Cuzco, Peru

From what I´ve seen of South America so far, and I would argue that I've seen quite a bit already, I'm ready to conclude that Peru is the continent's archeological epicenter and that Cuzco is its capital. In the last 6 days I've seen so many archeological Inca ruins that my head is spinning and each site starts to look similar to the other. I haven't been this overwhelmed since we spent 3 days exploring the temples of Angkor in Cambodia.

It all started on Tuesday morning at 7 AM when we boarded the Inka Express in Puno. Initially we had planned to take the famous train service from Puno to Cuzco until we discovered that this train ride cost no less than 250 euros. Thinking that this would be a bit too decadent for our backpackers' tastes we opted for the reasonbly priced Inka Express instead. This comfortable VIP bus drives from Puno to Cuzco in 10 hours and on the way makes 5 stops: at the archeological museum in Pukara, at the viewpoint in La Raya, for a buffet lunch in Sicuani, at the ruins of Raqchi and at the church in Andahuaylillas.


Puno


Raqchi

At the end of the day we arrived in the beautifully situated city of Cuzco.


Cuzco

Cuzco is very pretty and very much a colonial town. Unlike in other cities not much seems to have changed here in the last couple of hundred years. Every street is a picturesque cobble-stoned example of days gone by.


Calle Nueva Alta

We have been staying at Hostal Los Niños II, which is a wonderful hotel with a wonderful story. It's a small hotel in a quiet street with beautiful rooms, a sunny courtyard and a firelit café that serves up amazing fresh food every day and the best coffee I've had since before we put our coffee machine in storage. It was set up by Jolanda van den Berg, an amazing Dutch woman who moved to Peru in 1996, only 6 months after witnessing the many street kids in Cuzco during a holiday. Now, 16 years later, she and her boyfriend adopted 12 Peruvian boys, set up 2 girls' houses, run 3 hotels, opened 5 childrens' restaurants and hired 80 Peruvian employees. 6 days a week 600 children receive 2 meals a day in addition to tutoring services, sport lessons, health care, dental care and a safe place to play. Hotel rooms are named after the adopted children. Read Jolanda's incredible story here.


Hostal Los Niños II

On our first full day in Cuzco we spent a long day walking around town arranging our upcoming trek to Machu Picchu while being followed around by a dog whom we quickly nicknamed Cuzco. I absolutely fell head over heels in love with this dog. He walked by my side all day and followed my every demand. You probably think that just because I'm such a typical vegetarian animal lover that this happens to me all the time, but it doesn't. There is so much suffering in the world that I've learned to look the other way. The only other time that I felt this close to an animal during this trip was in Ubud on Bali with Brownie (remember him?). Brownie already had a family to take care of him, though, while Cuzco was a street dog. I somehow knew that this dog was mine and that I should take him home. I fully intended to go back to the hotel at the end of the day to call my sister-in-law and ask her how I could fly him to Europe, until suddenly he wasn't there anymore and I haven't seen him since. That was a weird first day in Cuzco!


Calle Pardo

I already mentioned that there is a lot to see in and around Cuzco, which always begs the question: how do we go about it? Do we go at it alone or do we go on a tour? In the end we decided to go on 2 different tours in order to see everything while at the same time having enough time left to get ready for the Inca Trail, rest, and, you know, eat. According to the Lonely Planet these tours are too rushed (not to mention much too touristy with salespeople at every corner), but for us it beat the alternative since: (1) using public transportation in these parts would have taken weeks; (2) hiring private transportation in Peru only appears to be available to people with a death wish and (3) walking alone seemed out of the question due to violent robberies at the ruins even during daylight hours. So off we went.

First we went on a full day tour of the Sacred Valley where we saw Pisac, Urubamba, Ollantaytambo and Chinchero.


Sacred Valley


Pisac


Ollantaytambo

A day later we went on a so-called City Tour to see the sites surrounding Cuzco, including Qorikancha, Saqsaywamán, Q'enqo, Tambomachay and Pukapukara. All were impressive.

 
Saqsaywamán

If this sounds like a summary to you, it's because it's like a summary to me. I think that this is kind of funny, considering that the epitome of our time in Cuzco, and of our whole trip in general, is yet to begin - we leave on a 4-day hike on the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu tomorrow morning. It goes to show that Jochem and I are getting really tired of traveling in these intense surroundings. Every day we look forward more and more to coming home. I find myself fantasizing about things like wholewheat bread, Dutch cheese, peanut butter, throwing toilet paper into the toilet bowl and (God forbid!) feeling safe while walking the streets at night. But this doesn't mean that we're not looking forward to starting this trek, because we are! The first thing that the Lonely Planet writes about the Inca Trail is: "We'll say it here since nobody seems to ever want to broach the topic: this is not an easy trek." Mmmm... Wish us luck!

If you'd like to see more pictures of our world trip, check out our picture gallery here!

Puno, Peru

We knew that after we had such a lovely time at Las Olas, any new place would turn out to be a disappointment, and even though Puno is a cute little Peruvian town hugging the shores of Lake Titicaca, getting settled into our new accommodation was a bit hard. The main problem is that it's incredibly cold here and that it`s difficult to warm up - alas, the days of fireplaces and hot water bottles are definitely over.





Puno is a quick stop en route to super star attractions Cuzco and Machu Picchu, but there were 2 sights that we didn't want to miss while in this region. First of all, we wanted to see Sillustani, which is an archeological site on the Lago Umayo Peninsula. Here you can visit a staggering collection of about 150 chullpas or funerary towers, which seem to serve the same purpose as Egyptian pyramids: impressive structures to house the important dead. There are pre-Incan chullpas dating from the Tiwanaku period (the site near La Paz that we visited a few weeks ago) and Incan chullpas that are made of huge blocks and that reach heights of up to 12 meters. Afterwards we made a quick stop at a typical altiplano home where we could see how the local people live. They fed us too, so I was excited!











The second thing that we wanted to see while in Puno were the Islas Flotantes of the Uros people, just a 30-minute boat ride away from Puno. I must admit that this is quite a touristy sight, but it's still amazing to see. These people have made what can only be described as floating islands - islands made entirely out of totora reeds that float on the lake (they hold the islands in place with a kind of anchor to avoid drifting off). They use these reeds for absolutely everything: boats, houses, handicrafts, food, fuel et cetera. It's very impressive. There are about 50 of these islands and we visited 3 while being transported from island to island in a totora reed boat. On one island a group of 6 families lived and they explained us all about how they live and showed us their homes. It was really cool to see their way of life.











Tomorrow morning we are taking an early bus to Cuzco and Jochem and I both feel that the end is coming, even though we have a whole month of traveling left before we go home. Next week we're hiking the Inca Trail and then before you know it we're in Lima and then back in Europe. Sometimes I can't wait to go home, but other times I realize that there is still to much to see. We`re in Peru after all, archeological wonder of South America!

If you'd like to see more pictures of our world trip, check out our picture gallery here!

Copacabana, Bolivia

It's time to tell you about our fairy tale in Copacabana. Lonely Planet and I get along really well, but rarely does it surprise me like it did in Copacabana. We were looking for a nice hotel to celebrate Jochem's 26th birthday at. Lonely Planet recommended Las Olas and we booked it. We were in for a big surprise! I can't speak highly enough of this hotel. It is the best hotel that I have ever stayed at - not just in Bolivia, or in South America, or even during this trip. I literally mean that this is the BEST hotel EVER.

For starters, it's not a conventional hotel. The complex exists of 7 individual suites that are set on a hill overlooking Lake Titicaca, far away from the touristy tackiness that makes up the rest of Copacabana. These suites were designed by a local artist and his wife who basically made everything up as they went. If you're lucky, you will see this very same artist walking the premises and he'll be delighted to tell you about this special project. There are plants and flowers everywhere. There is a jacuzzi overlooking the lake. In the afternoon a neighboring local lady comes over with her flock of sheep (cute little lamb included) to cut the grass. The hotel functions on solar energy.

Our suite, number 7 called the Sea Tower, was the latest addition to the hotel. It looked like a castle from a Disney movie. We had 3 floors, 5 beds, a kitchen, a bathroom with 2 showers (and hot water 24/7, which is surprisingly rare in this cold part of South America), a space heater, a fireplace with complementary wood and paper, hot water bottles to take into bed, a tower, a small garden with sun chairs and hammocks and panoramic views of the lake. All this cost us less than 30 euros a day. We took one look at the place and decided straight away to stay for 2 extra nights. 2 days after that, we added another 2 days for a total of 7 days. It was paradise and I could have stayed forever.





We find that South America, and Bolivia in particular, is not the easiest place to backpack around in and we were quite tired, so we used the majority of our time in Copacabana to enjoy our castle. We walked around town a couple of times and we hiked along Lake Titicaca, but mostly we just enjoyed our surroundings. Our only exception to this rule was when we took a boat to the famous Island of the Sun. In Inca mythology, Isla del Sol is the birthplace of the sun. The boat first dropped us in the north at Cha'llapampa. After we visited the small museum, a local guide took us on a 1-hour walk to the Chincana Ruins where we saw a ceremonial table and a magnetic rock. From here you could walk all the way to Yumani in the south, but we chose to take the boat instead due to the heavy terrain, 4,000-meter altitude and time limit. In the south we had some time to see the Inca Springs and the Inca Stairway and to admire the beautiful locals.











With pain in our hearts we said goodbye to this little slice of heaven to embark on a new adventure: PERU!



If you'd like to see more pictures of our world trip, check out our picture gallery here!

La Paz, Bolivia

On Wednesday night we took a train from Tupiza to Oruro. We had read that the train is much more comfortable and much safer than the bus and, considering that Tupiza doesn't have an airport, we decided that the train was our best option. We bought the most expensive train tickets available on the most luxurious train service in Bolivia and it only set us back 50 euros. The train would take 12 hours to get to Oruro but we were not worried - we had semi-cama chairs, a dining cart and surprisingly clean bathrooms. What we weren't prepared for, however, was the extreme cold at night. Somewhat frozen, then, we arrived in Oruro at 7 AM. Oruro didn't seem like a nice town and is mainly known for throwing quite the extravagant Carnaval party (not really our scene), so we took a taxi to the bus terminal and were on a bus en route to La Paz at 7.30 AM. 4 hours later we arrived in Bolivia's capital.



When you read about La Paz in your Lonely Planet you kind of want to go straight back into the other direction. You read about taxi drivers who work together with local gangs and who will kindnap you to extort pin numbers. You read about fake police officers who will demand to see your passport (before stealing it, one presumes). You read about children spitting you in the face, distracting you so that they have the opportunity to slice your bag with a knife and steal your belongings. I even heard stories about women who had their earrings forcefully pulled from their ear lobes - auch! Add to that the fact that we had just come from the country and were a little bit intimidated by the thought of a big city and we decided that we would only stay in La Paz for 2 days. Now that I'm here, though, I wish that we hadn't already booked bus tickets to Lake Titicaca because La Paz is actually kind of great.

When you arrive in La Paz you see quite an amazing sight. I can best explain it like this: it is like you are staring at the Grand Canyon, and inside of the canyon there are millions of brick houses running from the bottom of the canyon up to the hills on the edge of the canyon, like a modern-day Zion hidden away in a crack in the Andean Altiplano. It also kind of reminds me of Valparaíso, although it is certainly not as colorful. Still, when the millions of lights come out at night, the city feels quite magical. As always I read up on safety issues, beware my surroundings and everything was fine. I have come to believe that a smart head on your shoulders is all you need to travel safely through South America. That, and ear studs.

On our first afternoon we walked around town a little bit and had lunch at Alexander Coffee, not exactly the most authentic Bolivian lunch experience, but their coffee is good. La Paz has such a great vibe and truly seems to be a mix between the old and the new. You will see men in suits walk next to older Bolivian women wearing traditional weavings and bowler hats. You can find a popular coffee chain in the same street as the Witches' Market where vendors sell llama fetuses for locals to bury near their homes for good luck. And unlike in, say, Buenos Aires, I feel that this mix doesn't make the city ugly but all the more interesting and beautiful (we still appear to be the only ones not in love with Buenos Aires, but it had to be mentioned). After lunch we visited the Coca Museum, which houses a small but very informative exhibition about the history and use of the coca leaf. Coca leaves and maté de coca are widely available in the Andes, but its use is being severely undermined by the US because coca leaves are also used to produce this nasty little thing called cocaine. The museum clearly promotes a message about being very pissed about all this, and although I wouldn't claim to be any sort of expert on the subject, the chewing of coca leaves and the drinking of maté de coca do seem pretty harmless to me. I had coca leaves on the South West Circuit and have really been enjoying drinking maté de coca. I leave the politics of it all to the politicians.







Today we went on a tour to Tiwanaku, which is an important archeological site in Bolovia and very close to La Paz. We were guided by a an insightful local guide who told us story after story about this pre-Incan civilization. There are not many ruins to visit, but we felt that it was a great introduction to what is to come at Lake Titicaca and, of course, Peru.







Tomorrow (already!) we take an early bus to Copacabana, which is not Rio de Janeiro's tropical beach in our case, but a Bolivian town close to the Peruvian border. We are staying at an amazing hotel overlooking Lake Titicaca in order to celebrate Jochem's 26th birthday in style. My 28th birthday in Phnom Penh seems like such a long time ago! We hope to explore Isla del Sol when we're there, which is supposed to be a real gem. But for now I'm still a little sad to leave La Paz already.



If you'd like to see more pictures of our world trip, check out our picture gallery here!

Tupiza, Bolivia

We stayed in Tupiza for 10 days, but I must admit that we haven't seen as much of it as we would have liked. We first arrived in Tupiza 2 days before our trip to the South West Circuit and used those 2 days to acclimatize to the altitude (and what good it did me too!). When we came back from the South West Circuit we were both ill for days. At first we thought we had the stomach flu, but now we think that we caught some kind of intestinal parasite through the contaminated water that we used to make tea during the trip. It took us 3 days to get at least somewhat back to normal. By then we still hadn't seen much of Tupiza and its surroundings. We did walk into town one day and it's really very pretty. It has the usual components of any cute South American town: a leafy plaza, an imposing church and many colonial buildings. Tupiza also has a lot of small shops where you can buy absolutely everything and, with us conveniently located near the Chilean border, we were even able to buy some Chilean dulce de leche, which we have decided is the best dulce de leche on the continent. Most of our time, though, was spent at Hotel Mitru, where we stayed during the 10 days.





I wrote in my previous blog that Tupiza is considered to be the wild west of Bolivia and that it is surrounded by red rocks, cacti and dusty mountains. We had planned an epic 2-day horseback ride through the region, but with us being sick, this really wasn't possible. In the end we only had 1 day left before we had to leave Tupiza, so we decided on a 3-hour horseback ride. I believe that we successfully turned from Patagonian gauchos into Bolivian cowboys on that day.







After 10 days it is time to leave the south west of Bolivia and head north.

If you'd like to see more pictures of our world trip, check out our picture gallery here!

South West Circuit, Bolivia

After Nusa Tenggara in Indonesia and Easter Island in Polynesia, the South West Circuit in Bolivia has been my favorite destination during this world trip. We spent 4 days on the South West Circuit and it is certainly the most beautiful place in South America that I have seen thus far. Around every turn (literally!) there is something new to be discovered. There are so many magical places to explore that the South West Circuit becomes a geological wonderland of epic proportions.

DAY 1. On Tuesday morning at 8.30 AM it was time to climb aboard our Jeep with our driver/guide Zuben, our cook Rosilla, and an Australian couple called Nick and Catherine. We drove for 7 hours on winding gravel roads and were able to see some amazing sights on the way. Tupiza and its surroundings are like the wild west of Bolivia and it features a lot of red rock, cactus and dusty mountains. At the end of the afternoon we arrived in San Antonio de Lipez at 4200 meters. Tupiza is situated at 2950 meters so we climbed more than 1000 meters in one day. San Antonio de Lipez is a small town in the middle of nowhere and we were told that our accommodation would be very basic. I thought it was fine though - indeed, there was no hot water, no shower and no electricity besides our lonely light bulb, but we had a big room for the four of us, thick mattrasses, thick blankets and plumbing. Since we had some time before dinner, we decided to climb the hill behind the village to see the sunset. This was a big mistake. Although I love hiking, I hate climbing and am quickly out of breath. Add to that the altitude of 4200 meters, the fact that we had climbed more than 1000 meters that day, and that you shouldn't exert yourself before you're at least somewhat used to the altitude, and you can see what I did wrong here. After dinner a group of village boys came in to play music for us. I remember tearing up at that moment because I was just so happy to be there at that moment. I felt so blessed to be able to travel and to see things that so many people never get to witness. It was an incredible night. We went to bed early but I couldn't sleep - my first official symptom of altitude sickness. It was below freezing and despite the many layers I was incredibly cold. The next day we had to get up 4.30 AM.


Valle de la Luna


San Antonio de Lipez


San Antonio de Lipez

DAY 2. Our second day would be our longest day with 10 hours of driving ahead of us. We saw some truly amazing sights on that day - hot springs, colored lakes, volcanos, geysers, mud pools, deserts and thousands of pink flamingos. We spent the night in Huaylljara, another small town in the middle of nowhere at 4340 meters. Again our accommodation was very basic but did not disappoint, but I started to feel a little ill. I was still incredibly cold but Rosilla made me a warm water bottle, I wrapped myself in every single item of clothing that I had brought, got into my sleeping bag, put 3 blankets on top of that, and slept for 10 hours straight.


Aguas Calientes


Laguna Verde and Volcán Licancabur


Sol de Mañana


Laguna Colorada

DAY 3. The third day was shorter with just 7 hours of driving and we saw many more of the amazing sights in the area. The only downside was that by then it had become quite clear that I suffered from altitude sickness. Luckily, we had been descending since the geysers and mud pools of Sol de Mañana at a staggering 5000 meters and were now back at around 3000 meters, but besides insomnia I now also suffered from a terrible headache and nausea. I tried chewing coca leaves and drinking lots of water, but nothing helped. During lunch I believe Zuben took pity on me for he gave me two pills and 30 minutes later I felt as though nothing had happened. I wrote down the name of the medicine so that I can take it with me to the Inca Trail! In the afternoon we stopped at the town of Uyuni where we visited its Cementerio de Trenes. Uyuni is the main hub from which to visit the salt flats but is an incredibly dirty and ugly town. I was relieved to find that we had made the right decision to start from Tupiza instead. We spent the night in Uyuni and although it wasn't as cold as the previous two towns had been and we had a private room, the (lack of) plumbing left much to be desired.


Arbol de Piedra


Laguna Honda


wild flamingos at Laguna Hedionda (for Matt and Aimee)


Valle de Rocas

DAY 4. The last day of the tour meant getting up at 5 AM to see the sunrise over Salar de Uyuni. This salt flat lies at 3650 meters altitude and is 10.500 square kilometers in size, which makes it the biggest salt flat in the world. The salt flat is made up of 11 layers between 2 and 20 meters in thickness. It is quite surreal to drive over the salt flat for as far as the eye can see there is nothing but white emptiness. When you walk over the salt flat it feels like walking on snow and ice. The salt flat is cold and sharp as glass and it shimmers in the blinding sunlight (all four of us wore shawls across our faces to prevent getting horribly sunburned). We had breakfast at the Hotel de Sal before driving even further into Salar de Uyuni to take the obligatory funny pictures. We had lunch in Uyuni and afterwards it was time to say goodbye to Nick and Catherine - they were to stay in Uyuni and take a train to Oruro and then a bus to La Paz while we had 4 hours of driving ahead of us back to Tupiza. It was an incredibly beautiful drive through more wild west country. When we arrived back at the hotel at 5 PM we ate a pizza in bed and crashed.


Salar de Uyuni


Hotel de Sal


Salar de Uyuni


Salar de Uyuni

This tour was definitely one of the highlights of our world trip. At times it was very challenging, but mostly it was just incredibly rewarding. Our driver/guide and cook were also amazing. Zuben always got us on sight first, offering us the best panoramas and the nicest rooms. Rosilla was extremely accommodating to our vegetarian needs (Nick and Catherine had temporarily become vegetarian after seeing the meat sold at the local Tupiza market) - she got up at 3 AM every day to prepare such dishes as lentil burgers and cauliflower fritters and other amazing foods. If you ever get to travel to South America, this would probably be my one recommendation. There are many tour agencies offering similar services, but we used Tupiza Tours and couldn't have been happier. Their service is sublime and they pump money back into local communities. We have 5 more days in the pretty town of Tupiza where there is still a lot to see, but for now I'll stay put at Hotel Mitru's solar-heated swimming pool.

If you'd like to see more pictures of our world trip, check out our picture gallery here!