Our first impression of Puno left us wondering why we had decided to come here at all. Puno isn't a nice city, but at least we managed to find a nice hostel owned by an old couple who let us order pizza and watch Oliver Twist in the livingroom! The lake The next morning we were off into lake Titicaca. Our first stop was at the floating islands, which were very touristy. Nevertheless it was interesting to see how they build the islands with blocks of roots and strands of reeds from the lake. Next, we were dropped off at Amantani island, where a nice family rented us a room for the night. We joined them for lunch, which was at least 10 varieties of potatoes (yellow, orange, white, defrosted, dehydrated, etc). In the early evening ... read more
So, instead of doing the classic tour-organised trek up to Machu Picchu we decided to visit some isolated, gringo-free ruins on our own. Surprisingly, Jens (our German friend from Colca Canyon) was willing to put up with us for another trek, so together with him we decided to do the Choquequirao trek. Choquequirao is an Inca ruins site about 30km from any village with a road. So the only way to get there is to trek and camp! We spent a day in Cusco getting everything we needed, from renting a tent, mats and a gas stove to buying cutlery, a pot and 4kg of pasta. Then we spent the evening boiling eggs... our only protein source for 4 days! Day 1 Jens came to pick us up early from our hostel. We caught a bus ... read more
Cusco We arrived early in Cusco after a 12h night bus from Arequipa for what was going to be an amazing two weeks! We found a really nice hostel with cool people and a chilled atmosphere. We spent the first few days visiting Cusco and the sacred valley. Cusco itself is an amazing (although very touristy) city. It was the capital city of the Inca empire and has lots of Inca ruins scattered around it. But it also has very nice colonial buildings and churches. The plaza Mayor (main plaza) is particularly impressive with the cathedral complex on one side, a jesuit church + convent adjacent to that, and colonial buildings with pretty balconies on the remaining two sides! Our 'sacred valley day' started early on a bus to Pisac, an hour away from Cusco. The ... read more
Arequipa is a very cute colonial city. The central plaza, white buildings and cobbled streets are very picturesque. We visited Santa Catalina, a convent that housed nuns from wealthy families... at some point the archbishop had to ban them from having more than one servant each! The convent is like a little town, with streets, little houses and several pretty courtyards. We also visited Juanita, a 500-year old frozen girl who was sacrificed on the top of a mountain by the Incas. At our party hostel we met Chelsea (an Australian journalist) and Jens (a German medic), who apparently liked us enough to join us on a trek to Colca Canyon. So after a big night out we cured our hangover in the terminal terrestre and got onto a 6-hour bus to Cabanaconde. Here we had ... read more
Getting off the plane from Iquitos in Lima was a shock! Bo and I were both in shorts and t-shirt when we stepped out of the plane and into the cold night of Lima (15 degC). Outside the aiport was even worse: no mototaxis but only cars. We were back to some form of civilisation! After having put on a few layers and a little half hour ride with a crazy taxi driver, we found our "party" hostel in the trendy and arty suburb of Barranco. For our first day in Lima we decided we wanted to explore the historical center and its colonial buildings. We visited the cathedral, the dominican convent (with an amazing cloister), the franciscan monastery and much more. By 4 pm we were saturated with culture and decided it was time to ... read more
Iquitos The view from the plane was spectacular during landing: an endless sea of green jungle with the wide, black Amazonas river snaking through the middle. Iquitos is the largest city unreachable by land, a hot and humid metropolis where you just can't get rid of that layer of sweat. The extent of poverty became apparent to us as we walked to Belén, the floating slums. Its currently the end of the dry season, so we got to walk around the dirt paths between the bare wooden houses on stilts. In the gigantic Belén market you can find absolutely everything, from chopped up turtle to giant slugs and snails and fish with what seems like crocodile skin as well as any type of fruit, vegetable or herb. The Amazon At 6.45am we were ready for the ... read more
Guayaquil, Cuenca & Vilcabamba Guayaquil may be Ecuador's biggest city, but it definitely isn't the prettiest. We walked along the renewed riverfront parade and around a colourful little hilltop village with a nice view of the whole city, but after that there wasn't much else to do. So the next day we went to Samborondon, a suggestion from our Quiteño friends, which turned out to be a very posh neighborhood with only closed condominiums and shopping centres. Interesting, but not really our thing. So we were happy to get on the bus to Cuenca, which is a charming city with many colonial buildings and churches. We had a funny night out with some other travellers, starting off at a microbrewery and ending up sipping cocktails at a live music bar with really bad and loud rock. ... read more
Santa Cruz Arrival in Baltra felt like we had just landed on the moon, rather than a tropical island in the Pacific. During the ride to Puerto Ayora we mostly saw rocks, bare trees and cactuses. We visited the Charles Darwin centre where giant tortoises are bred, bringing them back from the brink of extinction. Christian was very lucky to sneak into the last spot on dives to Seymour and Gordon Rocks, while I went on a bay tour which involved some snorkling. The dives were quite amazing and Christian was able to see loads of different sharks (even hammerheads), sea turtles, sea lions and plenty of fish. One of the highlights of the island was our trip to tortuga bay, a paradisical beach where we were encircled by 1m-long white-tipped sharks. On another day we ... read more
Latacunga, Isinlivi, Chugchilán and Quilotoa We were dropped off on a busy, dusty road and our first impression of Latacunga was: 'why the hell did we come here?' But all along the 10min walk into the centre, the small city became much prettier and in the evening, when the traffic was gone, its narrow streets with rustic lighting could even be considered charming. We stayed for 1 night at hostel Tiana, a very friendly place with an outdoor cafe/chillout area. The next morning we took a bus to Isinlivi, a small Andean village. The bus ride was both spectacular and scary, with hair-pin bends on ridiculously steep paths. But we arrived safely and went on a small hike to the top of a hill overlooking the village with a 'bienvenidos a Isinlivi' sign. Hostel Llullu llama ... read more
Although we have only been here 3 days, we have definitely experienced a few adventures already. Half an hour after our arrival in Quito, we managed to lose each other while taking the metro bus to the centre. Luckily we both managed to find our way to the hostel about an hour later, but the first lesson was learnt. The first two days were spent wandering around Quito and especially the old colonial town. The houses are really beautiful and the visit of the monastery of san francisco was really interesting. Lots of churches were of course visited and we also managed to meander around the new town. The hostel we stayed at in Quito was really nice and friendly. We had an amazing view from the top bar onto the old town and met a ... read more