First Impression from Santa Barbara

I think you had to wait long enough to get the first non-Facebook pictures from my new home, Santa Barbara. So here's a short report from overseas on my first impressions, small and big adventures from my new home located on a narrow strip between the Santa Ynez mountains and the Pacific ocean.

First of all, it is a great place with an unbeatable climate that combines both the mountains and the sea...

... and additionally a small picturesque, colonial, and a little provincial town:

Even though I arrived late in the middle of the night, I was warmly welcome by my landlady/roommate Lynn in my new house. Since Lynn is an artist, everything, even though simple, was very chique, such as the kitchen.

On my first weekend in SB, Karl, Fritz, and Jordan took me out to Gibraltar and showed me the local sandstone walls.

I guess, after this first impression, that I ended up at the right place! Besides the probably best university (in control), SB additionally offers the mountains, the sea, and rocks all at once :)

My very first investment (on my first day) was a mountain bike and so I ended up using the public bus systems exactly once and never ever again.

Of course, the mountain bike paid off immediately, not only when cycling to university and for everyday life. As you may know, SB is renown to be one of the best biking spots all over North America (add year-round perfect weather and at least 1000m of relative altitude gain), and so I started to discover trails

and climbing spots all over town and the surrounding mountains. Among the various boulder opportunities, were artificial rock such as this one including the nurses :),

but also really picturesque, scenic, and high-quality boulder areas, such as Lizzard's Mouth! To be honest, the rock quality and quantity can by far not mess with Fontainebleau, Ticino, Magic Wood etc., but the view is definitely unbeatable!

And of course, there are also lots of fun problems with tiny crimps

big jugs in steep terrain,

and slopery top-outs.

I quickly made friends with some other climbers I met, such as Mary

and Rob, with whom I have tried this particular problem multiple times.

Besides lots of fun, high, and scary top-out boulders, Lizzard's Mouth also offers some fun and juggy traverses, of course always with picture-perfect view!

Unfortunately, my finger tips weren't used to such grainy sand stone after my long South America travel. Consequently, I came home as follows, everyday:

But luckily, there's "utterly smooth" and my hands quickly got used to tender rock embracements :D

For those of you less interested in the local bouldering and climbing scene, I attached some pics of Santa Barbara downtown, the most expensive real estate market of North America.

I guess you can understand why people so much like to build their mansions here. Some pics from the SB street life, the touristy main street

a concrete Skateboard park next to the ocean,

and the famous and even more toursity Santa Barbara pier, home of the artists, gourmets and tourists :)

While talking about gourmet food, you know everything in the U.S. comes in little bigger portions, right? So once, Lynn brought me "a piece" of salmon home of the size of my MacBook.. . well somebody's gotta cook and eat it :D

By the way, the main reason why I am here is, of course(!), my PhD at the University of Santa Barbara, within the world's probably best group on control and dynamical systems. I am here in great group led by Francesco, which is mostly working on motion coordination, autonomous agent systems, and network control. After little less than two months now, I have a great connection with all the other students and we have a fun time in the lab. By the way, here's my place in the "motion café". Do you recognize the Mate tea, the climbing harness, and the bike?

So that's where I spend most of my time during the day, and afterward I usually go for a short bouldering session into nearby (by bike 45 minutes uphill) Skofield park. Do you see how sweaty my back is from the ride ;)

Whenever, I don't spend my time doing research or climbing, I try to go on road trips. No, you will here now nothing about climbing (all of the climbing trips come in a separate post), but about an excursion to Death Valley.

With me were Dimi, Giuseppe, and Ruggero, who I knew from the university. We arrived late in the evening and camped high above death valley that night, because our next day brought us up to the high mountains surrounding the valley.

Starting from dry and clear forest, we pleasantly strolled (or hiked) along a ridge

until we encountered the first snow high above the Death Valley! Yep, zoom a little into the pic below and you will see the salt flats (with zero rain all year long) roughly 3.500m below us. What a spectcular contrast!

Finally, after endlessly traversing ridge, we made it to Telescope Peak. And again, what a fantastic contrast, especially if you consider the enormous elevation difference of the snow covered peak to the bottom of Death Valley!

Here you can see Ruggero fighting up the last steep meters throughthe slushy snow, eventually we all made it ;)

The mandatory picture break took a little longer since Dimi is a hobby photographer as well as a computer vision researcher:

A little bit exhausted, hungry, and sunburned we started our quick descent which brought us from 3.400m in the snow to

-100m in the sand !

Death Valley, located way below sea level and surrounded by mountains that are up to 3.500m high. Can you imagine how hot it is down there? To be honest, it felt really good after the cold and windy hike, even though our heads hurt from the elevation difference.

Mother nature provided us a spectacular sun set at the end of a fun day full of extremes.

The next day I got up and had a sand grain in my eye, which decided to stay there for seven hours. Damn! But I still enjoyed the day, which started with the opposite perspective as the day before - deep down in salt flats of Death Valley looking up to Telescope Peak.

Since, I have just been to Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia, this was not really impressive, but alright - once again in a salt flat :)

What else is there to do deep down in the hottest point of North America?

Well, there is some hiking through gorges shaped by yearly floods (seriously, even if you don't believe it),

of course you can take pictures of really colorful contrasts,

look for the few existing wild life in the valley,

and there is some scenic driving - America's favorite sport :)

As you see, this was a rather touristy day and it ended where most road trips in the South West end, in the In&Out in Barstow :) Do you remember, Tom, Andi, and Hansi? Eventually, I got also that sand grain out of my eye that killed my day. A final picture from the closest point to hell, where the ground cracks up to release the incredible heat from within:

Back in Santa Barbara ealy in the morning (just take a look at my hair and you will see). I am once again high up on the mountains and above the morning fog from the ocean.

What I am doing here? Bouldering some laps, correct!

I still didn't tell you why my favourite bouldering area is called Lizzard's Mouth, right? Well, obviously there are lots of these little climbing mutants, but the main reason is

simply a giant lizzard's mouth, which offers optimal climbing terrain and a picturesque background for photos.

Here I am on the longest undercling traverse ever - the fun Meille traverse low above the ground.

And there's still a lot more to be discovered in pocket wonderland!!!

As you see, studying in Santa Barbara is a little bit like being in an outdoor paradise. There's just one thing disturbing the idyll...

and that is the occasional wildfire looming on the mountains and threatening the town. This picture is taken from the local newspaper. At the beginning the fire was quite smallish and seemed harmless, but the local "sundowner" winds fanned it more'n'more. I thought it was pretty scary, even though most other people did take it as one of the usual summer fires.

That's what it looked like from university:

But luckily, Arnold organized fire trucks from all over the state, and, with the help of the "June gloom" (morning fog), the firefights managed to get the fire under control.

Eventually, they extinguished it sooner or later. However, a good part of Santa Barbara's hiking, climbing, and biking terrain is burned now and we have to see how long it takes mother nature to regrow it again.

Let's change the topic. One weekend, we went to L.A. to the Dogers baseball game:

Honestly, if there is no home run, then baseball is a pretty boring game, especially, if it takes 12 innings. So we left a little earlier from the stadium, enjoyed the view of downtown L.A.,

and went to Sandra's favorite Libanese restaurant in Santa Monica. Mmmm, yummy!

What else do we do here in Santa Barbara besides studying (in fact that is 90% of the time) and rock climbing? As you may well know, my university here got voted "hottest university of the U.S." by some well-known billboard magazine. So there are college parties going on all the time and everywhere! Occasionally there are also grad student parties, such as the one here:

So honestly, what is better than a keg'n'pool party in sunny Southern California?

Nothing, right? And people just went crazy. At a later time point, some people even jumped off naked(!) of the roof.

Too bad, I don't remember all the details from the evening... but it was kind of fun, for sure! I also discovered my brother's all time favorite game here, Bing ;)

Looks like lot of fun, right? And somebody even gives all these guys a doctor title :)

As promised (a long time ago), Hansi showed up to visit me, or rather, he picked me up to work with him in Magic Mountain, Santa Clarita.

What did we do there? Well driving around the Batmobile in Sixflags...

and setting up a pipe and some other structures for a summer show there.

It was fun to meet Hansi again, and to do some physical work again (no, not the same as exercise). I mean, somebody gave me a diploma in Mechanical Engineering ;)

Finally the pipe was all set (pay attention to the roller coaster in the background)!

And so I and Hansi got our well-deserved Hofbräu beer after work :)

Speaking of German beer, I found a little Bavarian island between Santa Barbara and Santa Ynez. Right behind the bouldering areas, there's the cold springs tavern,

which feels a little bit like being home in a Bavarian hut!

Well, a little bit ;)

So after you saw now many climbing, partying, hiking, and travelling pictures, you may ask yourself: "Isn't this guy living at the ocean?" Yes, indeed I am, but so far I always avoided the ocean, except for running at the beach. But when Oliver offered me a little cruise with his Catamaran, I could not resist but join him. So that was my first contact with the sea...

Other than that, I rather stick to research, climbing, and cycling in my little academic paradise!

So, I hope this short blog gave you a fairly good impression of what I am doing here. The next post will be about some climbing excursions to the local Californian rocks!

So stay tuned!

¡Nos vemos!

Flo

A Short Intermezzo at Home

"Home is wherever I am" is a famous saying. Well, if we take that literally, then my home is pretty mobile. Maybe that's why I especially enjoyed these twelve days back at "home" in Bad Tölz and together with Katrin.

It feels strange coming home from a long tourist trip in foreign countries, only to find yourself among tourists again. This time though, they came to visit my beautiful Bavaria and I was the local ;)

So what have I been up to these twelve days at home? Well, first of all I went to Frankfurt in order to get my VISA for the USA. Don't ask, it was completely pointless to show up there personally. However, on the way back from Frankfurt I stopped in Stuttgart for three nights and met some old friends and visited some memory-laden places all over town. During an afternoon slacking session in Schlosspark Katrin and I even convinced Adrian to get a slackline himself.

After this too short stop in Stuggi we went where the fun was, that is, Spring in the Northern Alps with all its blissful and advantegeous sides, such as Spring ski tours in my home mountains!

Here you can see Katrin and my dad after the first descent at Schönalmjoch. Do you see the beautiful face in the back that we skied down?

Awesome, isn't it? Katrin thinks so, too. At least in the moment before entering steep three runs with crusted snow...

Here is a memorable and beautiful picture right before the drop-in. Does some local recognize the mountains in the back?

Shame on you guys, this was simply Risser Falk with its gorgeous bowl. The next day took us to a mountain a little further East high above the Achensee. Another gorgeous picture of Katrin approaching the final summt ridge. In the back of the next pic you see the notorious Guffertkar, so we are at...?

At the Unnütz, right ;) And Franz is luckily with us. I think I have never been ski-touring in the backcountry with him before. So we had lots of fun. Here he is on the final steps up the ridge towards the summit.

And oh my "gosh", was it beautiful up there! Btw, never trust anybody usin' the words "gosh" or "jeez", haha. No seriously, it felt like 20ºC high above the Achensee, the view was magnificient, and an awesome downhill was awaiting us.

Don't you belive me?

Believe me now, it was virgini slushy Spring snow :) Back in town, we relaxed and got some Mate tea to get awake again.

Mate tea below and on the line :D

I think Argentina made me dependent on Mate... we even had it for dinner besides vine ;)

After two or three days of skiing and climbing we felt ready for a day off. In fct, we planned to go to Kochel for climbing, however, due to a lack of motivatin we rather headed further West towards one of our (almost) world wonders - Neuschwanstein.

And gosh (haha) is it beautiful there. The entire landscape around the castle is just st up like a huge fairytale-like stage in order to present the castle.

You wonder why I speak like this, although I have been there dozens of times? Well, if you directly come home from places, such as Cuzco, Machu Picchu, Tiwanaku,... etc., then you start to realize how beautiful and amazing all the touristy sights in front of your door are.

So there's a reason why all this Japanese, American, foreign European and Swabian tourists come here and take hundreds of pictures of the castle from the inside

and the outside.

I guess it must just be an awesome setting, spot, and architecture that Kig Ludwig II. picked here... a huge fairytale-like stage! Where's Cindarella, by the way?

Enough sentimentalities and rhapsodizing talking now. Let us leave Neuschwanstein

and get back to where the real deal happens, the Dammkar and the Viererkar high above Mittenwald.

Doesn't the Viererkar look absolutely gorgeous and adoring? This 200m wide bowl bounded by hundred meter high vertical lime ston faces. From this pespective you don't even fully appreciate how steep it gets from the top. Here is a pic made down from the summit. I guess the drop-in had roughly an inclination of 47º-50º or so. It obviously gets wider and flatter the further you get down.

In order to fully appreciate this beautiful run, I show you another pic made latter that day from the adjacent Dammkar (on the other side of the upper pic). Isn't it just WOW? You gotta do it!

So what does it look like at the top before you drop in?

It looks like a hell lot of fun I would say :)

After skiing down the Viererkar we ascended the Dammkar to complete our >2.200m day.

Some last looks back the last perfect run and up it goes towards the next one.

Eventually, we sooner or later made it up there and finally enjoyed a new perspective to the backside of all these limestone towers.

Needless to say that the entire downhill run was _____ (you may fill in the missing word).

Since we didn't want to go skiing again the next day, we made it up to Ross'n'Buchstein (my spelling), our local climbing paradise. The downside was the approach through waist deep snow.

The rock up there was nice and warm though and offered, of course, absolutely fantastic climbing on the limestone faces

and the needle. The view while climbing was priceless, snow-covered peaks and blue sky as far as we could see.

Okay, I promise this will the last ski tour story, you have to read. Not because I get tired of writing, no simply because I was running out of time and had to fly to the US. Since I wanted to go skiing anyways, hang out with Katrin, Quirin, and Franz, we simply combined and hiked up the Guffert bowl that you have already seen from the oposite side on another pic further up.

As you can see, Quirin had his board with him, while Franz was coming with Skis, although he had no ski crampons... too bad on a icy morning slope.

By the way, Franz is just hiking up the last steep meters towards the summit's south face, where we took a break before descending down again.

And that's what the face looks like from further below - an impressive ski tour, isn't it?

Once again a matchlessly beautiful scenery... I know I am boring you ;)

So let's get straight to the descend. As you can see the first meters appear to be pretty steep and icy, but Kat is (still) smiling. They weren't that bad anyways, only spectacular.

So let's get the ball rollin', boys!

A fun ascent waited for us, that I better describe in motion picture, that in words. So what follows is a short clip of this and other downhills during that week.

Looks like fun, right? Only our skiing skills in the slushy and/or sun-crusted snow could be a little improved. Luckily, we had exactly the right teacher with us ;)

So in summary, I had a fun and super-cool time at home with Kat, my family, and with all my friends. I guess, it'll take some time until I see Bad Tölz or snow or both of it again.

Unfortunately, it'll also take an undetermined amount of time till I and Kat meet again. We do not know where and when. The balance act over the Atlantic is far and not too easy.

However, with all our common memories in mind, I am sure that it'll all be fine until we meet next time!

To be pefectly honest, after this amazing time at home, I do not want to leave, not even to such a fantastic place as my next "home" - Santa Barbara in California. I am sure I will miss lots of people, things, and epecially my home mountains that showed themselves from their most beutiful side while I was at home.

Anyways, I decided to take the challenge somewhere else and I will do it. Frankly, I have to admit that Santa Barbara isn't that much of a bad place either.

Let's keep it short, Servus Bayern!

Flo

Nazca to Lima, Peru

The last blog entry you saw was in Machu Picchu, right. Now why the h*** am I, the "monkey" in the dessert now?

Well, since we are short on time (four more days in Peru), we got out of the Cuzco highlands pretty quickly. Namely, we took the tourist train from Aguascalientes to Urubamba, where a tax driver awaited us. This guy should then bring us as fast as possible to the Cuzco bus terminal from where we catch our bus to Nazca. Well, as usual the train was late and the driver was forced to go a "little faster" through the villages of the sacred valley in order to make it in time. Luckily, we had el conductor mas rapido del mundo and made it in time and alive :D

Nazca

Next day we woke up roughly 2.500m lower and in a totally different climate, the dessert of Nazca. Besides having the highest sand dune in the world (Cerro Blanco with a relative height of 1.200m!)

Nazca is famous for the world-known Nazca lines, giant geometric formations and animal drawings in the sand. By giant I mean that you can only see them from a plane. And so we hired a little Chessna ;)

Nobody knows how and why the Nazca culture created these up to 200m huge geoglyphs in the sand. Just imagine these geoglyphs were made 2.000 years ago with nearly perfect precision - how and why?

We had fun on-board observing the lines, although my stomach was revolting a little due to inhomogenity of the air we were flying through. Luckily, I had no breakfast.

Of the various motifs we saw this is my favorite one, "the astronaut." No it wasn't constructed a posteriori by some drunken kids, it has really been created 2.000 years ago. Makes you think about Däniken's theories.

Finally, we made it back to the ground. Since there's not a whole lot to do in Nazca (and I was strating to be fed up by traveling), we just chilled at the airport's pool,

had luch, and quickly hopped on the next bus which brought us to Ica, a small town three hours further North. Still in the misty jungle yesterday, and now lok at today's sunset in the Peruvian dessert.

Ica and Huachachina

The reason why we came to Ica, "Peru's garden", were not the various tropical fruits and the vine grown there, but a little oasis surrounded by dunes - Huachachina.

It is beautiful isn't it? Exactly how would draw an oasis, a small lake lake surrounded by 50m-100m high dunes. This was the perfect place for us to recover from the high mountain chill and to get some last sun before flying back to Germany.

Well, we didn't only relax there. The first thing I we did when we got up was climbing on top of the dunes and that is pretty exhausting, believe me. Two steps uphill and step sliding back down through the hot(!) sand. So you have actually achieved a little something by checking out the beach ;)

Do you see this pretty little fellow that I found we I came back down from the dunes:

No it didn't attack me ;)

Since chilling lazily in the sun isn't our cup of tea, we decided to rent a cab and go on a tour through the local vineyards. As if this wasn't cool anyways, we were additionally in the right time for the harvest season, and so Mum got to pound in the fresh grapes - good for your veins , apparently, and a lot of fun, too!

The cab driver got some local tropical fruits for us that I have never seen. Looks like large green beans filled with cotton, and tastes like banana. Its name was ...?

Here is a picture from the first small vinery that we visited. As you can see, they still use cloak amphorae to store their product:

And their product was, exceptionally not regular vine, but Pisco, a brandy and Peru's national drink. The grapes were just harvested and various sorts of Pisco have already been distillated. Of course, I had to try them all :D

See that's were the Pisco comes from, straight from the distillery. Methanol and Ethanol are here simply separated by taste and color... attention, dangerous!

To be fair, I have to admit that the skull is there for religious reasons and to honor the deads. Next, we went to another Pisco distillery, where they had an interesting museum in their garage with all kinds of freaky things, such as a model ship made of human bones, various Inka skulls and artefacts, stuffed animals etc. Mum especially liked the crocodile:

Another distillery and a vinery later, we were kind of drunk

but still had to move on to our next stop, Lima. More drunk than sober we got on the next bus...

Lima

Welcome to Santa Monica ... hmmm, Lima, right?

If you just see one of the osh suburbs with its modern coast line you could indeed think that you are somewhere in the L.A. area. Even the languages are the same - Castellano and English. No seriously there are also parts of Lima that you would expect as a traveller. I am a little bored from describing colonial architecture, churches, and museums, so just take a look at yourself at one street leading to the Plaza de Armas.

Still Lima is totally different than the rest of Peru, just as different as New York City is from Guatemala. I wonder how the people of Cuzco get along with this huge discrepancy in money, lifestyle, and all the non-Quechuan people. This difference just helps us to easier accustom to Western Civilization again, right Mum?

This picture was taken after a shopping spree, all the beach clothing she wears is new :) But we didn't just go shopping, or actually, I din't at all. I rather checked some parks on the waterfront, such as the Parque d'Amor which could be on-to-one in Barcelona, at least from the Gaudi-like mosaic benches.

But as you can see I am fed up with the travelling and lost the motivation to explore museums and visit churches. Am I ready to end my travels and go home? Probably. Our tour through colonial Lima was definitely as short as possible and

we rather went down to the beach :)

Since we only had 1.5 days anyways until our flight leaves, we just enjoyed ourselves, had some drinks in street bars

and fine'n'exquisite dinner in the evening.

Every trip comes to end and this time I and also my Mum weren't sad about it but looked forward to go home again. And so we left Lima, South America, and my little adventure came to an end.

Now there should be some concluding lines coming, wrapping up my trip, pointing out the highlights, crying for left-back friends and memories. Maybe I will write those lines one day, but not now. It has been a wonderful 2.5 months here in South America and I have countless unforgettable memories. I am not looking backward in tristesse but forward to go back home to all my beloved friends, family members, and, of course, Katrin!

Adios South America and thanks for all that I was allowed to see, touch, smell, taste, feel and experience there.

And now I am back home ;)

And tomorrow I will see Katrin again!!!

The Salkantay Inka Trail to Machu Picchu, Peru

Once again, we got up early... 4am, way too early for my taste. We were picked up by a cab together with Washin, our guide for the next days, and Cayetano, our prospective cocinero (cook). Climbing over a high pass the cab brought us out of busy Cuzco to Mollapata, which was the start of the our, the Salkantay Inka trail. The mist shifted apart early in the morning and granted us a view on Nevado Salkantay, the mountain we will be hiking around for the next days.

We started our hike in the little village of Mollapata, where Mum got to try some local bio-lipstick ;) By the way, the kind of touristy lookin' person on the picture is Washin, our guide...

The cowboy on the lower picture is Cayetano, our cook for the next days. Aren't we a nice team?

At the beginning we were in subtropical valleys at a low elevation of about 2.500m,

but thanks to the steep trails we quickly gained altitude.

Unfortunately, or should I better say "as expected", our guide wasn't half as fit as we are and so we were forced to take a break once in a while.

We even had a little fight with our guide, because he wanted to camp on green meadows way below Salkantay pass but we were eager to move on. Finally, I convinced him (by bribing him with beer) to a little higher up towards the white mountains you see in the pic below.

Since the view cleared up in the evening, nobody regretted going higher up, where we had an amazing view of Salkantay's sheer South face. Impressive definitely! Too bad I will not make it to Huaraz this trip to see the beautiful Alpamayo ;(

But our perspective wasn't bad either, especially when you just get out of your tent with two beer, right mum?

Definitely, one of my favourite pictures!

Cayetano prepared a really good dinner for us spiced with herbs that he found along the track. We were awakened at six in the next morning with a yummy Coca matesito, had breakfast, and hiked up towards Salkantay pass.

The pass is depending at which map and which sign (c.f. pic) look at between 4.400m and 4.800m high. Since we were well adapted to the altitude from Bolivia, it didn't matter too much. We stopped up there for some minutes to praise Panchapapa (Father mountain god in Quechua), sacrifice some Coca leaves, and just soak up the scenery.

While descending the weather turned bad, really bad. In fact, we felt like in a tropical shower in the middle of the jungle. Unfortunately, the tropical shower was quite chilly at this elevation... okay it was really cold, I admit it.

After walking downhill in the pouring rain for three hours we stumbled over a small local village. As it turned out, Cayetano's cousin lived there and we were invited in one of their houses t warm up over the open fire.

Unfortunately, I just took one picture in there. I should have taken more but it just didn't feel right to me. It was very interesting to be at an original Quechua family's place cutt off from any contact to the modern world and observe their local customs, such as guinea pigs all over the place...

As we descended further down into the tropical valleys the weather got better, the sky cleared up, and we had a picture perfect view of Nevado Salkantay again.

This picture reminds me a little of my treks in Nepal. You are yourself in the valley in dense jungle and look up to the glazier shining high above you in the sun, impressive and truly wonderful. It just doesn't fit together, the jungle and the glacier, but the mighty rivers rushing in the background tell you that it is real. You want to see it in motion picture, together with our next day's bridge?

In the next morning we crossed the river,

took a look back at the incredible scenery offered by Salkanty,

and descended into a tropical gorge, always following th melting water through the jungle.

Wahsin, slow as usual, led us through the jungle

passing incredibly beautiful waterfalls,

crossing the thunderous creeks beneath them,

until we finally made it back to civilization. Luckily, there were banana plantations everywhere (they are growing 17 different species of bananas there!) and I could stuff myself :)

We hiked out the valley until we got to a place called Playa (seriously) around lunch time. There I played football with the local kids and Mum had fun with the newborn dogs:

While Cayetano was preparing lunch, I stole his knife for some "Crocodile Dundee" posing:

Since we were going to spend the night in Playa and had nothing to do for the rest of the day, we decided to walk the 20km to the next town, Santa Teresa, where really nice hot springs should be located. Washin was too exhausted from the morning hike and decided to stay and take a nap. So we took off alone and made our way through banana

and coffee plantations.

Although the hike was long and it was hot'n'humid, it felt like walking through a paradise-like botanical garden, a garden full of bananas and coffee!

Eventually, we made it to Santa Teresa and its hot springs. And, damn, it was worth the long hike. I hav never been to such beautiful natural pools, anywhere!

Steep vertical hills in the background, jungle in the valley and snowcapped mountains above, what do you want more? Well, some hot springs to revitalize your muscles ;) By the way, for the way back to Playa I organized a driver.

The next morning we hiked up along an old Inka trail to Llactapata. The trail consisted of stairs exclusively, which led through dense vegetation.

Bushwhacking in a hot'n'humid environment!

Pretty soon the vegetation changed from subtropical rain forest to a cloud forest. You don't know what a cloud forest is, well imagine a rain forest with moss everywhere and with slightly lower temperature... or just look at the picture:

Do you have the impression? It looks like a fairytale forest, taken directly from lord of the rings.

As we crossed the Llactapata pass, we saw a quite famous mountain ridge at the other side the valley. Do you now that place?

Shall I help you and zoom a little bit into the picture?

It is one of our new seven world wonders - Machu Picchu! But more about that later, it's on the next day's schedule anyways. We descended down into the valley again and left the cloud forests, which means that we entered the domain of sun (=no clouds) again

and together with it the tropical vegetation - purple bananas, yummy :)

Back down in the hot(!) valley we crossed another mighty river

walked by one of the most impressive waterfalls I have ever seen (although it's the drainage of a water reservoir),

and hiked along the railway (together with Cayetan becaus Washin needed a break)

until we finally arrived at Aguascalientes, the base camp for Machu Picchu and one of the most frequnted places of all of South America. From here on everything changed completely, from the peaceful solitude of the Peruvian mountains to South America's number one toursit destination with 3.500 visitors a day.

We did what we were used to do, that is, get up early at 4am, and hike up to Machu Picchu for sunrise. Instead of a sunrise clouds were greeting us, but the mist made the setting just more spectacular and mysterious.

And would this classic picture anyways look like without the mist?

As you see, I have Machu Picchu as a little bit a subject of irony. I mean after having been to so many outstanding and spectacular places on my trip, you come to this so-called "New World Wonder", are charged an incredible amount of 44$ to enter (= 44 meals), and additionally you have to share the place with 3.500 other tourists. But believe it or not, Mach Picchu is still more than simply impressive, it is just WOW! I mean look at the upper picture again, can you top this setting with sheer faces on all sides, dense green jungle, and the mist?

In fact, if the same spot wasn't located in such a humid climate and thus all the vertical mountains (in fact granite spires) wouldn't be covered with dense vegetation, then this would be a supreme climbing destination, don't you think so? Well, let's go back to Machu Picchu.

Our trek included a guided tour through the site. Don't worry, I won't flood you now with information. First of all, because the facts aren't that impressive, and second because it's online anyways.

What makes Machu Picchu so spectacular to me is besides the setting also the way how the Incas understood to embedd their own architecture into the vegetation and the exisiting stone formations, as if the buildings were grown...

Concernig the tour of the site, it's always what make of it, right?

Right, the llama would say so, too.

In fact, I think the llamas were put up there simply to give the tourists better picture motifs... probably true. Although can you take any bad pics of this spot? I don't think so.

Besides the main site there are also other sights to see around Mach Picchu. You just need to invest 10 minutes of hiking along scenic trails constructed right at the edge of a cliff.

One such sight is a trail itself, the so-called "Inka bridge." Zoom into the lower picture, do you see how the Incas exploited the ridge in the face to construct a way? Do you see their bridge construction where the ridge is broken off for some meters? Incredible how they must have "walked" in the middle of a 500m granite face...

At the end of the day I also climbed up the scenic hill of Wayna Picchu (the famous rock behind he ruins). The climb involved a little ferrata which was jammed by Japanese tourists and led more or less right up a vertical face. On the top other ruins were awaiting me. Just a spectacular site. Here is another picture of the main ruin complex taken from Wayna Picchu.

Unfortunately, it started raining then and so we hiked back to town, where the train was waiting to bring us back to Cuzco. In short, the five Salkantay Inka trek was a "pleasant" hike through a breathtakingly beautiful scenery and ended with a real highlight. Even though parts of the trek were really touristy, a lot of unforgettable pictures are burned into our minds now!

¡Nos vemos!

Florian