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Published: February 3rd 2010
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Pisac
We made it, just don't tell anyone how. Since my camera gave out a couple of days after my last entry and it took me 3 weeks and 2 changes of countries to get it fixed, I pretty quickly got out of the rythm to keep the blog updated. When I had my camera working again, there was so much to catch up with that I just didn't know where to start. But now that Aric and Sean and their inhuman iternary have left me and, there is time to look back and reflect upon the amazing things that happened and lay on our route.
Like the Inca ruins of Pisac that are just one hour from Cusco and in amazingly great shape. On the busride there you get a pretty good peep on Saqsaywaman (yeah, it's pronounced that way), smaller ruins. As we arrived we tried ascend the 1000 metres to the ruins, but were quickly stopped by a guard who demanded a tourist ticket that is valid for about all the sites near Cusco and costs about 40 Soles (10 Euro). Since we were about to leave the area, we didn't want to go for that. Unfortunately he was incorruptible to our bribes. But our criminal
Pisac II
Isn't it amazing? minds didn't give up just yet, and we unsuccesfully searched for ways to sneak in. In the end, we had to walk back into town, asking questions, makeing connections to the right people. So, eventually, we found ourselves a cab driver who knew the schedule of the guards. He took us up the road to the ruins after the guards had left and we entered the ruins for free. They were incredibly vast, consisting mostly of farming terraces, the cornerstone of the Inca empire. Since the hype only goes for Machu Picchu, we were the only people at the ruins and had a lot of time and space to explore.
Since we really took our time, we hurried back to Cusco to catch our overnight bus to Are-are-are-quipa. For the first time we opted for the more comfortable option so I finally found myself sleeping and, strangely, playing bingo in a nightbus. Upon arrival, we took a connection to the Colca canyon, the second deepest Canyon in the world (the deepest one is nearby, but harder to access). This time, of course, it was dusty andean roads again, an old bus and crammed seats (especially since we had our
Colca Canyon
We look fresh, but those bus rides were already nagging on us luggage on us). 6 hours later we were recovering in a lovely family run hostel that was protected by a spitting Alpaca, that finally got me and Sean. The next morning we got up early, real early, to catch the bus to Cruz del Condor, a famous view-point to watch the Condors. With our Japanese friend Ryu, we were the first to arrive and saw the peak time of the bird's flights. As the more comfortable tourist crowds arrived, the spectacle was almost over and we we're ready to head on to Copanaconde (it took me a while, the first hours it was Copacabana to me) where we dropped the heaviest parts of our lugagge in a hostel and started our hike down the FREAKING almost DEEPEST CANYON IN THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD - and UP AGAIN TOO..... on the SAME DAY. And it was HOT. Needless to say, upon return I was toast, somehow made it through dinner and into bed and slept one of the best rest of my life. And that all despite the fact that we had two hours time to relax on the bottom of the canyon, a lush oasis with swimming pools in a
Where's the Condle?
Spotting the Condors with Ryu from Japan. highly dry area.
The next day, half way relaxed, we reversed the bus route and made our way back to Arequipa. It took us even longer since there was a rally race and we had to wait for a while and detour. This was pretty much the beginning of the whole bus through South America experience, I didn't like them back then and as the rides got more comfortable but longer too in Chile and Argentina, I liked them less and less (I might be a little biased since I spent the last 55 hours out of 80 in busses - from Santiago to Lima. Look it up on the map and you see what I'm talking about).
But back to Arequipa, argueably one of the better cities in the world. Beautiful architecture, great nightlife, an international vibe and wonderful scenery mainly due to the Volcano El Misti that raises right next to the city and was snowcapped due to its' height of about 5800m (Wild Aric couldn't help but get back later on his trip and take that moutain although he had long proved who the hombre hombre is). We couchsurfed with Nathaniel from Santa Cruz, CA, who
Condle
The condor was both very thoughtful but outgoing and funny too. We had fun in the bars as New Zealandish, British, Chinese, Australian, Austrian, NorthAmerican, Peruian crowd in the bars, enjoyed culinaric experiences as the Adobo soup, made of Pork and very strong, that you eat on Sunday morning after a night through.
It was hard leaving Arequipa, especially for Aric who got a little romantic, but that's the travellers life and so we went on to Aric, the northernmost town in Chile. We took a lot of funny photos with Aric in front of the towns name and it was all very funny then, and on Facebook afterwards and still is. Plus, we saw a steel church built buy the famous Eiffel who as we all know likes building with steel - but he must have still be in his experimenting phase, the church was plain ugly.... well, a steel church, it's supposed to be. A little hanging out on the beach, bodysurfing and taking very romantic sunset pictures. That was that, Aric.
Heading on, overnight bus, to San Pedro de Atacama. Atacama, that is the dryest desert of the world and constitutes the North of Chile. Back in
Colca Canyon II
Hiking into the Canyon the day of Pinochet the dirty work was done here. Now, it's home to some of the biggest Observatoriums in the world, which we all like way better. San Pedro is in a very exotic way (for someone from the alps) beautiful. Sand dunes, salt lakes, flamingos. The town itself boast with a lot of very good restaurant, but unfortunately no bars, everything's closed at 12 o'clock. Most people don't care too much though, since they are too busy doing the vast array of tours offered and we were among them. We flowed on the Salt Lakes, jumped into lakes in the shape of an eye pair, collected salt cristals, went sand-boarding. The latter is unbelievably hard and strenous, since you have to walk all the way up in the desert's heat - let me tell you, snowboardings better. Anyway, the whole stay was great, the landscapes simply amazing. Unfortunately, I didn't do the Alti Plano, a huge plane at 4000 m and more - people showed pictures and it's unbelievable. Of course, I wanted to take pictures like that too, but my camera still didn't work, so I passed on that, something I still regret. But I'll be back.
Oasis
A long way down In the end me and a German friend I made regretted the closing times of the bars, since we met very nice and very blond girls from Norway just as the bar closed. They had a backup plan, a local party - well, 50 people on 200 sqft, none working toilets, power break down after half an hour and therefore sleep time for everyone at one o'clock.
It feels good to live through all those experiences again and I hope it's exciting for you guys as well, although the impressions aren't that fresh anymore. But I'll try to catch up with the present in the next days so you'll have stories from Ecuador and Colombia that are still hot.
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