01.12.2011 Copacabana, Isla de la sol & Titikaka Lake, Bolivia

After a bus drive from Puno in Peru to the frontera, where we crossed after a short tuck-tuck drive by foot the border. The immigration process was short and painless. At the other side of the boarder a small bus already was waiting for transport to Copacabana. This is actually the place which gave the famous beach in Rio it's name. We found a very cheap accommodation on top of a building. In the afternoon we did hand-washing of our cloths and the sun and the wind dried most of it within no time. In the first night we thought we gonna fly away, as a hard wind and rain came over us. Some of the rain came through under the door.














Copacabana is well known for pilgrims as it is the host of the Virgin of Copacabana. She is the protector for house and car. We were able to witness how some locals climbed the mountain at the bay of the Titikaka Lake. After passing the steep climb and crosses of Jesus way you reach the top. There you can buy candles, beer, flowers, model cars, taxis, busses and model houses (?!?).























Why would you buy a model house or a car for your kids after such a climb? The little kid will play with it for 10 min and then you have to carry the kid PLUS the toys back down! We quickly learned the. True reasons for all this merchandise. Families come up here to pray for the protection of their belongings, build up a little scenery of their homes, with little tree branches, as real as possible. Then they chew coca leaves, do some offerings for pacha mama (mother earth) as well. They spray some of the alcohol over the their little model city and drink the rest of it themselves. The entire family joins in and the 5 year old one will sit between them with a glass or the bottle of beer to pray with them and hope the prayers are heard.























As the town is a mecca for pilgrims and has not only the tradition to climb the mountain to follow Jesus's Stations of the Cross, you can also decorate your van, bike, bus, truck, taxi or what ever kind of vehicle you have with flowers and other colorful things and drive in front of the church. There you can open a bottle of champagne, soda or beer, spray a bit around and drink the rest whilst the priest is baptizing your precious for you for safe rides.























They have boats here build out of grass. Once they rebuild an old plan of a boat and crossed the ocean with this type of boat!























The food was great and we especially loved the trout which we had in one of the local market halls prepared by a true mama figure. You could see right away that she liked her food as well, as she had a fair bit on her hips. In Bolivia all dishes are served with rice and potatoes at the same time. As sauce you will get served a bottle of ketchup and mayonnaise. Nice! Another speciality of Copacabana is the huge special popcorn. It comes in bags of 2x2m! That is what I call a family snack (or if you want to watch all three episodes of Lord of the rings)!











As by the Inca believed that the world and the religion were created on the Isla de Sol, we took a ferry to get there in the early morning. When we arrived there we realized that the Swiss were faster then us... Our friend Sandra and a group of Swiss just arrived as well and we went together on the trail from North to South. The views are absolutely amazing.























We didn't feel like we were in over 3000m hight with the blue water of the Titikaka Lake and the heat of the sun upon us. It was a nice four hour hike through the islands. The north and the south have gates on the trek which are manned by locals to charge us an entree fee to pass.











When we arrived in the town on the south side of the island we looked for an accommodation. After some comparing we found a nice place to stay and went to a restaurant to be able to enjoy the sunset and a cold beer.























In the morning we set our alarms on really early, so we were able to witness a spectacular sunrise. With the snow-covered mountains in the background the sun gave a mystical light on the landscape and the lake. The gods must have known why they chose this island to create the world.























We had a pleasant ride back on the ferry where we enjoyed browsing in some of the individual shops and the charm of the town. In front of the church was a big party where a group of traditionally dressed ladies and gentlemen stood and other people passed by, gave them presents and put confetti on their hats. The music played and a lot of fireworks got lit up and exploded all the time. This is one tradition they have here to light fire crackers to have the spirits hear their prayers.























We liked THIS Copacabana quite a lot. In the afternoon however we took a bus to La Paz. On the way our bus had to drive on a little ferry and we had to take a small boat to transfer over a part of the lake. Always new adventures...























If you want to see more pictures click here Titikaka Lake

27.11.2011 - 29.11.2011 Machu Picchu, Peru

We travelled from Cusco to Aqua Caliente by bus and walked the last bit by foot. For everybody with fears of hight and falling down steep slopes probably should take the train... The first part of the journey was great and the roads in pretty good shape. A lot of roadwork on the way showed us that Peru was busy with bringing the roads in top shape. The last part of the trip however was on dirt roads, sometimes only a little wider then the bus with up to 1000m drops down to the river... Our driver was fearless, but his music fantastic.











After purchasing our tickets for the lost city, we camped at the foot of Machu Pichu. Early in the morning we packed all our stuff and made our way up the steep mountain. After an exhausting hour and 1643 steps we reached at the gate of the park. As I had the big backpack I had to wait for the storage to open at 6am. It was already bright and the first view of the city was absolutely breathtaking. As not too many people were on the site as of now, we were able to enjoy this spectacular place and take some nice pictures.



































It is absolutely amazing how this city is build on top of this steep slopes. The size of the town is also incredible big. I wasn't aware about the buildings on top of the other mountain, called wainupicchu... After. Climbing this even steeper mountain trek, I call the city now "the city of the million steps"!











We climbed to the very top and enjoyed the deserved view for a while before we took a different way around the mountain. Many more steps build the way and it didn't want to stop.











It was a beautiful and exhausting experience. We were not alone when we suffered in the heat... Ask Lukas! :)
After coming back to the main area we explored more of the ruins and had a little rest in the shade of the stone walls on one of the terraces. The late afternoon brought a little silence over the ancient place. This was before the school groups arrived...











Another lifetime dream came true and it was a beautiful moment we could experience together. At the end of the day we walked the 1641 (2less then up, because of a special construction of a wall...) back down (the bus from Aqua Caliente to the park entrance would have cost US$8 for one way), build our tend up, paid for the day and went to town to buy a big bottle of beer (1ltr) and some spaghetti for dinner. This we prepared at the foot of Machu Picchu with our night security team... A guard of 4 dogs surrounded our tent the entire night.











It was nice and warm even though it rained a little bit during the night. As the morning was nice and sunny, everything was dry after breakfast and ready at the time we had to pack for our departure. 2 of the dogs went with us on our 2 hour walk along the rail tracks back to the Hydrostation (a ticket for the train return to Aqua Caliente would have been US$40 per person). We enjoyed the walk and had plenty of time before we got our lift back to Cusco.























Our drive back is a different story... We had this young kid driving us. He had the tendency to drive on the left hand side and honk the horn before every corner, sometimes also on the straight. I couldn't watch him driving... The next bad thing was, that two lesbian girls were sitting next to him in the front. He was very interested in them, especially when they started kissing. (I told you before that the roads were small and the slopes steep and deep, right?!) but I guess what was the worst was his music. He had this cd with over 300 songs on it. It was produced in a garage on a 15$ synthesizer and then sung by drunk people on a karaoke machine. Every 20 songs sounded the same and were all miserable bad! In between he put a cd in which was a Peruvian traditional band with pan flute and chore singers. I liked it the first time we heard it. The singing was more or the less very similar from song to song. So when the cd played the second time it wasn't as easy to listen to than the first time. When it played the 4th time (it's a long ride...) I started to hate pan flutes! I was very close to strangle this kid and shuffle his music up his ears... We were so relived when we finally arrived in Cusco and could leave this evil place and head to our Hostal for a peaceful night.

We had a little time to explore more of Cusco.























For more pictures see below links:

Pictures to Cusco

Pictures to Machu Picchu

17.11.2011 - 23.11.2011 Huaraz & the Santa Cruz Trail, Peru

Our trip to the Santa Cruz trek was fantastic, however we are a little frustrated about the fact that the company we booked with was a little rip off. We arrived in Huaraz at 6.30am and a crowd of people was waiting for the new arrivals. Max spoke German and offered to show us to the address we wanted to go, as he was part of the local guide association. We ended up to stay in a hostel he promoted from the beginning. It was a nice place and the price was ok as well. He kept on talking and we ended up signing up for a day trip to a volcano and for the Santa Cruz trek. With all the experiences I made I wouldn't book with Max again and I wouldn't recommend it to anybody else to book with him or the agency "Genesa". There are plenty of other agencies in town, however it is hard to trust as not all promises seem to be kept. So watch out and cover your back! Sadly I have to start like this and it keeps me brand marked.

The trip itself to Santa Cruz was great and we enjoyed the people and the scenery, even when it was raining.

On the first day of our arrival to Huaraz we took it easy to acclimatize to the hight. We visited the local market, which was filled with all different parts of pigs, cows, goats, chicken and the local delicatessen "cuy", we keep them for our kids and here they eat them... It looks strange to see them cut open with all their organs still inside lying on their back. Or you see them on the street alive in a net next to a local woman selling them.
The market itself offered also all different kind of vegetables, home goods, textiles and people with sewing machines ready to fix your cloths for you. We found this street where some people build up some tables and placed their museum ripe machine writers on it and offered their service to write your letters or perhaps your lifetime story book.











On our second day we drove up the mountains to hike a short 2km to a lake with a glacier. It was even snowing on the way and whilst we ate our mandarines we had a Christmas feeling. As we learned from our experience in Quito, we were prepared and had loads of chocolates in our backpacks (good for energy in the high altitude) which delighted Chrisy and our Swiss company Sandra. We also started the day with coca tea and had a couple more later the day.

The glacier had beautiful colors and was breathtaking. That might have also been because of the 5500meters above sea level. the highest we've been so far.











We were the attraction for the mainly Peruvian tourists. I think more photos of us and them got shot then of the glacier and the environment. I felt like I should charge for every picture taken. On the way back we had a very brief stop at one of the local unique cactus trees.











This Raimondi cactus trees were up 15meters tall and up to 100 years old. It is amazing that in such a high and harsh environment this plants are able to survive for such a long time. The warmth of the bus and more chocolate was just the right thing for us after the cold and snowy weather of the Andean mountain. As I felt some symptoms of altitude sickness I had more coca tea and more chocolate.

The showers in the Hotel Galaxia were with a good pressure and good heat to warm us up before preparing our backpack for the next day and going to bed to be rested for the 4 day trek. We stored most of our belongings in a "secure" room and only took the most necessary with us.





We got picked up at hotel and walked to the agency of the guides. There we waited, and waited and waited. Nobody gave us a clue why we waited... Then finally, almost an hour after the supposed leaving time a guide came and told us to follow him. So we walked through half of Huaraz to a public bus terminal. We got explained that we would travel by public bus to the starting point of the hike. There we would meet with the rest of the group.

Ok, here are a view points which drive me crazy:
Departing an hour later then planned is one thing and in South America nothing to worry about. That instead of the private bus, which was confirmed twice after asking for it makes a big difference in the experience we had to take a public bus. That we saw three action movies and countless numbers of killed people during that time doesn't make it any better. That we didn't have two stops at beautiful laguna's will be forever missed. We also didn't have a breakfast break as promised, which left us hungry until lunch time. We had to wait for the rest of the group for another 2 hours. At 10pm the night before Max told us that the maximum of 8 people was reached. When the other bus arrived I counted a total of 14 people. Well, what can I say about this? And finally I found out during one of the evening conversations that most of the other people paid 60 Soles less than we did. This is a lot of money... So... don't go with Genesa agency!

However, after the donkeys were loaded with all the equipment necessary, we started our hike.





The first day was only 4 hours long and good to get used to the high altitude. We made camp next to a nice river in a beautiful valley. After the tents were build up we received some coca tea and cookies. A good way to get the group to know, we spent until dinner arrived in a too small eating tent, as the group was a little bigger then supposed.











We slept good in our tent and got woken up with a hot coca tea, which was brought to us by our guide. What a service! After packing all our gear together we started the climb to the highest point of our hike. We had to climb 1500meters to reach the pass. The air was thin, but luckily it was mostly dry except of some sporadic drops. The trees gave slowly away to high moors with little ponds of water.











Wen we reached the pass we had a breathtaking view to both sides. Each side was so different and beautiful. Our lunch tasted especially good after this climb!

















Even our little friend, which joined us on our trip made it to the top. As we heard later, he came from a 4 day tour the same day when he turned around with us back on the trek. As we didn't know his name, we called him "Caramello".





It got warmer and warmer with every meter going down. Our camp was beautiful spot next to a river, surrounded by majestic mountains. Some say one of them is the mountain from the Paramount movies.











The sun dried all our gear and sleeping bags and after dinner we had a pleasant sleep. Well, most of the time at least. Caramello seemed to have a gift to see ghosts and to protect us he barked at them. It took Ben's walking stick to get him shut up. Next morning he was lying in front of Bens tent and awaiting him to get up... The next day started with coca tea again. The first part of the day lead us to a stunning laguna with a glacier.











Afterwards we had a long stretch through a long valley, which was very easy to walk and everybody was able to enjoy the surrounding. In the afternoon however it started raining. It kept on raining for hours and we arrived all wet from head to toe at our camp.





I was a little worried that we might get washed away by a flash flood during our sleep, as our tents stood in 5 cm of water and right next to a river. Everybody got changed into dry cloths and disappeared in their tents to warm up again. As I still had my wet shoes on, I brought everybody a cup of hot tea and fresh popcorn. Just then the sun came out and a rainbow so close you could touch it was right above us.





We all spread out our cloths on the rocks to dry a little of the water out of them. It was a cold night, but we all enjoyed dinner and some great fun. When we woke up in the morning, everything was wet again, but as we knew we had only 4 hours to walk, we covered our socks with plastic bags and put on the pair of wet socks on top of that and then into our still soaking wet shoes. It was an interesting walk and we were sad when we arrived at our final point and waited for our transport back to Huaraz.











After a long warm shower, a drink with the group and a good nights sleep we went for a couple of hours of rock climbing in one of the side valleys. We could have gone to a spot with over 2000 routs to climb, but I thought we keep it easy for the beginning. The sun was nice and warm and Chrisy did a fantastic job on her first time climbing in the wild outside...











In the evening we took a bus for 8 hrs to Lima. There we had 5 hours stopover. We used the time to go from street car to street car and sample the local delights. And there are many! Afterwards we took the next bus to come to Cusco. This bus was 21 hrs long. At the end of this trip our camera was missing. Someone must have taken it out of our backpack which was directly above our heads all the time. A little hate comes up in such a situation...

This didn't change our hunger to explore the city of Cusco...

See the link below for more pictures:

Huaraz, surrounding & Santa Cruz Trek