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Published: September 24th 2009
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Jorge
My pilot After finally being able to sell my car on my last day of my Northamerican journey - pretty hard when you can start the car with a scredriver and you´ve got a strange, foreign accent - and storing some of the stuff I wouldn´t need or would be too precious to take with my friend Pearl, I set off for Peru. Maxwell and Derek gave me a farewell at the airport. For some reasons there were no queues at all at LAX and they even spared me the special security treatment for the first time - I consider myself very lucky for that. 5 hours overnight to Fort Lauderdale, 7 hours at the airport sleeping at a lawn right next to the airport and another 6 hours to Lima.
I took a cab to my first couchsurfing host Brenda, which had a nice apartment in Miraflores, the expat´s and tourist part of town. The traffic was wild, loud and unorganized, the streets lively at 8 o´clock at night - still nothing compared to India. At my place was two other couchsurfers, Manuel from Italy and Petro from Poland, who gave me some hints for sneaking into Machu Picchu which I
Colonial house
All over the city center in Lima might be able to use soon. My hosts were two beautiful sisters, super hospital. We had a little party right awa, with a couple of friends coming over. Manuel cooked gorgeous Pasta Carbonara and the girls prepared Tequenos, a Peruian dish - cheese in flour fried.
I spent the next day with Manuel, we went paragliding at the cliffs of Miraflores, watching the surfers below. My ´pilot´Jorge went paragliding in Austria before and was well experienced. After having done that, we had dinner at a splendous mall named Larcomar, which is built into the cliffs and quite a sight itself. When we arrived, there was another couchsurfer at Brenda´s place, by the name of Sean. That was actually awesome, since Sean is my travel mate for the next weeks and we had a hard time trying to figure out how to meet in the metropolis of Lima - but then we just happened to meet by accident, out of thousands of hosts in Lima. We didn´t really get to know each other though, since I was off to stay with Gianni that night, a lovesick guy who described the Italian girl he lost his heart too all evening.
Laura
My host Laura and me hosing around at the contemporary exhibiton in the National Museum in Lima The next day 2 girls from Germany, Annika and Amilia surfed at his place, and we made plans to hang out in the City Center in the afternoon. So, Sean and me explored the area by ourselves in the morning, seeing Plaza des las Armas with the presidential palace, the church in which Francisco Pizarro is buried and amazing colonial houses. The latter had beautifully carved wooden balconies, which obviously only can sustain in a place where it rains as little as in Lima. Disturbing was the rather massive presence of the military at the presidents residence with tanks with water guns intended to disband mobs all over the place, some even had machine guns atop.
After meeting the girls, we visited the Monastery of San Francisco, which houses the oldest library of South America. Again, the wooden carvings were most stunning, among them a dome. Catacombs were below the church, a lot of effort was put into storing the skulls and bones in a organized, almost artistic way, which felt awkard.
We headed to Plaza San Martin next, walking a shopping street to get there. It was crowded and the shops had high quality products, it almost felt
Barranco
Lots of atmospheric restaurants and bars here, right at the ocean as walking Mariahilfer steet in December. In general, the time of sunset, the temperature and the clouded sky reminds me of autumn in Austria, giving me slight feelings of homesickness everyday at sunset.
Anyway, we made it to the Martin square, which was quite a sight at night - splendous. We had the Pisco Sour at the hotel Gran Bolivar, supposedly the best one of that drink you can get in Peru. Pisco is a liquor, and mixed with juices it makes an awesome drink.
Sean and me had a different host the last day, tuesday. We moved there in the morning and had a little Jam Session there right away, to the pleasure of her mother who was listening. I was on the piano, Laura on the guitar and Sean on the frying pot, his drums. Her mother rewarded us with a breakfast afterwards, their hospitality was overwhelming. The family plays a big role in the life of Peruians - it rather common that kids stay at there parents house into their late twenties or later, until they get married. Laura was 26, her sister 30 and her brother 31, all of them stayed with their parents in
a rather small appartment, Laura shared the room with her brother.
After the breakfast we set off for the National museum, which was free of charge and packed with Inca artwork. We learnt about the Shining path there too, a leftwing terror cell which brought Peru at the brink of civil war during the 80s. Learning about Peru´s history until the late 90s makes you wonder how it became that seemingly stable country it is today that quickly.
Next we visited Barranco, another coastal quarter, and had dinner there - Ceviche, raw fish in lemon juice. Gorgeous. Laura´s sister Birgitta joined as in Miraflores where we had some beers and enjoyed the performance of a good local band.
Sean and I set off for Cusco the next day, we took the airplane. It was stunning seeing the Andes rise below you - close too the end of the flight there was a snowcovered 6500 summit just outside the window. The valley of Cusco itself is quite a sight too, the landing exciting, the pilot takes a sharp turn around a mountain and lands on the airfield which is more or less in the middle of the city. Being
Cusco view
Sean and me enjozing the view from our hostel finally on the ground feels good, not only because of the extraordinary landing approach - the main square is splendid, two cathedrales are right there. On all sides of the city rise mountains, and with them colourful houses on their slopes. Our hostel was one of them, and I tell you, it was no fun carrying your heavy backpack up there at 3,300 meter altitude.
We headed for Qorikancha right away, ruins of an old Inca temple that are interdwined with colonial buildings. The temple was covered with an inch deep layer of gold, unless the Spaniards came. Few of the temple has survived their rampage - but it took them to destroy the Inca´s buildings, which could withstand the common earthquakes well - the Spanish churches had to be rebuilt after every natural disaster.
We met the third of the gang, Aric, in the evening - el hombre hombre as they call him all over South America. He spent the last month travelling Bolivia and Argentinia by himself, climbing 6500 m summit on the route.
We joined a couple from New Zealand for dinner and the obligatory beer afterwards. I had Llamma steak, muy rico, very tasty. I
felt a little bad, since I think they are pretty cool animals, but I couldn´t help trying it.
So, the three of us, Sean, Aric and me, are off for Aguas Calientes tonight, it´s the hub to get to the Machu Picchu. We take the local buses, have to change in the middle of the night and do a lot of hiking the next morning. But we´re feeling adventurous, and even the trains are just a rip off, since only tourists use them. There is a way to sneak into Machu Picchu too, and I feel very inclined to try that. It´s supposed to be the more beautiful trek.
I´m excited, I´ll keep you posted!
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Yvonne Tron
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Franz , sounds amazing , there is nothing like traveling.... i will be checking in from time to time enjoying a bit of the way with you. If I have any friends that might be interesting for you to meet will certainly let you know! Thanks for sharing , have fun and keep safe.