Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Sitting in a small town in Ecuador overlooking a grand waterfall. We´ve been here for a week, and have a week to go,
but first I´ll write about our ten days in magical Peru.
Arriving in the capitol, Lima, we had - again - no reservations, so - again - we started out finding a place to stay.
We ended up at a small place in the uptown end of the city, where we got an apartment for the night.
Good location, acceptable price range, neat and tidy. All good.
The rest of the day was spent as can be in a big city - walking around, seeing the obligatory sights and so on
(you might be able to read between the lines that I´m getting just a wee bit tired of big cities.... :-) )
The next day was a little special to us. The 15 of February 2011, mine and Patricks 10´th anniversary.
We´d agreed on a no gift policy this year, but wanted to spoil ourselves a little. Therefore we allowed ourselves the luxury
of checking in at the finest 5-star hotel in town. With a jacuzzi and a sauna in the room, we agreed it would be a well
deserved day of self-pampering. When we arrived at the hotel, the concierge appologized deeply that they didn´t have the
room we´d booked available, so therefore they offered us the presidential suite - at the same price ofcourse.
The fanciest top-floor suite, with a normal price of 2800 US dollars (!!!!!)(we paid 300)
We felt just a wee bit out of our league, beeing escorted to the presidential suite at this ultra-fancy 5-star place
in our flip-flops and backpacks, shorts and tanktops. Probably not quite matching their usual clientel - the armani-suite
buisnessmen and the matching louis vuitton wearing buisness women.
Well - we didn´t care. We sucked in all the luxury we could get. The jacuzzi and sauna was on the whole day. We went for snacks
at the private executive lounge that was at our disposure all day (we ended up eating so many free snacks that we skipped
lunch :-D ) We´d be lousy at pretending to belong in this richie-rich world, so we didn´t even try.
For sure we looked every bit the hillbillies that we felt :-). But we had fun.
The next morning we had an early wake-up. Heading for the airport and a short domestic flight to cusco - the gateway
to Peru´s most famous sight - Machu Picchu.
Our first day in Lima, we´d contacted a travel agency/tour operator to find out how to get to Machu Picchu easiest, and
at what pricerange. He´d given us an idea of how to get there, and what it would cost. The price he gave us was completely
"loco". This is why we normally never go to tour operators - they offer you overcrowded junk at crazy prices.
So we decided to do as we always do - do it ourselves. So we booked a flight to Cusco, and would take it from there.
After the 45 minute flight, we took a cab to the centre, and probably for the first time ever, we let a taxi driver
choose a hotel for us. Normally in many parts of the world, since the cab drivers often have deals with certain hotels
and get a comission from the hotel if they drive tourists there, they don´t necessarily have your interest in mind,
but just want to make a quick buck. But this time we let him. We ended up at a nice guesthouse. Central and cheap.
As we walked up the few stairs up to the reception, we could suddenly feel the impact of the altitude hitting in.
At 3400 meters altitude, we were exhausted just climbing a few stairs. At the guesthouse we were offered the local
"medicine" against altitude sickness. Maté de coca (tea with coca leaves).
Yes - the leaves from the plant used to produce cocaine. And since this is completely illegal in most european
countries, and even in some south american - I would not tell if we´d had some of the tea, and I most certainly would
not tell if we´d let Leon and Sofie have some of it as well .And I definetly wouldn´t tell if me and Patrick another day
had tried to chew on the coca leaves like all the locals do. Anyway, we went for a walk in the charming town of Cusco.
A small place with pebble-stone streets and small alleys reminding a bit of those in Greece with the white houses and
the blue window shades and doors. We visited some of the charming markets, and managed to book tickets to the train to
Machu Picchu a couple of days later. Cusco is a beautiful small mountain village. The people here are visibly another
breed than the big city people in lima. Theese people are indiginous indian descents. They still walk the streets with
their lama´s and very traditional clothes. And I now take back what I wrote earlier about south americans generally
not beeing so friendly. Here they are. Smiling, helpful people.
There were lots of things to see in and around cusco. Unfortunatly, the altitude took it´s toll on us, and most of
the time, we were feeling ill with altitude sickness. Short of breath, headaches, tiredness and sleepnesness beeing
some of the symptomes.We managed to be up and about most of the day, but had to take some serious naps in the afternoons.
We were simply exhausted. And freezing. The temperatures had ofcourse also changed with the altitude. The days were sunny
and pretty, with a temperature of 10-15 degrees. At night it dove to around 5-8 degrees. A sudden difference from the
+30 c in Lima. Since we didn´t carry along that many wintery clothes, we found ourselves buying gloves, woollen socks,
hats and so on. One of the evenings we dared ourselves to try one of the local specialities - Guy, wich is slowly
roasted guinea-pig. I´d hate to tell you the usual thing about it tasting like chicken - but it kind of did.
It was more the whole idea of eating a pet that my brain objected to.
After a couple of days in Cusco, we started our trip to Machu Picchu. Early in the morning, we had hired the same taxi driver
to take us to the train. At 9 AM in the morning, we boarded the train. In Peru, as in many other countries, they have
different prices for locals and tourists. This is in my mind ok, since the difference in wealth is also big.
But sometimes it just gets plain stupid. Like the train to Machu Picchu. There is a train for locals that costs under 2 US dollars,
and then there´s the train for tourists, that costs 50$. Now I don´t mind paying a bit extra, but this is just ridicilous.
Years ago, tourists were allowed to ride the local, very uncomfortable but cheap train. This was very popular,
especially with backpackers, but now you have to prove you´re a resident of Peru to be able to ride it.
The train is the only way to Aguas calientes, the town underneath the ruins of Machu Picchu.There are no planes, no buses,
no taxis in the - well, no roads that lead there. So the only way of getting there is by train.
(it´s also possible to take the 3-4 day inca trail hike some of the way....not in february though....it´s rain season and
the trail is closed for maintenance....lucky us :-D )
About halfway through the 2-hour train ride, we suddenly felt a big bump, and the train stood still.
The train had fallen off the tracks. Apparently something quite common, this was no biggie to the personnel, who started
working on getting the train back on track with the very high-tech help of stones and timber.
After about an hour, they succeeded, and the train again huffed and puffed it´s way towards it´s destination.
Arriving in Aguas calientes it was poring down with rain, so we got our rain ponchos out and marched to the city.
After a record-quick lunch, we then bought the tickets to the ruins.
Our plan had been to hike up to the ruins from town - a two hour hike up the mountains, but since it was raining so much,
everyone we asked, told us it would be too hard, muddy and slippery.
So we settled with the 45 minute bus ride up. Finally, we arrived on top of the mountains, a short walk and climb up stairs
later. There it was underneath us. The breathtaking postcard view of the most famous and well preserved inca ruins in the
world. Machu Picchu. Mysterious, Fabulous, Grand. It is all it has been worked up to be and more.
So worth the money and all the trouble of getting there, this is one of the most stunning sights I´ve witnessed.
We spent 4 hours wondering around the ruins, just about managing to see all of the main ruins.
The walking trails were closed, so we didn´t get to hike further up, but it was enough seeing the main site.
The rain had stopped almost immediatly after our arrival to the ruins, and the sun was out again, making it an even more
spectacular sight. A true joy for the eye. There was a very peacful, tranquile athmosphere, and although we were far from
the only tourists there, the place is so big, that we could still feel like having it mostly for ourselves.
Ofcourse it helped that it was low season as well.This awe-inspiring sight is hard to describe in words, and the pictures
can´t capture the magical feeling. It´s truly something to be experienced. Probably the whole mystique surrounding
the tails and stories of the incas,also contributes to making it such a magical experience.
On our way back down, since it hadn´t been raining for some time, we´d decided to walk down.
It started out good, exept we couldn´t find the path to the stairways that was the straightest and fastest way down if you were
walking. So we followed the main road for quite some time. The main road is where the buses drive up and down, cirkelling
the mountain. It takes the bus 45 minutes to drive, so it would take us like, forever.
But at last we managed to find the walking path. It turned out to be a stairway - a five billion stairs, two hour long,
exhcrushiatingly steep stairway. It just went on and on and on. When we finally reached the end I was ready to kiss the ground,
and at that point I imagined if it hadn´t rained on our way up we would have took theese stairs uphill.
I really don´t think I´d´ve survived.....really.
Back in Aguas calientes we had four hours to kill before our night train back. By this time it was late evening,
we were tired,cold and grumpy. The four hours seemed like an eternity.
Then after the two-hour train ride back, and the two-hour cab ride back to cusco. Arriving at 03 in the morning, we were
done with the day.
After a few hours of sleep, our journey continued. We were going to lake titicaca - a 9 hour drive from cusco.
We´d wanted to take the train, but found out it would be cheaper to hire a car with a driver for the whole day,
since the train ticket prices were once again a total rip-off. So we´d made a deal with the same cab driver we´d used
before, and who we´d come to trust and like.
The road was fantastic and very scenic. Up and down winding mountain roads, passing as high as 4300 meters above sea level.
Driving past hordes of lama´s and alpaca´s , small mountain villages, lakes and snow-capped mountains.
Stopping now and then when the driver thaught there was something special worth seeing - like the western-like small
village or the worlds smallest volcano and nearby hot thermal springs.
We were stopped four times by the police who wanted to see the drivers papers when crossing over to different regions.
Everytime the police said his papers weren´t right, and asked him to step out of the car.
One time we were asked to hand over our passports as well. We´ve heard so many stories of police corruption in theese countries,
so this felt a little unnerving. Everytime though, the driver came back and told us he´d paid the police and we could drive on.
A real corrupt system.
Late in the evening we finally arrived in Puno.The gateway to exploring the islands at lake titicaca.
We´d once again trusted our driver to find us some accomodation in town - starting to be a nasty habit.
so we were lodged in an ok place, again very central near the main square. The room was freezing cold though.
Beeing even higher up in altitude than in cusco, it was around 8-10 degrees in daytime. Most houses in theese mountain
villages in Peru are neither isolated or warmed at all - including hotels. So when it´s cold outside - it´s bloody freezing inside as well.
They simply cannot aford to heat up the houses. And since most people up in the small villages still live in small primitive
huts made of clay and dirt, this means that every year in wintertime, many people - especially children - freeze to death.
This is summertime in Peru, so they thaught it was warm in the rooms now. But for us who are used to having our houses heated,
it still felt cold. The personnel at the hotel always wore jackets inside, and admitted to beeing used to always freezing.
Afer a day of orientation in the city, we began to plan our stay. Since it´s required to hire a boat to explore some of
the islands in lake titicaca, we hired a guide to take us there. It´s very hard to try to be a responsible tourist in theese
countries. When you try to ask questions about where the money goes, if the guide is local and so on,
they´ll just tell you what they know you want to hear. Sigh. Well, we managed to arrange it all through a woman who
was introduced to us by our driver from cusco. Not a very plesant person. But next day, she´d arranged for a guide for us.
We took off with the guide, his 10-year old son, and the boat captain.
Lake titicaca is a beautiful sight. Surrounded by snow-capped mountains, it is best known for beeing the highest navigateble
lake in the world. And it´s huge. Our first stop on the lake was the famous floating islands.
A group of more than 70 small islands made completely out of reed (siv ) . The people make the "bottom" of the island of
the roots from the reed, that is still attatched to some dirt. The roots are then cut in small squares, and the squares
are wound together with rope,and attached to the bottom of the sea with an anchor. This then will float.
Then on top, they will put many layers of reed, and as the top layer will start to rot after a few weeks, they keep
putting new layers on top. Every 14 days they need to put on a new layer. It takes them one day to sail to the place where
they collect the reed. It takes one day to harvest it. One day to sail back. One day to cut it in the right size. One day to
put it on. They also make everything else on the islands of reed. The houses, beds, even the boats.
And this is not just for show. People actually live there. One island inhabitates five families. They have one small hut
per family, and then all the families share a kitchen and a "toilet". They make a living by fishing and making
handicrafts to sell to visitors. But since there are over 70 islands to visit, they are not exactly overcrowded.
Each island gets an average of 2 visits every week.
We started by visiting one of theese reed communities, and were welcomed by the families living there.
It is a very weird, and a little disturbing feeling to walk on this island made completely out of reed, floating on top
of the water. With every step, you sink a little, and you feel the squishing of the reed pressing together,
and some places, a little water from below beeing pressed up.
The families then showed us how the islands are built, and showed us around the tiny island. We got to peek inside
the houses, the kitchen, the "bathing facilities" at the water. Then we made some obligatory bying of some of the
handicraft produced by the women of the island. Afterwords we got to sail on one of the reed boats to another island.
After this very different experience, we sailed on. We were supposed to have a three hour sail to a small traditional
island, where we were to stay overnight with a local family. As things went, however,halfway through, there were increasingly big waves at sea,
and the guide and captain told us it would be too dangerous to continue crossing the lake.
The guide then suggested that we spent the night at a small village in a peninsula nearby. There we would also be able to
spend the night with a local family. so we sailed to shore. After getting on land, we were greeted by a sweet kid,
Franklin, aged 16. Our guide then asked him if his family could house us for the night.
Franklin then took us through the steep hills, through a tiny village to his house. There we were greeted by his mother, Irma,
and shown to a guestroom with three large beds. It was a small house built partly of clay and partly bricks.
The "main house" had a small kitchen/storageroom and separated from the kitchen with a curtain,was a small table and four chairs.
Beside the table was a latter leading up to a small space under the roof where the family slept when they had guests.
All in all the house was maybe 15 sq.m, housing mom,dad,two teenagers and grandma.
The tiny extra room in the garden where we were going to spend the night, was where the family normally slept. It was spartan,
but had all you needed - there was even a real water closet. But again - we could already tell it was going to be a cold night.
Franklin and some other local kids invited Leon and Sofie up to the village school to play some football, so we all went up,
us watching as they played. On the way back "home", we met the family´s 13 year old daughter - a sweet,sweet girl.
The small village was the kind where you felt like time stood still. Kids running around on the hillside playing,
men driving the kettle home, sheep,horses,cows,chicken,dogs and pigs walking around freely everywhere around the small clay houses, and all the people
were dressed very traditionally in the colourful, beautiful peruvian clothes and hats.
When we got back "home", Irma had prepared a meal for us, so we were seated at the table and presented with a real rural meal.
First, a tasty soup with potato and veggies from the garden, and after the huge bowl of soup, we got a big portion of rice,
potatoes and vegetables, with a kettle of tea afterwords. A real working man´s meal.
The family was busy unpacking the bag of gifts we had brought with us - some rice,sugar,pasta,coffee,crackers,chocolate,milk
and a lot of pencils (that btw I had carried with me all the way from home for situations like this...)
Especially the chocolate was a succes :-)
After dinner, we backed to our room, trying to keep warm. At eight o´clock there was going to be a local party, a disco as
they called it, at the school. A quarter to eight, the family came walzing into our room, carrying a pile of clothes.
Since we were going to a local party, we should also be dressed like the locals. So the two kids helped us all get dressed.
Patrick and Leon in fine hats and poncho´s, and me and Sofie in the pretty village multi-layer dresses.
There was six layers of dresses, and I felt all packed up. We also looked like clowns in theese clothes,
much to the amusement of the locals when we entered the only classroom at the school, that had been transformed to a "ballroom".
Nevertheless, it was fun. The locals showed us some dances, and then we had to try (various succes I would say..not
necessarily an elegant sight) At one point they needed a girl for one of the local dances, and Sofie was pulled up to
perform. She did a good job trying to keep up with the local kids at a dance she´d never tried before.
After the performances, there was free dancing. A live band was playing, and our sweet, hospitable family always made sure
we were up on the dancefloor, and always had someone to dance with. A couple of hours of constant dancing at this altitude -
we felt more dead then alive, and were sweating like little pigs. A fabulos experience though - so much fun.
Back home, we went directly to bed. We´d pushed two of the beds together, and lying all four of us side by side underneath
16 woolen blankets, we could just about keep warm through the night.
Early wake up in the morning. We had breakfast at 7 o´clock - another huge meal consisting of boiled eggs, home-made cheese,
potatoes and home baked bread. It was poring down with rain as we were escorted back to the boat by our host family who
insisted to walk us down despite the weather. We said our goodbyes to the family, and sailed back to puno.
The last day in lake titicaca area, we´d decided on going for a day trip to the neighbour country, Bolivia.
We´d talked about this with the woman who´d arranged the guide for the boat trip, and had agreed on a time and price.
When she showed up, suddenly the price was higher than agreed, the car was smaller and so on.
We got mad - she got mad - and the deal was off. So we went searching for other drivers who could take us to the border.
Half an hour later we were on our way. A couple of hours drive later, we arrived at the border to Bolivia.
We started by standing in line at the peruvian side. After a while, an officer came to us asking us to go to the
police station next door first. At the station an officer gave us a stamp in our departure card.
Afterwords we stood in line again as the officer from before approached us again asking us details about our stay in Bolivia.
We explained to him we only intended to stay a couple of hours and drive back later the same day. He then said we had to
stay at least 24 hours. It didn´t make sense to us, since we´d heard of many people making daytrips. The officer then
suggested that we go to the Bolivian side and ask the officers there. So we walked over the border to the Bolivian side,
talked to the police there, were asked a few questions about the stay. When they realized we only wanted to stay a couple of hours,
they just signaled for us to go ahead. That was it. No entry stamp or anything.
Officially we were now illegally in Bolivia, since there was no proof of our entry in our passports.
We couldn´t help but worry a bit, cause we´d heard some grim stories of the corrupt police at the Bolivian border, scamming
tourists for money in all sorts of ways. But our worries were uncalled for. We visited the city of Copacabana
(not the famous one from the song) Spent a few hours there, then crossed the border to peru again on foot.
Noone even looked twice at us - which was actually almost as desturbing as the alternative. Imagine how easy human
trafficing is at a border so easy to cross.
Next morning it was time to head back to Lima. We were flying back from the airport in Juliaca. Juliaca is a town
mainly known as a transport hub between the lake titicaca area and Lima. The town itself is probably the ugliest one I´ve
ever come across. It´s filthy and messy. There are no asphalt roads, all the roads are dirtroads. It´s filthier and moore
poor looking than any of the slum areas we´ve passed in India - and that´s saying a lot. We don´t have a lot of pictures from
Juliaca, cos´it didn´t seem like the kind of place where you´d want to flash a fancy camera out of the window.
We only drove by on the way to puno and again on the way to the airport, and that was enough.
I´m not easily scared off, but I´d never have got out of the car in this area. Even the locals said it wasn´t a safe place.
Now if I was a cynic by nature, I could argue that criminality is directly linked to religion.
There seemes to be a tendency that catholic countries have higher crime rates than e.g buddhist countries.
Might a religion where all your sins will be forgiven as long as you confess and say ten Ave Maria´s, be less encouraging
for high moral standards than a religion like buddhism, where reincarnation is a fact of life and people believe thei´ll
have to pay for the sins made in this life, in the next. Maybe people tend to think some more about their actions
if they believe there are consequenses. Anyway, just a simplified thaught. I choose not to be cynical,'
and believe it´s just a coincidence :-)
Back in Lima we checked in at the same fancy hotel again, deciding we needed some self pampering and sauna time after freezing
in the mountains. This time though, we were a little more modest, and didn´t go for the presidential suite :-).
In the morning we headed for the airport, leaving to Ecuador. Only there turned out to be a small problem.
They couldn´t find any tickets issued for the kids.We spent a few hours discussing the matter with the airport personnel,
only to find we were not going to board the plane that day. Drove back to the hotel, booked in for another night,
sorted things out with the airlines, and tried again next morning. This time with succes.
Adios Peru, Hola Ecuador.
Still ready to suck in the last weeks of experiences. So far, it´s been a fabulous trip, but yes - from time to time it´s been
hard as well. We´ve had some very intense months - on the road all the time, and to be truthful, we´ve all had days
when we´ve mostly felt like caving in and going home. When it all just felt too much.
And yes - we´ve also had days where we´ve gotten on eachothers nerves. Beeing together for six months in a row 24-7,
will probably do that to most people. But all in all, I think we´ve done allright uptil now, with way more positive
experiences than the opposite.
Now new experiences await....til´then, hope you´re all good :-)
For those of you who have managed to read this whole thing - I´m thankful for (not to mention impressed with) your patience :-)
p.s there are two photoalbums from peru. I couldn´t fit the pictures in one album...
- comments