for most of them in 15 minutes... worse than me on stressful day in the office.. After dinner I walked around and assisted to a fun party event: As the 28 July is the national day of Peru, the festivities have already started: Tonight it was a music event organised by the national police, with the band of the national polica (playing famous peruvian pop songs and the singer, a policement in uniform, almost made a show like Enrique Iglesias... WOW !!! And then, the highlight of the whole event: a demonstration of the canine section of the local police (for the non-anglophones: policemen with dogs...) At the same time people shot some fireworks. There was quite an "ambiance" there... And in the end, walking back, I even got a flyer inviting me for a free "Pisco Sour" in a Salsa bar, which I did not refuse.. fortunately, the Pisco Sour was excellent, but the salsa bar was crap: one salsa teacher and 20 Europeans trying to learn the salsa moves... and I can only say: they were absolute beginners and had no talent whatsoever...!! Therefore I had no choice but to leave immediately I had emptied my drink... ;-) Now, I need to go to bed, as tomorrow - yet again - I have to get up at 06h00 as I will discover the lake: the floating islands of Uros and another Island the name of which I have already forgotten (what a shame...) Tomorrow, I also hope to finally have time to add some pictures..
Tonight, I had a very nice simple dinner for 0,65 Euros.. incredible... it was a soup, a main dish with meat and a Mate de Coca tea... very tasty and a very interesting local atmosphere: people actually do not take any time to eat. They come in, eat (extremely quickly) and then leave immediately.. the whole thing is done for most of them in 15 minutes... worse than me on stressful day in the office.. After dinner I walked around and assisted to a fun party event: As the 28 July is the national day of Peru, the festivities have already started: Tonight it was a music event organised by the national police, with the band of the national polica (playing famous peruvian pop songs and the singer, a policement in uniform, almost made a show like Enrique Iglesias... WOW !!! And then, the highlight of the whole event: a demonstration of the canine section of the local police (for the non-anglophones: policemen with dogs...) At the same time people shot some fireworks. There was quite an "ambiance" there... And in the end, walking back, I even got a flyer inviting me for a free "Pisco Sour" in a Salsa bar, which I did not refuse.. fortunately, the Pisco Sour was excellent, but the salsa bar was crap: one salsa teacher and 20 Europeans trying to learn the salsa moves... and I can only say: they were absolute beginners and had no talent whatsoever...!! Therefore I had no choice but to leave immediately I had emptied my drink... ;-) Now, I need to go to bed, as tomorrow - yet again - I have to get up at 06h00 as I will discover the lake: the floating islands of Uros and another Island the name of which I have already forgotten (what a shame...) Tomorrow, I also hope to finally have time to add some pictures..
Arequipa
Yesterday, I made an intense full day visit of Arequipa, the Unesco World Heritage site. The city is also called "the white city" because it is mainly built out of a regional white stone (called "sillar"). I won't go into details, but the two most spectacular things I saw was the Santa Catalina monastery, which is a huge complex, consisting of little streets and tiny houses in which the nuns lined. They were usually the second born girls of very rich Spanish fañilies and actually webt there with up to three servants or even slaves (I recall, it is a monastery!!!) The nuns were "married to god" but it seems that they had a quite an exuberant life with lots of music, dancing, nice dresses etc... some of the nuns had bigger places to live in with a real "salon", a garden , a kitchen and a terrace.. this lasted for a few hundred years until a pope sent a very strict nun to manage the monastery and then it was shut from public until 1970 !! From one extreme to the next... Some nice pictures on http://www.santacatalina.org.pe/index_i_01.htm
The other one was the museum with the juanita, a frozen child-mummy who died over 500 years ago, which was found in 1995 on the top of one of the nearby volcanoes, the Ampato. She is the best preserved mummy of the world and is often also called the "ice maiden"! She was a noble 12 to 14 year old inca girl which was chosen to be sacrificed already as a baby and received specific education to be prepared for this. It was an inca customs to do this kind of child-sacrifices in order to pacify the mountains, which they believed were gods (in order to avoid volcano eruptions etc..) the mummy is extremely well preserved, as she was in the ice for several hundred years and only another volvano eruption of a neighbour volcano made the ice melt and she was quickly found. She is now exposed in the museum in a frozen glass container. The museum also contains all the objects and clothes she had with her in her grave.. quite impressive how well even the clothes were preserved.. the colours were still almost as new.. and there was plenty of porcelain and golden and silver statues with her.. If you want to know more about it, or see some pictures, go to the site of the museum: http://www.ucsm.edu.pe/santury/
for the rest I also visisted several very beautiful churches, had nice breaks, the nices one on the first floor of one of the galeries overlooking the beautiful Plaza Mayor drinking Inka-Cola (my favourite (non alcoholic) beverage here: it is a yellow lemonade with an indesribable taste)
By the way: the night before I had four Pisco Sours, as they were really really good...!!!
The other one was the museum with the juanita, a frozen child-mummy who died over 500 years ago, which was found in 1995 on the top of one of the nearby volcanoes, the Ampato. She is the best preserved mummy of the world and is often also called the "ice maiden"! She was a noble 12 to 14 year old inca girl which was chosen to be sacrificed already as a baby and received specific education to be prepared for this. It was an inca customs to do this kind of child-sacrifices in order to pacify the mountains, which they believed were gods (in order to avoid volcano eruptions etc..) the mummy is extremely well preserved, as she was in the ice for several hundred years and only another volvano eruption of a neighbour volcano made the ice melt and she was quickly found. She is now exposed in the museum in a frozen glass container. The museum also contains all the objects and clothes she had with her in her grave.. quite impressive how well even the clothes were preserved.. the colours were still almost as new.. and there was plenty of porcelain and golden and silver statues with her.. If you want to know more about it, or see some pictures, go to the site of the museum: http://www.ucsm.edu.pe/santury/
for the rest I also visisted several very beautiful churches, had nice breaks, the nices one on the first floor of one of the galeries overlooking the beautiful Plaza Mayor drinking Inka-Cola (my favourite (non alcoholic) beverage here: it is a yellow lemonade with an indesribable taste)
By the way: the night before I had four Pisco Sours, as they were really really good...!!!
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Colca Canyon
Well, after a short night sleep, I ahd a quick breakfast and then he4aded out drom Casa de Melgar, a very nice hotel in an ancient patrician house with courtyards.. it is almost like a little village with little alleys and bridges.. Have a look: http://www.lacasademelgar.com/
My guide, Alfonso, welcomed me and off we went, together with a Dutch and a German couple, two Russian couples living in Dallas/Texas.. (!!!) with the daughter of one of them and her best friend.. a small and rather nice group... (and not a lonely experience as my excursions in Laos and Cambodia.....
The Colca Canyon is the second deepest canyon of the world (3.191m !!!) - that is what they say and "Lonely Planet" confirms, although my German guidebook had some other theories.. anyway... On our way there, we went through a spectacular Andean landscape, which is a natural reserve, and over a pass of 4.800 m... But before climbin up so high - and in order to avoid altitude sickness - we stopped at a teahouse, where they served "Mate de Coca" tea with coca leaves in it.. this is supposed to help.. but just to be sure, I also took my pills... (and was afterwrds quite glad about it..). In this reserve, we stopped several times to enjoy the stunning views and all kind of animals: Alpacas (really funny looking and soooo soft...) and Lamas, which are both domesticated animals, but also the wild Vicuñas, which is - zoologists might forgive me - some kind of wild Lama species... We also saw Vizcachas, little cuddly bunnies hiding in the rocks everywhere.. and as they are grey as the rocks you hardly see them...
Then we arrived in the Colca valley and got to our beautiful lodge - on the margins of a little village called Coerporaque. Have a look: http://www.lacasademamayacchi.com/ you can also see some nice pictures of the landscape.. we had a great buffet-lunch there (including super good Ceviche - raw fish marinated in lemon), rested a bit in the nice hammocks in their garden with a beautiful view on the valley and then went for a 1 hour walk up the hill to the ruins of the old town (which was destroyed after the Spaniards had forced everybody in the valley to move in one of the 24 new villages they created with a nice catholic church in each... - the rest you can imagine.. now they are all catholic, but with quite some influence still of their former religious traditions as often is the case in South America..) Then we went to Chivay to the thermal baths.. really nice !! the different pools have different kind of water and are all between 36 and 40 Celsius- which is quite nice as once the sun is down and there is wid, the temperature immediately goes below 10. We relaxed for around two hours.. and I met again the French family I felw with over the Nazca lines.. funny..
After dinner, we immediately went to bed as the next day we had to get up already at 5h00 (!!) in order to have breakfast at 05h30 and leave at 06h00 for our tour through the canyon: The canyon is 100km long and is set among 2 high volcanoes (with 6.300 and 6.600 m respectively) -really impressive... In the canyon, there is a particular spot, where there are several Condor families.. Many people come to see the Condors here and - after a bit of waiting - we saw them sailing in the air.. it was just amazing.. one was sitting on a rock really close andd when he srated off, he sailed right over our heads and actually stood in the air as the wind was really strong.. (see the pictures below).
We then visited some of the 14 of these "missionary-villages" which still exist and also went into the churches - which were quite beautiful, I have to admit... and finally, before going back to Arequipe and after another very rich lunch..., we went to see the market of Chivay. As you know from my previous trips, I love markets.. but the one here was less spectacular and I therefore did not take as much pictures... (in case you worried... ;-) )
Now I am back to Arequipe, where I will soon have my first "Pisco Sour" (peruvian national cocktail (Pisco - the peruvian national liquor (a grape brandy) - with lime juice, ice, sugar, Angostura bitter and eggwhite) together with Sabine and Manfred, the German couple from Berlin. Gin Gin !!!
My guide, Alfonso, welcomed me and off we went, together with a Dutch and a German couple, two Russian couples living in Dallas/Texas.. (!!!) with the daughter of one of them and her best friend.. a small and rather nice group... (and not a lonely experience as my excursions in Laos and Cambodia.....
The Colca Canyon is the second deepest canyon of the world (3.191m !!!) - that is what they say and "Lonely Planet" confirms, although my German guidebook had some other theories.. anyway... On our way there, we went through a spectacular Andean landscape, which is a natural reserve, and over a pass of 4.800 m... But before climbin up so high - and in order to avoid altitude sickness - we stopped at a teahouse, where they served "Mate de Coca" tea with coca leaves in it.. this is supposed to help.. but just to be sure, I also took my pills... (and was afterwrds quite glad about it..). In this reserve, we stopped several times to enjoy the stunning views and all kind of animals: Alpacas (really funny looking and soooo soft...) and Lamas, which are both domesticated animals, but also the wild Vicuñas, which is - zoologists might forgive me - some kind of wild Lama species... We also saw Vizcachas, little cuddly bunnies hiding in the rocks everywhere.. and as they are grey as the rocks you hardly see them...
Then we arrived in the Colca valley and got to our beautiful lodge - on the margins of a little village called Coerporaque. Have a look: http://www.lacasademamayacchi.com/ you can also see some nice pictures of the landscape.. we had a great buffet-lunch there (including super good Ceviche - raw fish marinated in lemon), rested a bit in the nice hammocks in their garden with a beautiful view on the valley and then went for a 1 hour walk up the hill to the ruins of the old town (which was destroyed after the Spaniards had forced everybody in the valley to move in one of the 24 new villages they created with a nice catholic church in each... - the rest you can imagine.. now they are all catholic, but with quite some influence still of their former religious traditions as often is the case in South America..) Then we went to Chivay to the thermal baths.. really nice !! the different pools have different kind of water and are all between 36 and 40 Celsius- which is quite nice as once the sun is down and there is wid, the temperature immediately goes below 10. We relaxed for around two hours.. and I met again the French family I felw with over the Nazca lines.. funny..
After dinner, we immediately went to bed as the next day we had to get up already at 5h00 (!!) in order to have breakfast at 05h30 and leave at 06h00 for our tour through the canyon: The canyon is 100km long and is set among 2 high volcanoes (with 6.300 and 6.600 m respectively) -really impressive... In the canyon, there is a particular spot, where there are several Condor families.. Many people come to see the Condors here and - after a bit of waiting - we saw them sailing in the air.. it was just amazing.. one was sitting on a rock really close andd when he srated off, he sailed right over our heads and actually stood in the air as the wind was really strong.. (see the pictures below).
We then visited some of the 14 of these "missionary-villages" which still exist and also went into the churches - which were quite beautiful, I have to admit... and finally, before going back to Arequipe and after another very rich lunch..., we went to see the market of Chivay. As you know from my previous trips, I love markets.. but the one here was less spectacular and I therefore did not take as much pictures... (in case you worried... ;-) )
Now I am back to Arequipe, where I will soon have my first "Pisco Sour" (peruvian national cocktail (Pisco - the peruvian national liquor (a grape brandy) - with lime juice, ice, sugar, Angostura bitter and eggwhite) together with Sabine and Manfred, the German couple from Berlin. Gin Gin !!!
Sunday, July 20, 2008
to LIMA and then to Nazca - story now adapted and completed...
I am already on my way. I did not have time anymore to update my blog before leaving. Therefore you will not have a map of my tour or anything like that this time. Sorry...
After a monstruosly long trip (train from Brussels to Paris, then flight to Atlanta and then to Lima. Though there was some confusion over my luggage in Atlanta (do I have to carry my bags through customs myself or not - the problem was I wanted to, but the bag was not there - panic !!!...), I arrived - with my bag - in Lima, early yesterday morning. I immediately took a cab to the bus station to catch a bus to the south. Unfortunately the bus I wanted to take left 30 minutes earlier than I had seen on the internet and so I had to wait for another 2 hours and go with another company. The bus was quite conmfortable, but broke down half way. We had to wait for an hour until they sent us another one (which was already surprisingly quick..). After another 100 km, we had another breakdown.. In total we arrived 3 hours late plus the 2 others I had left later, which meant that I arrived in Nazca 5 hours later than scheduled. Fortunately my hotel room was still free and I was still able to do the final confirmation for my flight over the Nazca lines. The bus tour as such was quite nice as we went south on the "Panamericana", which offers spectacular views on the ocean and crosses a very nice landscape, with deserts and mountains. I saw fields of cotton, asparagus, corn/maize, but a lot of times, there was just sand and rocks... We drove past Pisco, where, in August last year, there was a heavy earthquake... in the whole region (and even here in Nazca - almost 200 km South) a lot of the houses are completely destroyed and people only build up their houses very slowly.. a lot of people live in tiny little provisional baracks made of wood.
I got a nice shower in my very cute hotel (Hotel Alegria = happiness...) ;-) have a look... http://www.hotelalegria.net/ - they advertise as a "shelter for the adventurous traveller - wekk, that's all ME !! Welcome adventure! Then I headed out for one of the lectures on the Naca lines (the only one still available aqt that time was in spanish..), which was well done and quite interesting. They explain the different theories (until todaym, it is still not sure how they were built and what their purpose was..) I was so tired that I almost fell asleep, but as the art-loving person that I am, I sat through it!! Well done !
I had dinner in a tiny place run by an older lady.. very nice simple food.
This morning I did the flight over the Nazca lines, these strange lines and figures carved in the rock over an area of 500 square km.. the flight lasted 35 minutes and was quite spectacular.. I had to wait for 2 hours before getting on the plane, but it was definetely worth it !!! Evem if the German Ministry for Foreign Affairs resommended not to fly over them for safety reasons.. but, well, hundreds of people do it every day.. you could see the lines and the figures really well.. there is a monkey, a colibri, a spider, a pelican, etc.. I took a motion sickness pill and did not have breakfast, that was a very good thing, because in this little plane (we were only 5 passengers.. a French family) my stomach went up and down the whole time..
After the flight, I walked around town and had some vewry tasty food at Paulita's, a really cute place.. they proposed a special plate where they put some of all the specialities they had , which was delicious, but faaar too much.. I was stuffed when I went out..
At 15h30 I took the bus to my next destination: Arequipa - the white city and the second biggest city after Lima. This time, the bus did not break down, but it was really slow... Insted of 23h00, we only arrived there at 2h00 in the morning.. it was a bit scary to walk through the almost empty bus terminal, but fortunately, there were still some taxis waiting.. and at my hotel, the Casa de Melgar, somebody still opened the door.. ouff... but the guy from the agnecy, with which I had booked a two-day excursion to the Colca Canyon, would pick me up alreadu at 07h30 in the morning... how cruel is that: not even 5 hourds of sleep ..!! More from Arequipa...
After a monstruosly long trip (train from Brussels to Paris, then flight to Atlanta and then to Lima. Though there was some confusion over my luggage in Atlanta (do I have to carry my bags through customs myself or not - the problem was I wanted to, but the bag was not there - panic !!!...), I arrived - with my bag - in Lima, early yesterday morning. I immediately took a cab to the bus station to catch a bus to the south. Unfortunately the bus I wanted to take left 30 minutes earlier than I had seen on the internet and so I had to wait for another 2 hours and go with another company. The bus was quite conmfortable, but broke down half way. We had to wait for an hour until they sent us another one (which was already surprisingly quick..). After another 100 km, we had another breakdown.. In total we arrived 3 hours late plus the 2 others I had left later, which meant that I arrived in Nazca 5 hours later than scheduled. Fortunately my hotel room was still free and I was still able to do the final confirmation for my flight over the Nazca lines. The bus tour as such was quite nice as we went south on the "Panamericana", which offers spectacular views on the ocean and crosses a very nice landscape, with deserts and mountains. I saw fields of cotton, asparagus, corn/maize, but a lot of times, there was just sand and rocks... We drove past Pisco, where, in August last year, there was a heavy earthquake... in the whole region (and even here in Nazca - almost 200 km South) a lot of the houses are completely destroyed and people only build up their houses very slowly.. a lot of people live in tiny little provisional baracks made of wood.
I got a nice shower in my very cute hotel (Hotel Alegria = happiness...) ;-) have a look... http://www.hotelalegria.net/ - they advertise as a "shelter for the adventurous traveller - wekk, that's all ME !! Welcome adventure! Then I headed out for one of the lectures on the Naca lines (the only one still available aqt that time was in spanish..), which was well done and quite interesting. They explain the different theories (until todaym, it is still not sure how they were built and what their purpose was..) I was so tired that I almost fell asleep, but as the art-loving person that I am, I sat through it!! Well done !
I had dinner in a tiny place run by an older lady.. very nice simple food.
This morning I did the flight over the Nazca lines, these strange lines and figures carved in the rock over an area of 500 square km.. the flight lasted 35 minutes and was quite spectacular.. I had to wait for 2 hours before getting on the plane, but it was definetely worth it !!! Evem if the German Ministry for Foreign Affairs resommended not to fly over them for safety reasons.. but, well, hundreds of people do it every day.. you could see the lines and the figures really well.. there is a monkey, a colibri, a spider, a pelican, etc.. I took a motion sickness pill and did not have breakfast, that was a very good thing, because in this little plane (we were only 5 passengers.. a French family) my stomach went up and down the whole time..
After the flight, I walked around town and had some vewry tasty food at Paulita's, a really cute place.. they proposed a special plate where they put some of all the specialities they had , which was delicious, but faaar too much.. I was stuffed when I went out..
At 15h30 I took the bus to my next destination: Arequipa - the white city and the second biggest city after Lima. This time, the bus did not break down, but it was really slow... Insted of 23h00, we only arrived there at 2h00 in the morning.. it was a bit scary to walk through the almost empty bus terminal, but fortunately, there were still some taxis waiting.. and at my hotel, the Casa de Melgar, somebody still opened the door.. ouff... but the guy from the agnecy, with which I had booked a two-day excursion to the Colca Canyon, would pick me up alreadu at 07h30 in the morning... how cruel is that: not even 5 hourds of sleep ..!! More from Arequipa...
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
New adventure: trip to Peru and Bolivia in july / august 2008
I will very soon be up to new adventures: on 18 July I will leave for a trip of a bit less than 4 weeks to Peru and Bolivia.
Further details will follow later.
Further details will follow later.
Saturday, February 9, 2008
Saigon / Ho Chi Minh City
The visit at Mr Pham Phu's house was nice. I had tried to get flowers, but it was impossible to find any.. Except a few souvenir shops, everything was closed. I ran around for about 30 minutes trying to find flowers or something else which would be appropriate to offer, but I could not find anything. I therefore arrived at his house late and with empty hands. He did not seem to worry about ot. We chatted about his job and my job, about Europe in general and about his family. He also wanted me to check some of the translations he had done from Vietnamese into French (most;y birth and marriage certificates..), just by using a dictionary (he never learner French). I was quite surprised about the good quality. If you ever read the instructions of some cheap imported product from China, you know what I mean.. ;-) It made sense and there were only some minor mistakes. I jost got to see his wife for 10 seconds and quickly dais hello. I was not even officially inbtroduced. She was in the house, but it seems that she was not allowed to join (or did not want to..) I got a gup of tea, a glass of Australian Port Wine(not sure whether they are still allowed to call ot like that .. ;-)), Banh something (I unfortunately forgot the name.. but it is a roll made with sticky rice and green bean and then cut into slices that you dip in soja sauce..: delicicous..) and a beer with it.. hospitality was first class !!!
In the late afternoon, I went to the airport back to Da Nang and had an evening flight to Ho Chi Minh City (most Vietnamese, especially in the South) actually call it still Sai Gon (and the airport abbreviation is also SGN...)
I was picked up at the aiport by Madame Cuc's guesthouse. The city was by far not as busy as everybody had told me.. because of the Tet holidays... I got a warm welcome in this family run guesthouse run only by the female part of the family... this was just another proof that here women actually work much more than men. I saw a lot of men sitting in front of the houses and drinking or playing cards, while the women were working. I also saw lots of old women woth a "bent" back from hard work, whereas I did not see a single man having this problem...
The next day, I explored the city by foot. I went to see the War Remnant Museum, telling the story of the "American War" as they understandably called it here from the Vietnamese perspective. There certainly is a bit of propaganda that goes with it, but it struck me quite a lot. It was mainly photos taken by journalists (from both sides) showing the terror of war and the horrible war crimes committed by the Americans, especially the consequences of the use of chemical weapons but also other atrocities.
I liked the city even if a lot of people I had met on my trip told me that it was horrible. It was perhaps becuase of the festive atmosphere of the Tet festival: the whole centre was decorated with flowers and sculptures and in the evenings everybody took his or her scooter and went out. It was a street party every night !!!
Today I also walked around a bit, ate for the 5th time a "pho" which is one of the vietnamese national dishes: a noodle soup with varying ingredients. I loved the spicy one.. They have several chains of "pho restaurants", I tried "Pho 24" and "Pho 2000". The last one had been honoured by the presence of US-president Clinton several years ago (I mean Bill Clinton... you never know.. if Hillary will be elected this could lead to confusion for posteriority.. my blog is intended for eternity... ;-) ) There were several photos of the event displayed in the resraurant.
Today in the afternoon, I went to the airport as my trip is about to end.. how sad !!!I was very lucky that the nice lady of Malaysia Airlines was not that strict with the weight of my luggage (which had 22,5 kilos) and that she did not weigh my backpack and the extra bag I had bought in order to put all the stuff I had bought along the way (on all these beautiful markets and in these great shops.. you remeber ??) .. I think the hand luggage has another 15 kilos ore so (whereas a maximum of 7 is allowed..).
Now I am at Kuala Lumpur airport waiting for my flight back to Paris... I will arrive in the early Sunday morning and will be back to Brussels by train at around 8 am. And on Monday: back to work.. I hope I will be able to sleep a bit on the plane..
In the late afternoon, I went to the airport back to Da Nang and had an evening flight to Ho Chi Minh City (most Vietnamese, especially in the South) actually call it still Sai Gon (and the airport abbreviation is also SGN...)
I was picked up at the aiport by Madame Cuc's guesthouse. The city was by far not as busy as everybody had told me.. because of the Tet holidays... I got a warm welcome in this family run guesthouse run only by the female part of the family... this was just another proof that here women actually work much more than men. I saw a lot of men sitting in front of the houses and drinking or playing cards, while the women were working. I also saw lots of old women woth a "bent" back from hard work, whereas I did not see a single man having this problem...
The next day, I explored the city by foot. I went to see the War Remnant Museum, telling the story of the "American War" as they understandably called it here from the Vietnamese perspective. There certainly is a bit of propaganda that goes with it, but it struck me quite a lot. It was mainly photos taken by journalists (from both sides) showing the terror of war and the horrible war crimes committed by the Americans, especially the consequences of the use of chemical weapons but also other atrocities.
I liked the city even if a lot of people I had met on my trip told me that it was horrible. It was perhaps becuase of the festive atmosphere of the Tet festival: the whole centre was decorated with flowers and sculptures and in the evenings everybody took his or her scooter and went out. It was a street party every night !!!
Today I also walked around a bit, ate for the 5th time a "pho" which is one of the vietnamese national dishes: a noodle soup with varying ingredients. I loved the spicy one.. They have several chains of "pho restaurants", I tried "Pho 24" and "Pho 2000". The last one had been honoured by the presence of US-president Clinton several years ago (I mean Bill Clinton... you never know.. if Hillary will be elected this could lead to confusion for posteriority.. my blog is intended for eternity... ;-) ) There were several photos of the event displayed in the resraurant.
Today in the afternoon, I went to the airport as my trip is about to end.. how sad !!!I was very lucky that the nice lady of Malaysia Airlines was not that strict with the weight of my luggage (which had 22,5 kilos) and that she did not weigh my backpack and the extra bag I had bought in order to put all the stuff I had bought along the way (on all these beautiful markets and in these great shops.. you remeber ??) .. I think the hand luggage has another 15 kilos ore so (whereas a maximum of 7 is allowed..).
Now I am at Kuala Lumpur airport waiting for my flight back to Paris... I will arrive in the early Sunday morning and will be back to Brussels by train at around 8 am. And on Monday: back to work.. I hope I will be able to sleep a bit on the plane..
Thursday, February 7, 2008
New Year
The new years celebrations were a lot of fun ! There were huge fireworks and everybody was out in the street on their motorbikes. People kept arriving from all directions to the spot of the fireworks. Just after it had finished everybody started the engine and drove away.. they had their helmets on for the whole time and most of them stayed seated on the motorbike.. It was a kind of "drive through firework". ;-) This provoked some kind of traffic jam for at least 10 to 15 minutes until everybody got away.
Already in the afternoon, I had witnessed a traffic jam in the street where they sell the new years trees and flowers as everybody just stopped on the sides and then buses and other motorbikes just got stuck. I was just standing there and observing this for around 30 minutes and taking some photos. It was really funny: mostly men were buying the flowers and trees, but were not so sure which ones to buy and the women selliing the trees and flowers kept talking to them without a brak trying to convinve to by bigger and more... ;-) they tried to put several trees on the bike, rearranged, put them back on the floor, called some relatives that arrived several minutes later with another bike to help out. I enjoyed this a lot !! It was a real chaos !!
About new year. There was some confusion about the year of the rat, as here they put mice on the walls and I saw several times written "year of the mouse". First I thought it was a wrong translation for rat and thought this was funny. I researched a little bit and found out that both are possible as the Chinese sign 鼠 means both rat and mouse. And it it true that "mouse" is a little bit nicer than "rat"... ;-)
In the restaurant where I had dinner, I met a local English teacher and translator, Mr Pham Phu Dung, with whom I chatted a little bit and who then invited me for today to his family home. It is a tradition that families invite somebody to come to their house as the first person entering the home on the first day of the new year brings luck for the new year. Normally it is an honourable man with several children (that's what the Lonely Planet says..) And it seems to be a big honour as a foreigner to be invited to someone's house. So I try to live up to the expectations. I will buy some red flowers as white and yellow flowers are only given as a religious offering or to the dead... it is always good to read the guidebook in detail: always a source of knowledge !! I have to admit that when I read this I thought that this was pretty useless as I would certainly not get the opportunity to be invited and to have to offer flowers.. but I was wrong..
Together with an English girl I met also in the restaurant, we went around town, played some of the local games at the stalls set up along the streets and had some drinks. After the fireworks, we went dancing, but it was mostly westerners around because the vietnamese go the pagoda to pray right after midnight.. only at about 2 they started coming back. We partied until 4 in the morning...
Already in the afternoon, I had witnessed a traffic jam in the street where they sell the new years trees and flowers as everybody just stopped on the sides and then buses and other motorbikes just got stuck. I was just standing there and observing this for around 30 minutes and taking some photos. It was really funny: mostly men were buying the flowers and trees, but were not so sure which ones to buy and the women selliing the trees and flowers kept talking to them without a brak trying to convinve to by bigger and more... ;-) they tried to put several trees on the bike, rearranged, put them back on the floor, called some relatives that arrived several minutes later with another bike to help out. I enjoyed this a lot !! It was a real chaos !!
The beach I went to yesterday afternoon was really beautiful. Not many people were there and I walked for more than 2 hours. Unfortunately they keep building these hotel resorts, which are all half empty because there are not that may tourists here.. so it does not really make sense to buiild even more of them.. When I was sitting on the beach watching the sea, I was quite surprised to see an ELEPHANT walking by. Together with his owner, they were having a nice walk along the beach and definetely having fun. The elephant seemed however to be scared of the water (quite surprisingly.. as usually they love to play with water and have a bath.. but probably it is because of the salt water) .. he almost jumped back each time the water was getting too close.
About new year. There was some confusion about the year of the rat, as here they put mice on the walls and I saw several times written "year of the mouse". First I thought it was a wrong translation for rat and thought this was funny. I researched a little bit and found out that both are possible as the Chinese sign 鼠 means both rat and mouse. And it it true that "mouse" is a little bit nicer than "rat"... ;-)
In the restaurant where I had dinner, I met a local English teacher and translator, Mr Pham Phu Dung, with whom I chatted a little bit and who then invited me for today to his family home. It is a tradition that families invite somebody to come to their house as the first person entering the home on the first day of the new year brings luck for the new year. Normally it is an honourable man with several children (that's what the Lonely Planet says..) And it seems to be a big honour as a foreigner to be invited to someone's house. So I try to live up to the expectations. I will buy some red flowers as white and yellow flowers are only given as a religious offering or to the dead... it is always good to read the guidebook in detail: always a source of knowledge !! I have to admit that when I read this I thought that this was pretty useless as I would certainly not get the opportunity to be invited and to have to offer flowers.. but I was wrong..
Together with an English girl I met also in the restaurant, we went around town, played some of the local games at the stalls set up along the streets and had some drinks. After the fireworks, we went dancing, but it was mostly westerners around because the vietnamese go the pagoda to pray right after midnight.. only at about 2 they started coming back. We partied until 4 in the morning...
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
Happy new year !!!
As I had written already, today is the last year of the lunar year and all Vietnam is getting ready for "Tet NguyenDan" (Festival of the first day), which will start the year of the rat. This is the most significant date in the Vietnamese calendar and is Christmas, New Year and birthday all in one. You can imagine the atmosphere..!! It's the time for families to reunite in the hope of good fortunefor the coming year, and the spirits of the ancestors are invited back into the family home. The rites already start 7 days before when the Tao Quan - the 3 spirits of the hearth (found in the kitchen of every house) ascend to heaven in order to report to the Jade Emperor on the past year's events. In each hous, you find altarswith plenty of offerings, assenlbed in the preparation of the god's departure in the hope of receiving a favourable report and thus ensuring good luck for the family in the coming year. People clean and renovate their houses in order to get rid of the bad spirits of the old year and have a good start ine new one. When I walked through Hoi an the last days, everybody was cleaing, painting, organising their houses. This was actually quite funny to see. I now also know why they all carry these tress (which are kumquat trees). It is the so called "cay neu", the new year's tree ahich is supposed to keep out evil spirits. A lot of other people have abricot blossom trees. Sometimes they carry two or more of them on a motorbike, in huge pots..
Tonight atmidnight there will be huge celebrations out on the streets, with fireworks. It seems to be a huge street party..On new year's eve, the Tao Quan return to earth and at the stroke of midnight all problems from the past year are left behind and chaos start: the goal seems to be to make as much noise as possible in order to chase away the bad spirits: drums, fireworks, etc.
Then, the events of the first day of the year are curcial as they are belived to affect the course of the new year: people take care not to be rude or show anger and some activities - supposd to attract bad spirits - are totally taboo, such as sweeping, swearing, breaking things...and: sewing !!!! Now I also know why all the tailor shops are closed, as sewing cloths attracts bad spirits... A propos: I got my suit yesterday. First they said that it was just perfect and they wanted me to just pay and go. I stood in front of the mrror for at least 20 minutes trying to figure out all possible little problems. They tried to deny at first and wanted to tell me that it is supposed to be like that, but I insisted. So they made some more changes and I had to go back l;ater in the evening. I think that the suit is fine now, but there are still two little detauils that I would have preferred to be changed, but it was just impossible to explain to them.
I will finally go to the beach now, even if it is still overcast and a little bit windy. But at leat once I have to go there, as it seems tobe really beautiful. But it will be for a walk rather then for a swim , I think.
chuc mung nam moi !!!! (means: happy new year !!) ;-)
Tonight atmidnight there will be huge celebrations out on the streets, with fireworks. It seems to be a huge street party..On new year's eve, the Tao Quan return to earth and at the stroke of midnight all problems from the past year are left behind and chaos start: the goal seems to be to make as much noise as possible in order to chase away the bad spirits: drums, fireworks, etc.
Then, the events of the first day of the year are curcial as they are belived to affect the course of the new year: people take care not to be rude or show anger and some activities - supposd to attract bad spirits - are totally taboo, such as sweeping, swearing, breaking things...and: sewing !!!! Now I also know why all the tailor shops are closed, as sewing cloths attracts bad spirits... A propos: I got my suit yesterday. First they said that it was just perfect and they wanted me to just pay and go. I stood in front of the mrror for at least 20 minutes trying to figure out all possible little problems. They tried to deny at first and wanted to tell me that it is supposed to be like that, but I insisted. So they made some more changes and I had to go back l;ater in the evening. I think that the suit is fine now, but there are still two little detauils that I would have preferred to be changed, but it was just impossible to explain to them.
I will finally go to the beach now, even if it is still overcast and a little bit windy. But at leat once I have to go there, as it seems tobe really beautiful. But it will be for a walk rather then for a swim , I think.
chuc mung nam moi !!!! (means: happy new year !!) ;-)
old houses in Hoi An:
Monday, February 4, 2008
Hoi An
Yesterday in the early afternoon, I arrived to Hoi An, a lovely town (and again UNESCO world heritage) 130 km south of Hue. I took a train, which was an interesting experience itself. I was the only westerner in my coach, which was packed with people. The train took almost three hours for 100 km (The train does not directly go to Hoi An but to Da Nang about 30 km away). But the ride was beautiful as the train goes around some higher mountains along the seaside and there were several spectacular views. But life within the train was much more interesting actually. Next to me was a boy of 10 or so with his parents. He was already quite chubby and did nothing else than eating - for three hours... it was just fascinating what he could eat and the parents just let him.. While the train was really basic, there was a catering service (with a variety of hot dishes) and a "bord restaurant" (having seen it you would understand why I put it in brackets..;-) ), which is much more than the train from Strasbourg to Brussels has to offer... ;-) By the way: you will see a little bit of the chubby boy in the pictures below.. ;-)
When coming back into town, I realised however that it was not true that one of the recommended tailor shops was open throughout the new year festival, as one of the Australians had told me. Everything closed !!! Sh.... !!!! (see the empty sowing room below ...) I was so annoyed and angry with myself and most of you would have been surprised when they had seen me in this hour or two.
The toilets were not usable because they were packed with people's stuff, escpecially huge kumquat or mandarine trees (I could not really tell..) which people carry hime for the TET-festival. Tet festival is the lunar new year, which has a particular importance for Vietnamese. Half of Vietnam is actually somewhere on the road to join the family for one week family gathering. Everybody is carrying enormous bags with gifts (most of it real kitch... you can see it as they wrap it in transparent foil) , much worse than on the train I took back from Brussels to Germany just before Christmas... New Year (beginning of the year of the rat) starts in the night of 6 to 7 February, but shops and everything alse is already closing tomorrow (5 February).
Somebody from my hotel picked me up at the train station, waiting with a sign with my name, which is quite a nice feeling, you feel welcome..
Hoi An is a small and relatively quiet place, with an old town with plenty of traditional houses. The speciality here is however tailoring. There are tailor shops all over town and everybody coming here leaves with plenty of bags with tailor made suits, dresses, shirts etc. but also with other souvenirs such as lanterns or scarved wooden boxes with chop sticks..
I thought that I should leave this rather to one of the next days since I stay here for 4 nights. I chose to stay longer since I wanted to go to the very nice beach (just 5 km form town) and relax before heading to Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City) and then back to Brussels. So I did the tourist visit first. For this morning I booked a cooking class and I thought I would then have a look at the tailor shops this afternoon. During the cooking class, I learned howver, and I was so naive not to think about it myself, that all the shops would be closed for at least 3 days for Tet!!! I panicked as I really wanted to have one or two suits made..
The cooking class was great fun. We prepared the rice paper which you need to prepare fresh spring rolls and rice noodles (this is really easy !!!) and the fresh spring rolls taste just so much better if you prepare the rice paper yourself (see the photo below with me holding proudly my freshly rolled spring rolls) !!! yummie ! We also prepared green papaya and mango salad with warm squid and shrimp served in a pineapple (see photo), eggplant stew with lemongrass (see photo) and traditional Hoi An pancakes (made from rice). It was just so good and in a really nice location where we went by boat (and I managed for the first time to get a photo of a fisherman throwing out his net...). The stuff was really funny and it was much better than any cooking show on television than you can imagine. We were 20 participants and two thirds were Australians of which half a group of ladies in their fifties having left their husbands alone at home.. we had quite a laugh... ;-) We also had one lesson on decoration of plates. Please admire particularly the rose I prepared from a tomato skin..
When coming back into town, I realised however that it was not true that one of the recommended tailor shops was open throughout the new year festival, as one of the Australians had told me. Everything closed !!! Sh.... !!!! (see the empty sowing room below ...) I was so annoyed and angry with myself and most of you would have been surprised when they had seen me in this hour or two. In the end, after wandering around quite a bit, I found three possibilities (all non recommended places). And I took the risk.. It was more expensive than I wanted, but still really cheap for European standards: 100 % wool with 100 % silk lining (the An area is also famous for the silk production; see the silk worms on one of the picture..) .. I just hope that everything will turn out fine and that they do not rip me off.. I will know tomorrow afternoon at 4 pm when I have to go there for the fitting. Then they will do further adjustments (if necessary) and the day after the suit will be ready. Please, cross all the fingers you have for me... ;-)
Now it is dinner time... ;-)
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