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
Thursday, July 31, 2008
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...
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)