Ola!

After a great month in Bolivia we moved to the next country on our wishlist: Peru.

From Copacabana (Bolivia) we took the nightbus to Cusco. The border crossing we had to to on foot, with a new bus waiting for us on Peruvian territory. Arriving at night in Cusco was quite shocking. What a circus! At the busstation wehad tofight ourselves through the large amount of taxidrivers offering to take us to the Plaza de Armas.... because we were so tired after the long busride we accepted one of the offers.... the thing was not only that we were taken to the central plaza but, although we didn´t ask, we were also taken to a hostal.... it turned out to be quite a rip-off.... but we had a place to sleep....

Cusco was our first acquintance with Peru and it was pretty much a shock.... In Bolivia you have to ASK everything and in Peru you have to REFUSE all the offers (Amigo, amiga, Inka massage? Restaurant, señor? Beautiful paintings, amiga? Taxi, taxi? Papi papi?). We really had to adjust our defense systems.... But after getting used to it Cusco turned out to be a great city to spend a couple of nights and prepare our trip to (hopefully) one of the highlights of our trip: Machu Picchu. Besides the preparations we visited the Inca ruins of Saqsayhuaman (pronounce as ´Sexy Woman´ with a very British accent

). Quite impressive stones....

After Cusco we moved on to Ollantaytambo - the capital of the Indians in Peru. It was a lovely village situated in the heart of the Sacred Valley (close to Machu Picchu). Completely different then the other villages we saw so far. The village was built on the remains of the ancient Inca walls and ruins. We visited the ruins there as well and especially the views were breathtaking! With a couple of beers in our backpack we climbed the mountains opposite of the ruins and enjoyed one of the most amazing sunsets we ever saw! After 2 days Ollantaytambo we hopped on the train to Aguas Calientes (Hot Waters). For us this tourist circus town was nothing more then a necessary stopover to realize our own Inca trail....

At03.00h at night we started our own Inca trail to Machu Picchu. With flashlights on our heads (like true mineworkers) we started the 2 hour hike all the wayup up up and UP to the Lost City of the Inca´s. Completely wet we arrived at 05.15 at the entrance of Machu Picchu. We made it in a dutch record time and finished 17th and 18th! At 06.00 the gates opened and we had Machu Picchu for ourselves!!! We found a great place to watch the sun rise! Wow, f&%king impressive! Wespend all day exploring the lost city. As goodpeople we listened to all the rules about taking food and drinks (NOT allowed!), so we were almost dying from thirst (water, please!

). The irritating thing was that no one checked any bag andwe could have brought whateverwe wanted (some even had bottles of champagne....bastards!).A good lesson for the next time: don´t care about any rules or recommendations.... After visiting Machu Picchuwe bought the biggest and most expensive Coca Cola we ever had (about 7 euro! ). Ready for the hike back to Aguas Calientes. Die hards. In the evening we were pretty much dead but very satisfied. Machu Picchu definitely met our expectations!!!! It was a true highlight!!!

From thehighlands it was time for a completely different Peru: the lowlands. From Cusco we took a domestic flight to Puerto Maldonado, a very isolated jungle town. There we started a 4-day trip to the jungle. A 4- hour boattripon the Tambopata riverbrought us deeper into the Amazon- bassin. We stayed in an ecolodge on the riverbanks surrounded by the sounds of tropical birds and other creatures. As there were no windows in the room it felt like camping, but then thousand times better! From the lodge we did several hikes with our (private) guide Urial to the rainforest to meet our fellow friends - exotic animals - and learn about (medicinal) trees and tropical fruits. If you didn´t know; avocado is a fruit and NOT a vegetable

.

We met quite someexotic animalsincluding tarantulas (with babies, cute, no?), monkeys, capibaras, caymen, sloths, army ants, butterflies (including the biggest one on earth) , etc. One morning we left , still in the dark,for a trip on the river to the so- called ´macaw´s clay lick´. This halfmoon shaped clay wall was the place for macaws, parrots and parakeets to have breakfast consisting of minerals and salt. It was very impressive to see hundreds of these kind of birds in their natural environment and observe their natural behaviour. We were guests in their house which felt much better then watching them in a cage in the zoo....

The last day we visited Lago Sandoval - a rainforest lake which was separated fromthe Madre de Dios river by erosion. This lake had different kind of vegetation then the other parts of the rainforest. We enjoyed a monkey ´show´and a were part of an outstanding performance of mosquitos

.... and as it should be in the rainforest we were completely wet because of the humidity and RAIN!!

Time to move on. Why not to travel from one side of Peru to the other... That said, we flew back from Puerto Maldonado to Cusco and there took a 9 hour busride to Arequipa. We are sitting there now in an internet cafe writing our memoirs.....

To be continued....

Hasta luego, amigos and amigas!