Peru

After already being in Bolivia for a while, it is about time to tell you about my Peru adventures. Not that easy, you have to find a computer first, and than an internet connection as well. Surprisingly that`s the case right now.

In Peru I stayed about 3,5 weeks. From Santiago I had to catch a flight to Lima, which was way to expensive for my budget so I combined two short flights with a long bustrip. From Santiago to Antofagasta and from there to Arequipa. I had to wait all day to get the bus so I already explored Arequipa. Arequipa is a nice small city with a great atmosphere. I absolutely liked this first impression of Peru.

Lima
After a 15 hour busdrive I arrived in Lima in the morning. That evening my parents arrived as well (that was the reason I had to rush and book s flight to Peru). They were really happy to see me again (and off course vice versa).
We had one day in Lima, which we spent going to the center and walking a lot.
Just like Buenos Aires, Lima did not interest me that much. Just another huge city.

Arequipa
Yes, that`s right, back to Arequipa. Kind of an inconvenient way to travel for me, but this time we had a flight, which was quite comfortable.
my parents also liked Arequipa a lot. We bought some souvenirs (yay) and visited the monastry Santa Catalina. This is basically a city itself. There used to live nuns in this monastry. It was beautiful!

Chivay and Colca Canyon.
From Arequipa we had a tour to Chivay and the Colca canyon.
We passed a height of 4910 meters, which we had to get used to. some people don`t feel a thing, some get a headache, some stomach problems, some get dizzy or nauseous. Some just act like they took some drugsand start to laugh a lot. I was lucky enough to have this last side effect! It was a lot of fun, but quite embarrasing as well, laughing about nothing really.
On the way to Chivay we saw a lot of lamas, alpacas and vicunas. We were also supposed to see a lot of volcanoes, but the weather is unpredictable so we got to see some mist. After arriving in the hotel in Chivay we had a lovely lunch and after that visited a hot spring to relax.
The day after we visited a local family and helped them taking weed out of the ground and milking cows. I got to do a lot of translating for my parents. The family coocked us a fantastic lunch and after that we rested again in the hotel.
The following day was condor day! Early in the morning we started our drive through the Colca Canyon (the deepest canyong in the world, not taking into account canyons below water level) up to condor cruz to spot the condors circing up in the first breeze of warm air. The sky was blue and we saw a lot of condors, a fantastic animal to see.

Puno, lake titicaca
After a beautiful busdrive (I mean the view from out of the bus) we arrived in Puno in the evening. The next day started our tour to lake titicaca. We visited two islands, and spent the night on the last one (Amantani). On the first island the local people showed us how they built their floating islands, this I found interesting to see. Whata a work they have. The night in the island was cold and I believe especially my dad could not handle this (my mom and I had our fun because of this).
The next day we visited a third island, where we had lunch and after this we went back to Puno by boat again. Never again such a boattrip please, through storm and big waves. It is supposed to be normal but I was scared as hell. That night we enjoyed the luxury of a hotel again, which was great. This whole part of my trip was by the way a big luxury for me. Hotels with good breakfasts, no need to look for hostels anyway, already planned excursions with transfers, and private rooms! No backpacker for a while haha. The bad thing about it was that we had to go out for dinner every day snd that is kind of expensive (but of course kind of a luxury as well again).

Cusco and the inca trail
Maybe the best part of the Peru trip was the inca trail. But first
something about Cusco.
We had about three days in Cusco, and we enjoyed those by walking a
little bit and enjoying the views from the terraces. Visiting touristy
things was unfortunately too expensive, and since we had the trail in
front of us, we did not really have the urge to do a lot.
The first day of the trail we got picked up really early in the
morning. We were a group of only six, lucky. That day we walked the
first bit but that was only a few hours. The second day was a
challenge. We had to pass a height of about 4200 meters. Going up was
a little hard, going down was more annoying. From this day on we
walked a lot on the original inca route, and the paths were still very
accessable.
There were two guides and some porters, who carried the tents and the
food. At arrival every evening they set up the tents and prepared
food, a true luxury. You also had the option to pay them to carry your
sleeping bag and sleeping mat, but I felt better carrying it myself.
The third day was the longest day, but I think the most beautiful day.
We passed ruines, beautiful nature and just walked a lot! The fourth
and last day we got up before sunrise to arrive at the sungate early.
At first we saw a cloud covering Machu Picchu, but after a while it
cleared up and we saw what we came for. What we saw that day was
amazing, but actually the whole walk up to this highlight was just as
amazing. I enjoyed walking so much that I almost forgot about what we
walked for.
During the day the rain stopped and the weather got better and better
(the whole trip we were lucky, it only rained a lot during the nights,
while we were safe in the tents). When I started my walk up to Wayna
Picchu, it was very sunny. Graig, an other person of the group also
went to climb the Wayna Picchu, with a personal guide, and so I went
with him and got a fre personal guide as well! He explained very
interesting things about Machu Picchu. We found out how incredibly
clever the Incas were, and how perfectly this city was built. It is
not just about ruines that remained in touch, it is about a city built
in perfect harmony with nature. Well, I can not really explain it the
way the guide did.. I enjoyed the clear view on Machu Picchu and the
helix we saw around the sun (!).
As a group we were pretty fast, and I just have to say that I was the fastest..
After the trail we got back to Cusco (after a long trip, of course
there was a delay with trains) we got a relaxing day in Cusco.

Puerto Maldonado
The jungle! This is were we finally got our hot, sunny weather. We had
a four day tour through the jungle, spotting tarantulas, snakes,
monkeys (a whole lot of them), ants, birds and more animals. I caught a piranha! We made several tours to watch animals, but also we got to learn a little about the medical department in the jungle. They showed us plants with several healing capacities, and we got to try some of them. Thats how I chewed on a leaf which was anesthetic. Also we visited a fruit
plantation and got to eat fresh jungle fruits, delicious! I think I
might have liked this the most, since I am a big fan of eating fruit.
The huts we slept in were fantastic, very basic (because it is the
jungle), but a very luxurious kind of basic.
After the jungle tour it was back to Cusco for me, and back to Holland
for my parents.

I absolutely loved Peru. It is not as Western as Argentina and Chile,
but still very easy to travel through. Great thanks to my parents,
thanks to them I got to see what I saw (otherwise I would have skipped
some parts because of moneyissues..).

Will write about Bolivia later (I already am in Argentina again haha)! Very sorry for my lack of writing interesting, but I just don't want to waste any more time writing and not enjoying South America!