Peru, first 8 days

After a wonderful lufthansa flight to New York, spending 2 days with friends, getting to know and love Japanese food, visiting the Museum-of Natural History in Manhattan which had a beautiful butterfly show in a special room with tropical plants and climate

having my flight to Lima cancelled by LAN and having to wait for 12 hours for the next flight, asking the LAN employee why the flight had been cancelled, getting the answer that the plane was still in Lima, asking her why they did not notify us and getting as an answer : there had been no time! I finally arrived in Lima Tuesday morning. Finally summer! 28 degrees!

Antonio, the man I rented a room from, picked me up at the airport. It took us more than 2 hours to get to his place, as Lima's 10.000.000 inhabitants were all on the road at this time.

Lima is a fascinating city. Beautiful colonial houses,, great-museums, beautiful parks, fun to ride busses where the ticket seller is all the time trying to pull people from the street into the bus so he can earn some more (he rarely hands out tickets when people pay him!).

I loved the museo Larco. It has a fabulous collection of ceramics, dating back to 1200 BC, They are incredibly well preserved, as they were found in tombs, and some are kind of original, like this tea or water pot

and men seem to have had the same dreams and phantasies 2-3 thousand years ago:

another very original teapot, would you cosider putting one like this on your table?

The Plaza das Armas is stunning. It was almost empty when I came, as the police had locked it up from all sides, to prevent people from demonstrating in front of the government building.

my first lunch in Lima was at a little restaurant with only Spanish menu. When I asked her what the different things in the menu were, she answered at each of them -fried fish- , so having the choice between fried fish and fried fish, I opted for fried fish. well.....

The Parque de la Reserva has beautiful fountains with illumination in different colors in the evening and thousands of people visiting, running in the middle of the water and having fun.

Thursday I flew from Lima to Cusco. I had the choice of a 30 hours bus drive or a one hour plane flight, so the second seemed more appealing, but I underestimated the impact of getting from sea level to about 3400 m. height in one hour. Now I know what altitude sickness feels like. Headache, dizziness, and feeling like a 90 year old when I walk uphill. I have been drinking liters of Coca tea and hope I will adapt within the next days.

Cusco is absolutely fantastic. It is one of the most beautiful cities I have ever seen. Lijiang and Cusco, although you can't compare them. They are so different and both gorgeous.

But interestingly, the beautifully wooden carved balconies here really remind me of the old chinese houses in Jiangshui , I have been exploring Cusco slowly, slowly... can't walk fast.

During daytime when the sun is shining one can go with a T-shirt and in the evening it gets really cold. 2 sweaters and a raincoat arent enough. I am staying 4 days in Cusco, then heading toward the sacred valley where I will spend a week in different villages and go up to Macchu Picchu.

friday- for Macchu Picchu one has to get tickets well in advance, also for the train, which for tourists costs at leats 20 times as much as for locals. So I went to a special office to get the ticket. If this is not high season, I don't want to know how it looks here during high season. Cusco is as touristy as Lijiang and every house is either a hostel, a shop, a tour agency or a restaurant.

In the afternoon I visited the part of the city called San Blas, just beautiful, with picturesque narrow streets and a beautiful church.

On Saturday I was convinced by Carlos, the men who rented me my room, to get a warm jacket, so after I left mine in New York I got one here. By day it can be so warm you can walk in the sund with a t-shirt and at night it gets down to 5-6 degrees, and no heating, I might as well sleep with it.

I took a half day guided tour today which I don't regret. I wouldn't have been able to do- it on my own, with that altitude sickness of mine. First we visited the cathedral of Cusco,

which I dare say, is the most beautiful and also the most original cathedral I have ever seen. We had a Quechua guide who showed us many elements oof Quechua reigion that were incorporated in the statues and pictures of the cathedral. Instead of putting Jesus over the altar they preferred to put Mary, as they worship Pachamama, mother earth. They also worship mountains, so Maria has the form of a mountain. he paintings were all made by Quechua painters and the last supper shows Jesus with his disciples and on the table a guinea pig, that is what Quechua eat on special occasions.

Sunday I spent 3 hours in Cuscos cathedral. I think I have never been so fascinated by a church as by this one. I attended two missas and joined another tour where I got some interesting additional informations about things I would never have noticed. The Quechua artists who made the paintings and statues, not only made a black Jesus, he is also chewing Coca leaves, and to his right and left side there are Maria and Joseph, each one with a halo, one symbolizing the sun and another the moon, which the Quechua venerated.

Sorry it is sideways, I don't know how to turn it around.

And in the picture of the last supper, when one looks well at jesus' disciples, Judas is missing and instead one of them has the face of Pizarro, the Spanish conqueror who killed so many Quechua people, and on another painting, Jesus is arrested by 2 Spanish soldiers instead of Roman soldiers. I find all this awfully cute.

The Cuzquenos must be very religious, there are so many churches in Cusco, 2 on the main Plazza. The cathedral is the oldest church in South America, built by the Spanish around 1538.

We also visited the very impressive ruins of Sacsaywoman. It is an unsolved mistery up to this day, how the Quechua managed to move stones that weigh hundreds of tons and build this impressive wall with them.

Also fascinating, the ruins of Qorikancha. It used to be a place of worship the Quechuas buit, with a lot of gold and silver, which the Spanish stole when they conquered the region, and they built on top of it a dominican monastery. Cusco has suffered earthquakes, which destroyed almost the whole city, but the remnants of Qorikancha withstood all earthquakes. Japanese scientists came to study how they did it and the mistery is still unsolved.

Our guide told us that in Quechua there is no word for I invite you, instead they share, they don't invite, and it makes a big difference in its meaning. I find that interesting.

At all tourist sights you see women dressed in their typical dresses, standing there with some cute Lamas, waiting for tourists to take photos of them for a little money.

And often little girls asking tourists to be photographed so they can earn something too. And usually they are so cute, that you cannot resist.

Like this adorable little girl.

One part of Cusco I love is San Blas. It is uphill with narrow roads, a beautiful view, a very interesting coca museum where you can buy every imaginable and unimaginable product made out of coca, from tofees, all kinds of candy, coca leaves to chew and for tea, coca powder to add to juices against osteoporosis and much more. 

After 4 wonderful days in Cusco except for my altitude sickness I headed towards Pisac yesterday, which is only about 2900 m. High. The driver of the taxi I went with made the sign of a cross before starting the steep descent, I wonder why. I noticed that taxi drivers do this here fequently...don't want to know how many accidents they have.

Pisc is a very cute little town. Every town in Peru seems to have its main square named Plazza das Armas, which means place of the weapons, I haven't been able yet to figure out why.

Pisac is one big market of artesanato (local crafts) starting at the main plazza and spreading into the nearby streets. People here work really hard. They have to put up their tables and sunroofs every morning, spread their stuff, and take everything home every evening. You see young boys dragging bikes loaded which huge amounts of merchandise uphill, they will become strong men!

To get an idea of the landscape here:

And Pisac itself, with its pretty narrow streets

Notice that every street has in the middle a path for the water to flow, to prevent inundations. And also very beautiful, the patterns in the stones that make up the street. All the streets in Pisac are like this.

Notice the beautiful pattern on the floor.

My hotel in Pisac was on the Plazza de Armas

Can you see the little lamb lying under the left window of the hotel?

In Pisac I found a little botanical garden, where they have a potatoe museum. There are hundreds ( or thousands?) of different kinds of potatoes inPeru. Here just a few of them

After a lovely day in Pisac I took a minibus to Urubamba, where I had reserved a room for 2 nights at an eco lodge just at the end of nowhere. It is so beautiful here. I have a gorgeous room with a fire place where I just succeeded to make a fire with the third of my four matches. It is so cosy. You cannot describe the beauty of the place, you have to see it.

A little aradise on the slope of a mountain with beautiful gardens, very originally built rustic huts, beautifully furnished, a swinging chair and hammock outside and a 20 minutes walk down to the main road.

As I am having my luxury day I went for lunch to a beautiful restaurant in the middle of a garden where you can see Lams, Alpacas and Vicunas close by having their lunch too on the grass. hey are sooooo cute! I must show you some of my favorite ones. I really fell in love with them.

I love the hairstyle of this Alpaca:

And how about this cutie?

the vicunas are the only ones that are not allowed to run around freely, probably because they are so precious. They are in danger of extinction and it is forbidden to hunt them.