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