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Published: September 19th 2010
Artisanland
Typical Inca weaving with ancient motives, like Pachamama. Pisco in Pisco!
After landing at the airstrip of Lima we quickly realised that the heat of Iquitos does not reach too far into the country. Sweaters on!!! We heard before that Lima is not really nice and full with muggings, etc. so we decided to give it a miss. We went to Pisco straight away, a town on the Pacific Coast, which was heavily damaged by the earthquake 3 years ago. Basically all was ruined at that time, so the town is still in bad shape, ugly concrete half-finished buildings, dust, dirt, not a tourist attraction. But the famous Peruvian drink, Pisco is made in this area so we got there too. And Pisco Sour was indeed very good, so no regrets, but also no hangovers...
Poor man´s Galápagos
Next morning we went off on our most touristy trip ever: Islas Ballestas, also called as "Poor man´s Galápagos" (although there are several islands claiming this 'name of honor'). We got into the private minibus at the hotel and to our astonishment, all the other tourists were Dutch. Come on guys, what´s going on in Holland, everybody's fleeing??? We were taken to a nearby port where we joined
Pinguins on guard
Humbolt pinguins at Poor Men´s Galápagos at Paracas. approx 30 other tourists (including some Asians, who somehow predictably lost their group...), in a large motorboat and went off to the islands. First we stopped at a spot where a "Nazca figure" was etched into the sandy mountain hill: the three pronged Candelabra. The guide was kinda funny, he said nobody has a clue who made the drawing, for what purpose and when. It resembled the San Pedro cactus, famous in Peru for its medicinal and hallucinogenic features. One theory is that it's a pirates treasure map....
After taking the obligatory photos, we continued to the islands. Indeed, they were infested by sealions, humboldt pinguins, masked boobies, pelicans and other birds. We had a nice cruise around for more than an hour and took some great, close-up photos. By lunchtime the tour was over. Instead of spending some time on the souvenir street we went for a good plate of ceviche, a meal made of fresh raw seafood with lime and chilli. We agreed that this was the best place to try it right on the shore. It was delicious. Better than the Colombian version where they drown the fish in salsa rosa, a kind of mixture with
Poor Men's Nazca Lines
At Paracas there is a drawing in the sand, supposed to be made by the same people who draw the famous Nazca lines further south. Resembles the San Pedro cactus, but they say it could be a pirate map too... nobody knows. ketchup and mayonaise.
Oasis among the Sand Dunes - Huacachina
In the afternoon we took a bus to Ica, which is the travel hub towards Arequipa. After we got our tickets for the night bus, we had a whole afternoon to spend, so we took a taxi to Huacachina. This is a small settlement out of town, but the very interesting thing about it is that it´s an oasis with huge sand dunes. Most of the people come here for sand boarding or riding a buggy. We took it easy and were pretty cheap. Had some chilling time under the palm trees and later in the afternoon we climbed one of the dunes to see the sunset. The dunes were infested by French tourists stumbling on sandboards, but we found a spot for ourselves, so we were happy. Had a Pisco Libre in the local bar before heading back to Ica. But apparently pisco is not pisco everywhere, as we enjoyed lovely headaches during the night...
Arequipa - Quick Stop-over
The nightbus to Arequipa was eventless, comfy big chairs, sleep & sweet painkillers. Upon arrival we arranged a ticket to Canyon de Colca. Here
Pelican Party
Still at Paracas on Islas Ballestas. again we had approx 4 hours to spend before departure so we went down town to see the city. Arequipa is also called the "White City" as its old buildings are built of white volcanic rocks. Pretty nice, lots of detailed carvings on the facades. We also visited the local museum where "Juanita, the ice maiden" can be seen. Apparently the Incas thought that mountains were gods and once these mountains/volcanos erupted that was a sign that the gods got angry. To please the gods they used human sacrifices, most of the time young girls. Juanita is one of the 13 children whose bodies were found on the slopes of the nearby volcanos in the last 15 years. As the volcanos were covered by ice since the time of the sacrifices (1420-1520) the bodies remained in pretty good shape. Their skin, organs, blood got preserved over 500 years. Juanita is told to be the most special, as her body was found at the peak of Ambato volcano over 6000 meters. As the guide explained us, the children to be sacrificed were chosen at birth and they were raised in Cusco separately from their families. They were being prepared for the
Let me sleep!
A group of sealions wish not to be disturbed by camera-crazy tourists... sacrificing during their life and when a new eruption happened, the most beautiful child was chosen to be sacrificed. These children had to walk approx 500 kms from Cusco to the mountains together with priests and other important people. With some of the bodies the archeologists found dried placentas and umbical corts. Apparently these were saved at birth, dried and once a person was sick, he was eating these to get better. Amazing, isn´t it? As regards the dying of these children, first the theory was that they drank a intoxicating potion and later froze to death in their tomb, but researchers found out that a special hammer was used instead to slam them on the head. Pretty harsh, but effective....
Canyon de Colca - Thristy Climb
From Arequipa we took a 6 hours bus ride to Cabanaconde, a small village on the edge of the canyon. The deepest point is said to be over 3100 meters. Well, we took the trail down to the bottom early in the morning, this took 2 hours. Once we got down took some photos and soon headed back as we were supposed to take a bus to Chivay at 2
Lonely Lamppost
Urban development indeed reached the desert... at the Huancachina oasis. Why the hell is it there??? pm. Mission failed. The hike back to the village (1200 meters vertical) should take 3-4 hours in good conditions. We had 2 problems: temperature of 35-40C and only 1.5L of water to share. Not good. The trail is basically desert with rocks, no shade, no water on the way. We quickly figured out why we met so many tourists climbing uphill in the morning (shade and temperature). Anyways, we took it as a challenge. Chris was super generous to me, he hardly drank from the water, but still we finished it after approx 3 hours. And this time we were just about half way. But thankfully we met some tourists going downhill and I had the guts to ask for some water. One guy actually gave us a full bottle, we were so grateful. At the end we made it back to the village after almost 6 hours. At the first shop we bought 2.5L drink and finished it in 5 minutes. Of course we missed the bus, so we took an other night in the hotel and went for the morning bus instead. But we found a good bar with excellent pizzas and good pisco´s, this time
no headaches...
Climbing for the Sunset
We walked up to the top of the dune to see the sun setting down... Next stop: Cusco!
Finding Lost Friends in a Lost City
We left for Cusco in the morning and arrived there early the following morning. But Cusco is indeed like Kathmandu: loads of tourists, loads of tour companies, etc etc, the only difference might be that weed is not really pushed that much, but then again we arrived there at 07:00 am.... But we didn´t complain: had our first decent espresso in ages and the waiter told us which tour company was open at this time, cause we had a mission: Finding Lost friends in a Lost City. Hungarian friends of ours from Lux were doing the 4 days Inca trail trek and were scheduled to arrive at Machu Picchu the following day. So we had a mission to find them there. Within an hour we got our trip together: transport to/from Aquas Calientes (a.k.a. Machu Picchu village), 1 night accommodation + access tickets + a 2 hour guide. We happy, so went with the tourist train to A.C., had cheap beer on the square, ate, slept and took off to the Lost City early next morning. Since our travels were a bit hectic the last 1.5 weeks we
Desert Dog
No-man's dog on the sand dune.... opted out for the rat race to get the free tickets for Wayna Picchu: only the first 400 persons arriving at MP can get them and the rat race to there starts at 04:00 am, we slept longer, but still on time to reach MP at 08:00.
So at the entrance there we waited and waited .... think approx 20 minutes till the 2 friends (Gina & Andris)arrived. They knew we would be near Cusco, but they didn't know we would be there when they entered MP. Nice surpise and Agi scared the socks of Gina with the initial greeting. She sneaked up to her in the crowd and said: "Jo napot kivanok!" Think it was the first time since we're on the road that Agi really had a chance to speak Hungarian.... Greeting exchanged, quick chit-chat, but then our guided tour started. Had a walk around MP and indeed: lovely, especially in the morning for us, as at that time the clouds had not really set in. Got quite some explanations from the guide and enjoyed the views. Later we got back together again with our friends, which would actually last for approx a week. They also got
The Sunset
Magical landscape, vibrant colours... and once the sun was gone it became really cold! a guided tour and to our amusement our guides had different stories and explanations... but ok, it was still good. Went back to MP-village for a food and a drink and headed back to Cusco for the night.
Lake Titicaca
Our friends were on a 3 weeks holiday, so they wanted (logically) see a lot on the shortest period of time, so we tagged along, knowing that our clock is also ticking. From Cusco a bus to Puno, the hub for Lake Titicaca. We arrived a bit late, but with a little bit of flexibility (and a wallet) a lot is possible. So the four of us shared a taxi and headed for great sunset views at the rolling hills at the Lago Umayo peninsula. The main point of interest there are the
chullpas (funeral towers), made of massive rocks reaching up to 12 meters. The wind was pretty cold, but the views are good.
Efficient as the four of us proved to be, we got also a nice morning boat tour arranged on the lake, cause in the afternoon we had to head further. But the tour took us to the floating reed villages of the
Arcades in Arequipa
The city is built of white volcanic stones in colonial style. Pleasure for the eyes... Uros people. Ok, once you ignored all the tourist oats and were willing to squeeze in funny positions, you could actually make nice 'non-touristy' pictures, or at least something that comes close to it... But in itself the trip was nice and we enjoyed it, but we were also totally content it was just a morning trip to these islands and not a full day program. In the afternoon we headed to the other side of the lake, to Bolivia, but that´s a different story.
Peru = Kathmandu ?!?
We had a 183 days visa for Peru, but we stayed only 11 days. Did a rush trip down South to meet our friends at Machu Picchu and joined them further South. Nice country, but compared to Colombia and Ecuador (especially with the former), Peru is
SOOOOOO touristy and quite some people just see tourists as walking bags of money, waiting to be emptied. Anyhow, we liked it, but the next time we definitely have to explore the northern part more and we'll avoid the uber-popular places. A few times the images from Kathmandu came into our minds.
Adios,
C&A
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