hello dear friends
I'm still in manaus, yesterday I slept for a wonderful night at the playa de la luna, a beach a little bit away from the city, a night without moskitos and with insane weather lighting before falling asleep.
read here what happened to us on the way to machu picchu in peru. have fun
After a night that was relatively cold due to the large windows, and the man sitting behind us snored terribly, we arrived in Cusco at five o'clock in the morning. we were waiting for dani, who arrived shortly after seven. we actually booked an airbnb for five of us to have more rest and apparently the owner was not in town, that will not work, so we went to have breakfast first.
lea organized their flight from cusco to lima and a new apartment via airbnb. When she was done with everything, we walked through the city while Ross watched the game and the backpacks.
We walked back to get our stuff and with a uber drove to the apartment. arrived there, we relaxed with a lot of tea and watched another game.
After the game we went shopping. It took almost three hours. dani and lea went straight from the supermarket back to the house, while we looked for curry, carrots and garlic forever, we wanted to cook today, it should be a curry. for some reason, there was no tomato in the gigantic walmart-style mega-supermarket, and hardly anything else. lea and dani started cutting the vegetables and opened a red wine. hours later we had finished the plate with food and could eat. I had worked well with Alex in the kitchen, during this time we listened to a lot of music and during the meal we saw ratatouille.
I went to sleep before the movie was over.
I woke up very early the next morning, woke everyone and then made the breakfast, scrambled eggs, warm bread, butter, jam, guacamole with tomato, peach slushi and coffee.
When the break came to the halfbreak, we left, so Ross was not tempted to watch the game.
in a fast and noisy bus we drove into the center and visited first the ticketoffice of machu picchu, the woman at the counter told us it would be better to buy the busticket first and then the ticket, because you can not interchange it and you never know if the bus is really there in time. but more on that later. then we went to the central market.
dani and lea stayed there they were shopping and did the girls' day. I was traveling with Ross and Alex to an Irish bar to watch the England match. Unfortunately alex missed to message the girls and to send the location of the bar and it took them a while to get here, the game was over and we met them in front of the bar. out there we met totally surprising nadine and andi from the bolivia tour! alex had previously met his friend joe in the street. We invite everyone to dinner in the apartment.
I am alonefor my plan, because none of the other had interest, i went to the inca museum alone, here you could inform yourself about the different parts and origins of the culture of incas and there was a lot of interesting stuff to see, among other ceramic shards, the older than 3000 years were and also pre-ceramic era artifacts, arrowheads and others older than 7000 years. the patterns of the chancay culture have particularly fascinated and fascinated me.
Ross started his shopping spree at the same time and in the evening we met in front of the pub to go home together, but I wanted to do something before. There is a special snuff, which is very fine and is made from different ashes. the name is rapé and can be found in selected shaman and culture shops. i ended up in a shop selling products from the amazon, in order to clarify the history of production, the saleswoman told me the name of the village and the region where the tobacco is made.
i had already tried this with judith in germany, because she had heard about it and bought it at a festival.
our evening round was much bigger, because there were also two friends of dani from a hostel in ica and also four friends of alex, who were in sucre shortly before our arrival at the "7 patas", so that at the end we all together had 14 people We cooked more curry and more rice with the rest of the day and we had a lot of beer, I talked very well with a friend of Alex who comes from Paraguay, she voted me over and maybe I will make jump in this land, of which I only heard that it is not really worthwhile to stop by there, around twelve o'clock everybody was on the way, only Joe would sleep on the couch with my poncho and a cap from the Aussies he looks incredible.
Alex and I then tried the rapé and the boys wanted to try it. it is one of the strange experiences, because the associated ritual usually requires two people, a donor and a recipient. the donor prepares everything, a tube, usually a bamboo or another plant, is dipped into the rapé so that something gets stuck in the tube on one side.
The recipient puts his head back and leads the tube into his nostril, then the donor brings air and blows the tobacco powerful into the other's nose. There is little generalization about the effect, it is a cleansing experience and comparable to a powerful nasal spray. i like to describe it as judith, with the feeling you have when you stop crying and you can think clearly again.
Definitely a experience and contrary to what you may think no drug. Then we started to see El Dorado, another great old Disney movie, but we can not stay up and fall asleep on the sofa.
This morning I woke up with a hangover and since the others had already had breakfast, I went to shower first, while Joe fried me some eggs. we would all leave today, dani, alex, ross and me to machu picchu and lea to the airport and then to lima and lanzarote.
we have to pack the bags and the apartment we had to clean up. We all said goodbye to Lea and I thanked her especially for the nice trip we had together. I'll miss her soon.
When she left, I booked an uber to ollantaytambo. after everyone boarded the travel begun, to this special Inka city in the mountains.
Out of the city and off into the mountains, the street took us. arrived in the small town ollantaytambo I asked at the bus station, which consisted of two small kiosks, for a bus or kollektivo to santa maria. We found a bus that would arrive about half an hour later. ridiculously cheap, 4 hours drive for 15 soles per person, about 4 €.
The bus drove up and down the winding road along the serpentines. on the map you can see how much the trail meanders.
we pass through many canyons, which evoke memories of the death road and in addition to the waterfalls and llamas I am particularly impressed by the andine rainforest, which also grows on the steepest still ramparts. The scattered settlements on the street look like pearls on a chain and the bus swings over the surprisingly well-developed road. what particularly sets me apart on this path is that we are the only gringos in the big bus.
on the last part of the trail, we follow the meandering of the rio lucumayu, one of the countless tributaries of the amazon, which will flow past iquitos in a few hundred kilometers.
When we finally arrive in Santa Maria, we are almost overrun by people who want to offer us taxis to Santa Theresa, but we buy some fruit first and rest for a few minutes before we let us drive from a nice inhabitant to Santa Theresa. on the way he told us about a cheap accommodation that belongs to a friend and where we can sleep.
This of course was perfect for us and so we arrived one hour later in Santa Theresa and cleared our backpacks in the room, before we met down the street for dinner.
The small restaurant for which we decided was specialized in alpaca and so I've tested that too. I can say that it is tasty and with the strong sauce and the rice a great dish.
very exhausted from the long journey we ran a small shopping tour through the village and then into bed. Our plan for tomorrow was to get up early and get to machu picchu as early as possible.
at three o'clock in the morning the alarm went off and it was hardly time to pack the backpack, because we had to go down to where the driver from yesterday waited to drive us the 25 minutes to hydroelectrica. He left quickly and when we said goodbye it was about 4 o'clock. We then started our hike along the rails.
through the dark forest and over rushing rivers. Twice the train passed us before we reached the lower entrance to machu picchu at dawn at 6 o'clock. after a brief conversation with the control officers, however, it turned out that the woman, in the ticket office in cusco, had informed us wrong. You can not buy a ticket for the entrance here. This is only possible in the city of Aguas Calientes, which is about 20 minutes away by foot. So we drove quickly with a bus and ran to the ticket office to make it back to the sunrise in time for the return. However, the office was closed and all morning shift tickets were sold out. We could only wait and hope to get a ticket for the afternoon. but they were sold only from 10 o'clock. So we drank a café and then we got dressed. I took a short walk to the river, disappointed about the plan not working.
Around 11 o'clock we held our ticket in hands and made our way up the stairs. one and a half hours later we arrived completely wet and sweaty exhausted at the entrance of the Inka city. contrary to my expectations, it was even warmer up here than in the valley and after the photos we made a little picnic first.
then we continued to the so-called inka gate. that's about 200 meters in altitude and an hour's walk more, but you have the most beautiful view of the city, which is like magic conjured between the mountain peaks.
We then hiked back to the actual city. There were some interesting things to see, such as a large stone that functions as a sundial and is very interestingly shaped. I was also impressed by the fact that there were two stone bowls in one house, which were used at night and filled with water as a mirror for the starry sky.
We relaxed a bit on a meadow and after the sunset we went down.
the buses cost $ 12 which is just ridiculous. So we walked down the stairs and arrived with trembling legs at the foot of the stairs. There we walked for about 10 minutes until we finally found a shop with beer on the edge of the train line. I think I've never been so thirsty as at this moment.
after a further one and a half hours hiking on the rails with good music in the ear, we reached hydroelectrica. There I called a driver with the help of a security man from the power plant and later brought us back to Santa Theresa. Here we fell just in bed, after the 32 km we had walked today and about 950 meters altitude, we were glad to not have to get up early the next morning.
very well rested we woke up the next morning by the sunlight, which fell through the window into our room. we will be back today, drive back to cusco but first visit the hot springs of cocalmayo.
at the breakfast, we watched a football game, then we took a taxi to the springs.
Although they are very touristy we were the only gringos in the water and after we boiled ourselfs for an hour we still eat something delicious. Then we take the taxi to the main square in Santa Theresa. there a driver wanted to pick us up at 14 o'clock, but he came much later and then told us he could not take us. So we drove to Santa Maria and from there 20 minutes later with a minibus for 30 Soles to Cusco. Once there, we are looking for the hostel, which I had booked and after we checked in we went straight to sleep.
today ross said goodbye early in the morning, we traveled together since atacama, and i'm sure i'll miss his good mood and his sometimes naive look at things, just like his history lessons, he knows so much about european history.
so I had breakfast with him for the last time and then hugged him to farewell.
The rest of the day I spent in the extremely relaxed chill room of the hostel, I finished the agnihotra video and wrote a new blog entry, then i grab some bread with egg and the rest of the day I thought about how the journey goes on and planed.
But today I did not manage to do any more, since the evening we talked a bit with the other people in the hostel before we went to sleep.
Also today was very eventless, I spent the whole morning upstairs writing and in the afternoon i went with Alex and another one from the hostel, to a really good Indian restaurant.
great food. The evening I spent again in the hostel, all very sleepy.
Today, too, has been relatively unspectacular, I've talked for a while with Sinat, a 33-year-old educator from Berlin. she has been traveling for 8 months and has 12 more to come. We talked a lot about festivals, conventions and rainbow gatherings.
when it was about 16 o'clock we said goodbye to alex and drove with a uber to the bus station. Once there we found a cheap bus to ica, the ride takes about 16 hours, and so we will reach tomorrow at 9 or 10 ica.
the bus ride was relatively okay, unfortunately we had only semi cama seats this time and could not sleep so well, but somehow I managed sometimes to close my eyes.
sleepily I woke up in the bus and in the hope that we will soon be there, but unfortunately we were still far away. At about 10 o'clock we got out of the bus and searched for a restaurant, where we could have breakfast. but for some reason many had closed and so are we drove straight to huacachina by taxi.
There were sandwiches here and we also found a nice hostel that even offers breakfast.
So after the long bus ride we arrived in a desert oasis, it is a really small town, with a pond in the middle and all in all maybe 20 houses, 18 of which are hotels, hostels or restaurants.
The afternoon touristic rush from the city is overwhelming and everyone wants to do some sand surfing and buggy riding. the air is filled with the banging buggymotors and the cries of the tourists. after we made a round through the city, unfortunately I realized that I had forgotten my beloved stick in the bus. that feels really sad, as if someone leaves me without saying goodbye. I then tried to call the bus company with the help of the receptionist, but unfortunately I was told that there was no chance to find the stick. farewell little friend.
depressed by this news, we hiked to the sunset on a dune that was as far away from the noisy touris as possible and looked at the beautiful spectacle from above.
On the way to the hostel, we found a good restaurant and ate delicious salad and fish. in the hostel we emptied the sandy shoes and had a nice conversation with a british, who studied international relationships and has been traveling for some time. then we fell asleep.
that’s it for now, in the next post you can prepare yourself for a big mistake with happy end.
By the way, I'm really excited, on Wednesday so in three days I'll be watching the first T1 models in Sao Paulo. I hope to find my new favorite car ...
love
Pauli
here my current contact data:
mail: pauligetkekse@googlemail.com
Phone: +56 9 4116 6539
whatsapp: +54 9 11 2693-6601
blog: https://steemit.com/@schningelnatter
PS: sorry again for turned pictures, i don’t get this problem fixed, so you maybe have to tilt your phone or screen.