From failing to boobies and the lost city of the Incas

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Once I mastered the craft of surfing(or had enough of embarrassing myself 😉 ) I figured it was time for me to move on.
So in a full day of biking fun I reached the hiking capital of Peru, Huaraz, where... I didn't really have a solid reason for going since I am not a big fan of hiking.
But I went anyway, partially due to that it was only a 'small' detour and partially because I met a nice girl in Chachapoyas who was also a guide there.
And thus on my first day in Huaraz I met up with the girl, had some lunch and she explained to me how to get to Chavin de Huantar, a close to 4.000year old historical site in the area.
We also decided to do a one-day hike together to lago69... yes it is actually called that and no, you shouldn't get any ideas because of the name ;p

And so it happened, the day after I went to visit Chavin de Huantar, which was a cool site, knowing its age and the fact that it was still there... plus it had llamas!

But then, the hike...

We left, by motorbike, early in the morning of the next day and the first part went easy enough until we needed to turn right, into the mountains.
There the asphalt turned in to dirt-road and the number of guarding dogs drastically increased :/
But as was to be expected the little motorbike turned out to be, just like its owner 😉 , a beast and managed just fine climbing to 4.000m on something that could barely be called a road.
After passing some already really beautiful lakes we reached the bike's final destination and thus the starting point of the hike for lago69, which would take us to an altitude of 4.500m in roughly 3hours of hiking(one way).

Since Huaraz is situated at an altitude of 3.300m, I figured acclimatizing basically meant walking around town a bit and giving your body time to get accustomed to the lack of oxygen.
But, lets just say that early on in the hike I could sense that this was not the case as the first, easy and flat, part already put me well out of breath.
While at the same time I could feel that my body could more than handle this level of effort, I could also feel that there was no way that I was going to ascend another 500m as every step was an ordeal and this was just the easy part...
Basically I pushed on for about another hour, making it to 4.200m or so, until it began to rain.
Since that took the last bit of fun out of it and we were also well behind schedule, we decided that the smart thing to do was to turn around and head back.
Disillusioned, demoralized and wet we got back on the bike for our descend to Huaraz.
Luckily it cleared up after about half an hour making it not too bad of a ride.
Although we didn't make it to our goal, it was a fun day thanks to the company and on top of that I learned a vital lesson, being that donkeys really like banana peals.

Two days later I found myself in Lima, the City of Kings, which was surprisingly beautiful.
Despite of having some nice chats with some police-officers I didn't stay long as I was on my way to what is also known as 'the poor man's Galapagos'.
The islas Ballestas are located just off shore near the town of Paracas, 240km south of Lima, and host besides penguins, dolphins, seals, sea-lions, pelicans, boobies(!) and a variety of other birds, people who collect all the bird droppings as Peru is thanks to these islands (one of the?) worlds biggest guano-exporters(apparently its a really good fertilizer)...I thought you should know ;D

Next stop was Nasca, where the mythic nasca-lines are found.
Sadly the only way to get a proper view of the bigger, more impressive lines is to book a tour in a little chesna-type aeroplane which is rather on the expensive side obviously and well there have been a whole bunch of accidents involving these tours in the past years, I have been told...
Luckily on my way in to Nasca I drove past a big sign saying 'Nasca lines' with a 10m high look-out tower next to it.
Apparently there are some smaller figures you can view from these towers as well.
I must admit I wasn't really impressed but it was to have seen some nasca-lines I guess.

After my night in Nasca I was ready to embark on the biggest and bad-est trip so far.
The path of Nasca to Cusco is roughly 770km, crosses a high-altitude plain and a pass where the weather is known to be crazy.
Besides adding another 80km to the route by initially driving the wrong way, everything went surprisingly smooth until the morning of the third and final day.
I left early on under a heavy and dark deck of clouds and it didn't take long before they burst open.
At this time I was already climbing towards the last pass I needed to pass on my way to Cusco so I was kind of happy, but being terribly wet and cold while driving uphill trough clouds and wind at an average speed of 30kmph didn't really add to this feeling.
But luckily crazy weather that can go from sunny-shiny to windy-rainy can go the other way too and so once I was over the pass basically the sun started to shining and drove away every last bit bad weather and dried me up in a matter of minutes.

Two hours later I found myself looking for a hostal in Cusco, the Mekka of travelling in South-America(if not the world :o ).
The first day I spend exploring the city, its market-places and many alleys.
I also thought about how I was going to visit the inevitable, Machu Picchu.
There were several options, the most famous off course being the Inca-trail.
The Inca-trail is a 3 or 4day trek over, obviously, Inca-trails.
You probably figured out already that there was no way that I was going to trek for four days with the little morale I had left after Huaraz.
It is also possible to take the tourist train from Cusco to a place close to Machu Picchu, but since this train is priced beyond any logical explanation, it didn't take me long to discard this option.
Another possible way to visit Machu Picchu is independently, meaning you take the local buses and hike your way there on your own(or in a little group) without guide or anything, which is probably the cheapest way to go.
But I heard of some people along the way there was another four day trip to Machu Picchu, which didn't involve a whole lot of hiking, was fun and very reasonably priced, so this was what I opted for and left two days later with a group of nine for four days of fun-fun-fun and amazement 😉
The group included two American girls, a Belgian couple on honey-moon, two Argentinians, a Mexican, me and the Guide.

The first morning we were driven up a mountain from which we would descend by mountain bike and after lunch we got ready for our after-noon rafting trip, which on its turn was lots of fun.
The second day was, I thought at first sadly, a full day of hiking.
But as the average altitude was only 1.900m and I apparently am in OK shape, it turned out to be fun actually.
Especially as we passed by a whole bunch of nice sceneries, animals and also walked for a good two hours over a part of the Inca-trail.
The third day we went zip-lining, which was also a lotta fun and weirdly, since I am not too found of heights usually, this did nothing to me and well I thoroughly enjoyed it.
In the afternoon we did a short 2h30 hike along the train treks to Aguas Calientes, which is by default the place from where you visit Machu Picchu.

And the fourth day... was magic, there is no better way to describe it, the feeling when walking on Machu Picchu, every step has a surrealistic panoramic view, every way you look you see something amazing, every moment you are there you are simply baffled by it all.
Again there were two options to get up to Machu Picchu in the morning.
The park opens at six, so you can take the 5h45 bus(8USD :/ ) or you can start walking at 4h30 and find yourself about 2000stair-steps later at the park entrance, which I did... fit as I am ;P
The first two hours we had a guided tour after which I climbed Wayna Picchu, the 'little' mountain at the far end of the Machu Picchu site.
Which turned out to be a fairly though 50minute walk up mostly pretty steep stairs but, as you can imagine, the views made it totally worth it.
After that I basically walked all over the place, finding dozens of cool places and views.
So in the end, Machu Picchu, a tourist trap? Yes. Utterly amazing and totally worth it all a hundred times over and more? Hell yeah!

Tuesday I arrived at Puno which is located at the shores of … 😉

P.S. 'Srry' for being absent from the blog for so long but had a bit of a writing problem and when I finally did manage to write something down the site didn't wanna upload it -.-
And if you want more pictures, you can find those on my facebook since uploading pictures is a whole lot easier and faster there...

Cheers!

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Comments

[Jacques]

We are very pleased with your latest posting but this time the waiting took a very long time. Some of us must have been impatient. Sometimes it is said: no news is good news but from you we expect more regular news, not daily, but 3 weeks is a very long time. A writer\'s problem. Well after all those magnificent reports we got from you in the last 6 months we must be very forgiving. We cannot be angry with someone who has succeeded in making us part of this beautiful trip and who has been sending us so many lovely reports and such nice pictures. Having a retrospective view on the most remarkable events which colour your adventurous enterprise, we cannot enough underline the importance of two things. First the decision to get hold of the Spanish language which is indispensable if you want to get in touch with the local people. This decision to learn Spanish has had a major effect on all your further activities. If you hadn\'t taken this decision you couldn\'t have met all that interesting people who helped you find the best possible ways to enjoy your trip fully. The second important out of the blue decision was the purchase of that motorbike. This \" thing \" makes it possible for you to travel in a total different manner. A normal tourist(without a motorbike of course) doesn\'t get the opportunities of sightseeing as you do. A normal tourist gets to beautiful places with a bus or in some special instances with an helicopter but the fun which you experience with your motorbike cannot be compared to the sighseeing of the poor tourist who as most of us is travelling without a motorbike. Without your motorbike your trip would have been completely different. Without your motorbike you wouldn\'t have been able to meet all those lovely dogs. They make a lot of noise but (most of them) don\'t bite and wag their tail. I cannot understand why you have a problem with those lovely dogs. And that donkey story. I am sure that he knows that he must watch out for a second stone but I didn\'t know that he likes pealed bananas. Again you discovered how beautiful \"our\" world really is. Places which you will never forget and whereof we only can dream. In your report you wrote that at Huaraz you were well out of breath but at the same time, you said, you could feel that your body could easily cope with the effort which you were making. This is something to be amazed about. The meaning of that magic figure 69. I didn\'t know that you were so familiar wth that figure. Most certainly it gave a boost to your imagination and now I am going to finish all the nonsense which I am presently writing. After 200 days and 8.125 km of motorbike driving I still say to you have a very nice time, have fun, enjoy yourself as much as you possibly can. Move on and don\'t look back.