Peruvian Ruins

We arrived in Peru only 1 week after the level 8.7 earthquake and saw firsthand the might of mother-nature, or Pachamama as they call her here. It wasn’t a pretty sight. Driving through the most effected areas on the recently-built highway, which was now cracked in half through the middle, was like driving into Berlin at the end of the WW2. Ancient towns like Ica and Pisco - an ex tourism mecca - were now reduced to modern day ruins. Sad to see how this cruel world took away what little they had. The crumbling remaining walls of the adobe mud-brick (or straw of the really poor) houses were crawling with helpless, homeless people trying so hard to find their lost property or missing family members - so sad that at times we just couldn’t look no more.

Slowly we made our way to Machu Picchu - apparently the 7th Wonder of the World. At 4.30am we awoke to catch the first bus and miss the tourists (or so we thought!). At 5.30am, after standing in the queue and getting every last cent shaken out of us like the rest of the wealthy tourists, we got on bus 12 out of 20, and we all headed towards this must-visit attraction of South America like lambs to the slaughter. The Incas must be turning in their graves if they know what has become of their empire that was so tragically taken from them by the Spanish conquistadores. By midday those magnificent ancient ruins were crawling with so many tourists trying so hard to get a clear shot of the ruins that at times you had to look hard just to find the ruins amongst them.


Odometer at start: 33 900 km
Odometer now: 51 733 km

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