My trip to Peru, Brasil and Chile 2013: Third week Peru

Only now I did some research in the internet and read what another traveller writes about Wayna Picchu:" It's known as death Hike and No western countries allow amateurs to under take such a dangerous climb. I would class it a climbing grade 4 as many areas are steep 70-80 % degrees and ropes are only set in some of these steep grades"

I am sorry not to have photographed the real steep stairs but I needed both my hands to hold on!

Well, I guess that was the craziest hike I ever did and I wouldn't do it again. But it gives me a feeling of satisfaction that I came back alive. And my admiration for the Incas for building this is without limits. I just wonder how many of them died while building this!

4.2.13 After descending the 1400 stairs from Wayna Picchu I knew I wouldn't be able to -move my legs today (thinking of how I felt after descending mount Sinai or to the bottom of the Grand Canyon many years ago, where I had to lift my leg with my hands to make a step). I rememered learning that Arnica helps prevent sore muscles, so I took 2 Globuli Arnica C200 yesterday evening, and, you won't believe it, I have no sore muscles at all. It's like a miracle.

I left Aquas Calentes today morning, picked up my suitcase in Ollanta (Peru Rail only lets you take 5 kg. on the train!), had lunch at my favorite restaurant in Ollanta, he Hearts Cafe, which was made to collect money to help poor people in the Andean communities. And they serve wonderful food. Then a stop at Urubamba to get some beautiful ceramics by an artist called Pablo Seminario (I just could not resist) and having them sent to the hotel where I will spent my last night in Lima and God help me get with this on the plane.....

Now back in Cusco, I already feel almost at home here. I am staying again in Casa Carlos. The owners, Jackie and Carlos really make me feel at home.

On my last evening in Cusco I joined them in the kitchen for a Pisco Sour made by Carlos and we had lots of fun. It is a pity we live so far away from each other, I like Jackie so much. She is such a sweet person.

For any of you planning to go to Cusco some day: My favorite restaurant in Custo is a cute little place called Yaku Mama at Calle Procuradores 399 who serve a fantastic menu made up of a choice of one out of 8 delicious entrees, a choice of about 10 main dishes and a wonderful fresh fruit juice, all that for $4. I will stay anotherday in Cusco and the day after tomorrow head to Puno, Titicaca lake, at 3827 m. height. I hope I am ready for that now.

6.2 yesterday I took the bus to the ruins of Pikillacta , pre Inca ruins with a beautiful scenery around. One nice thing in Peru is that you can stop a bus anywhere, he will stop and take you. Here the way up to the ruins. You can see that the construction of the wall is very different from the construction of the Incas, who used huge stones one over the other with nothing in between. When one looks at this wall it is hard to believe it has remained for so long.

The Peruvian site of Pikillacta is an enormous set of ruins belonging to the Wari empire. (550 to 900AD). The site is located in the Lucre Basin of Peru at the east end of the valley of Cuzco, some thirty kilometers from the capital city of Cuzco.

Here you can see the construction better. Doesn't look so stable, does it?

If I'd make a wall like that I wouldn't expect it to last for more than 1000 years! Some cute cactuses grow on some of the walls.

In the background you can see the structure of the beautiful mountains, it was photographed with a zoom.

These mountains with their colors and high altitude vegetation fascinate me.

And some more of the scenery around

This grasslike silvery plant is so delicate.

6.2.13

Today morning I took the tourist bus to Puno. We were only 17 in the bus and had a real nice guide. First we stopped at Peru's Capela Sixtina, a really beautiful church. The churches in Peru are the most beautiful I have ever seen . They are so special. Unfortunately they don't allow to photograph, so I just got one picture. I don't know why, but one corner got cut off when I transferred it here.

We stopped at some villages and it is beautiful to see the women dressed in their typical clothes , like this one at the market

The scenery on the way was fantastic. Such beautiful mountains and valleys and so many different shades of green.

Here some impressions of the way:

Aren't these mountains special? And the whole region is so scarcely populated. It must be hard to live at such heights. I think about the only thing they can grow here is potatoes.

Here you can see one of their plantations.

And here a woman and her Alpaca posing at 4325 m. In La Raya. Don't they have the same expression on their face?

On the way we passed the city of Juliaca which has 250000 habitants and 30000 motorcycletaxis, it was raining and the whole city got inundated within minutes. Our driver , I wonder why, entered a small street which was made up mainly of holes and got lost. He drove about 20 minutes through all kind of narrow streeta, one worse than the other , until he found his way out. The guide told us we would be in Puno in 40 minutes and I was wondering if we would be out of Juliaca in 40 minutes. but I must say, he was a real good driver if he managed to turn around in these narrow streets with this big bus. once in a while his copilot got out and ran in the rain to see where this street was leading to. It was fun!

And some more scenes of this Juliaca on a rainyday drive

PUNO

We arrived in Puno towards evening. From far away Puno looks nice as it is built on mountain slopes at the shore of the Titicaca lake, about 3850 m high. I would call it the unfinished city. It looks as if almost the whole city is under construction. And it is not just because people don't have the money to finish building their houses. It is because, when the house is finished, they have to pay taxes for it so they prefer to live in unfinished houses.

I did not really like Puno. It was freezing cold, rainy, noisy and the air was very thin, I was getting the altitude sickness symptoms again, although I had spent the last 2 weeks between 2600 and 3500 m. Tired, slight headache, slight nausea. But I really wanted to see Uros, the floating islands, so I got up early and took a boat to Uros at 8:30 am.

It was raining when I boarded the boat and I did not notice at first that it was also raining from the ceiling. I had to sit inside because of the rain and during the 1/2 hour trip the smell of the exhaust gases was so strong, it was hardly possible to breathe, and this with the already lack of oxygen. And when I got up from the sofa I was sitting on, I noticed that my pants were soaked wet! I had not noticed the sofa was wet when sitting down. So this was the start of my trip to Uros.

When we arrived it was still raining. Uros consists of bout 60 self made floating islands made of totora reeds, which grow in the Titicaca lake. The Uros are pre Incan people and the settlement on the islands was originally defensive.

The larger islands house about 10 families while the smaller ones, at most 30 m. Long, only 1 to 3 families. The reeds at the bottom of the island rot away quickly so new reeds are constantly added at the top. It is a fascinating construction. And their houses and boats are also made of the same titora reeds. The reeds also provide a source of food, medicine, etc. The most important sources of food is fishing but today their main income comes from tourism. They make beautiful handicrafts which they sell to the hundreds if not more tourists who land on the islands every day, take them for a ride on their pretty boats and cook them meals in their little restaurant.

When we arrived, as it was raining, they put some covers over their totora benches and spread a big plastic over us so we would not get wet while we got an explanation about how the islands are build.

And this little Uros girl standing in front of her mother and watching us.

This is one of the houses from inside. It conssts of only one room, where the whole family lives. They cook outside. There is a large stone where they place their large ceramic cookers, make a fire inside, on the stone, and put their pot on top. Originally I was planning to spend one night with a family in Uros but after seeing that, I was really glad I didn't. I would have frozen to death. And the "toilet"is somewhere, quite far away.

I guess I am too spoiled for that! But some people seem to enjoy it and even pay $65 for one night with 3 meals and having the pleasure of fishing with the Uros and being dressed in their typical clothes. It is all much too touristy.

Here you can see some of the houses from outside. Notice how small they are! And notice the solar collector in front of the house. I forgot to ask what they use it for.

And here one of their beautiful totora reed boats

And here you can see the totora reeds growing in the Titicaca lake.

I stayed in Puno just 2 nights. It was so cold and Puno is really an ugly city, so I took a bus to Arequipa, which, I have been told, is a brautiful city. It is the second largest city in Peru, 900.000 inhabitants.

Well, I arrived n Arequipa at 3 in the afternoon, put my luggage in the hotel nd went for a walk. At 5 it started raining, not just raining, pourin. Within minutes the streets turned into rivers and it was impossible to cross a street without getting soaked wet! When I dinally made it to my hotel I borrowed a hair dryer and dried my sandals for 1/2 hour until they were nearly dry. The next day I found out these had been the heaviest rainfalls in Arequipa for 50 years. Some areas had been badly flooded and 6 persons had died in the floods, so I was still lucky.

The next day in Arequipa was not much better. A bit of sun in the morning, then rain. I booked a 2 day trip to Canon de Colca with a very good company that trvels with small groups in minibusses.

I went the day before yesterday. We were a group of 8, all nice young people except for myself.

First we visited some beautiful geological formations of vulcanic origin. Near Arequipa there are 2 huge vlcnoes, the Misti with 5822 m. And the Chachani with 6075 m. And the remains of a third volcano, the Huaynaputina, with only 4850 m after it exploded and blew off its top in 1600 destroying Arequipa almost completely. The Chachani and the Misti are almost always in the clouds. I did not get to see the Chachani but today I was lucky enough to see the Misti. It is fascinating! Arequipa has an elevation of 2335 m so the Misti rises 3500 m above Arequipa. It is so spectacular. It is the most impressive mountain I have ever seen.

It looks almost unreal, doesn't it? It was a bit hazy and there was a crown of clouds around the Misti but the sky was blue and one could see the top. Not for long. Soon it disappeared in the clouds again. I made it just in time. Here one mre picture

I could sit and look at this volcano for hours. Last time it erupted in 1985. The Arequipenos live dangerously. It is a region of earthquakes . arequipa had 13 earthquakes in the past year. There were some real strong earthquakes in the years 1687, 1868, 1958 and 1960.

Now to the beautiful geological frmations we visited: the place is called Puruna, and lies at a height of 4000 m.

The whole scenery s magnificent. That is approximately how it looks when descending to those cliffs. Notice the colors of the landscape, which is partly made up of volcanic ash. When you get farther down, you can see the various beautiful formations

Actually we got a glimpse at the peak of the Chachani. I am fascinated by volcanoes.

This looks like an eruption but they are only clouds!

The stone frmations in Puruna are really amazing. Doesn't this one look like a statue of a person?

From Puruna we drove to Chivay and saw many Alpacas on the way. They live here at a height of about 4000 m.

I find the babies so adorable. Sometimes the mother dies and then another mother adopts her baby

Another very interesting thing we saw on the way is this plant called yareta. It grows at a height of 4800 meters, and it grows just1,4 milimmeters in diameter every year! A Yareta plant can grow up to a height of 1,5 meters and to an area of 30 square meters. One can figure out some plants must be 3000 years old!

We continued to Chivay for lunch and then headed toward the Colca canyon. This is the scenery before arriving at the canyon itself

And this

We slept in a little village called Pirchollo, where the people seem to be very poor, as you can see on the house in the picture. We had a beautiful hotel which belongs to the Colca Trek company and it was really embarrassing to stay at such a luxurious place which absolutely did not fit into this village.

That's one little girl in this village taking care of her sheep.

In the afternoon when we arrived it was foggy but the next morning, such a present, blue sky and the most wonderful view of the canyon. The hotel is close to the rim f the canyon.

The Colca canyon s one of the deepest canyons of the world, twice as deep as the grand canyon with a depth of 4160 m. From the side we were, you have to descend only 1400 meters to get to the bottom. The problem is climbing back up, as the rim is at a height of 3700 meters! There are several small villages on the other side of the canyon which can only be reached walking or by mules.

Among the inhabitants of the region are condors. These birds are very interesting. Condors have a wingspan up to about 3 meters .

I succeeded to catch one flying, which wasn't easy with my little camera.

Condors live up to 80 years and they are monogamous. Both parents take care of their offspring, and this for up to 5 years. Only with about 9 years a condor s adult and creates his own family. Condors have babies only once in 2 years. They are the largest flying land birds in the Western hemisphere. They hunt in groups, encircle their prey and drive it to a corner where it can be easily attacked. And it is not small animals they hunt. They hunt Lamas and Alpacas! They cooperate with the Andean foxes who open the prey for them.

And that's me at the rim of the canyon.

I was fascinated by the colors of some of the montains

On the way back we stopped at a little village where I had the chance of caressing and having my photo taken with a baby Alpaca. They are incredibly sweet.