Yeah, that's how we feel having finished the four-day Inca Trail to the lost city of Machu Picchu! Considering our lack of shape this hike was quite a challenge for the two of us... Sometimes on the way to the top it was like we wouldn't make it, but then when you get to the top of the mountain you forget all about the difficulties - just enjoying the view!
Guess it's like that with many things in life ;-)
At 6 am the 22nd we were picked up from the hotel in Cuzco by our local guide. From here we took a bus to "km 82" - the starting point of "The Inca Trail"; an ancient route used by the Incas in old times, 42 km long, passing mountains, valleys, Inca ruins, waterfalls, small lakes, cloud forests and ending in the historical site of Machu Picchu.
Our group consisted of nine excited young hikers, these fellow travellers being; Fanny and Dan from Belgium, Kate and Victoria from Australia and England, Michael from Australia and the two 'loco' Danish guys, Soren and Dennis. In addition, we had two guides, one cook and twelfe porters. In this company we felt like royalties having fifteen men to take care of us! They carried most of our stuff, put up our tents, made us dinner, had nine balls of water ready for us at any time we wanted to wash our hands and they were in general helpful with everything we needed.
The first day was quite easy, walking 9 km with no steep hillsides so we were all quite optimistic about the three upcoming days. Second day was killer though! We woke up at 5 am by the porters serving coca-tea in our tent :-) Then we started trekking up the very steep mountain which kept becoming steeper and steeper as the hours passed. At some point, we could see the top in the distance but it seemed impossible to reach! The last 200 meters we stopped every 10 meter to catch our breath ;-) ¡Of course only caused by the high altitude and not our physical condition! Finally, we reached the top "Dead Women's Pass" (4215 masl) and the relief was incredible. Just after reaching the top, an amazing male condor flew by - just over our heads! Stunning, almost like it was waiting for us :-) After taking group pictures and enjoying the beautiful view we started the two hours downhill hike on the other side of the mountain. After a couple of minutes walking downhill we had completely forgotten the earlier difficulties! We arrived to the camp in the valley and five minutes later it started raining heavily - we felt lucky :-) The porters had the lunch ready for us and after that we had a nice 'ciesta'. The cold evening was spent in the dinner tent talking and playing cards.
The third day started early aswell. The terrain was now changing, where in the beginning of the trip there was little vegetation and many rocks, we were now starting to walk into 'the cloud forest' - the area between the highlands and the rainforest. On our way we stopped at several amazing Inca-ruins in the mystical cloudy scenery. Having walked approximately 8 km we stopped to have lunch. After the lunch we took a short trip to 'el baño' and when we returned to the dinner tent our group was gone! So the two of us walked completely alone for a couple of hours in a scenery like nothing we had ever seen before. It was pouring rain and total silence around us. We felt like we were walking on a path of history and the plants, caves and stunning cloudy mountains surrounding us was like in a fairytale. After 16 km of walking we arrived to the camp soaking wet and exhausted, but with big emotions filling our bodies and minds. Here we had the luxury of a wonderful 'hot' shower - the first in three days! In the evening Tinna twisted her knee, but it didn't seem that serious.
The final day we felt the adrenaline filling our bodies since we knew that the trail would lead us to the famous sungate and thereafter Machu Picchu. Tinna had some problems with the knee but nevertheless we walked really fast resulting in us being some of the first (and the first in our group, hehe..) arriving to the sungate. Climbing the last steps and walking through the stone gate, unbelivable views opened in front of us. We saw a huge valley with tall green mountains, a river in the bottom and the proud city of Machu Picchu arising in the middle on a mountain top. It was just after 6 in the morning and the sun was shining in the blue sky! We felt so lucky, considering that this is the rainy season and the chances of seeing the city on a bright day are very small. We walked 45 minutes down to the ruins of this amazing Inca city and our guide gave us a two hour tour around Machu Picchu. After this we went to ‘aguas calientes’ (hot springs) and relaxed in the ‘natural’ brown water. In the afternoon a train took us back to Cuzco where we fell asleep emidiately after four adventurous days.
The following day was pleasently spent at the hospital with Tinna’s swollen knee, she is now limping around and beeing the reason (again) why we haven’t moved on to Lake Titicaca and Bolivia ;-) Hopefully we will be fit-for-fight after a couple of days resting here in Cuzco.
Hugs and kisses
Elka & Tinna
PS. We have uploaded some pictures from Ecuador and Peru on our fotosite – hope you like them :-) Though none from Machu Picchu yet...
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
Land of the Incas
First of all, thank you so much for all your comments - we're so happy when we see them and we're really sorry that we haven't been better updating the blog... Guess it's because we've been so busy exploring Peru ;-)
Surprisingly, right at the beginning of our stay in Peru we realised that we were now travelling on "the Gringo Trail" meaning the trail in South America that is most popular to backpackers. All the time travelling through Peru we have always been part of a group of young people travelling together; never just the two of us.
Our first cultural experience in Peru was in the surfer's town of Huanchaco, situated nearly on the beach in the desert of northern Peru. Here we stayed with four others from four different nations; Mona, Josh, Arent and Monica from Norway, Canada, Holland and Austria. With them we rented a taxi-driver for a whole day visiting the ruins in the area, to be highlighted "Chan Chan" (the biggest pre-Inca mud city in the world) and "Huaca del Sol y Luna" (amazing pre-Inca pyramids still in archeological investigation and development). After this demanding day we made each other the promise of no more ruins until Machu Picchu :-)
Next stop was Huaraz in the Andes joined by Arent and Monica. Huaraz is a center of outdoor activities situated 3091 meters above sealevel and surrounded by the highest snowcapped mountains in Peru. Here we took a nice trip to the stunning lake of "Llanganuco" which was quite interesting because of its turqouise/green colours and the breathtaking mountains and glaciers surrounding it.
From Huaraz a nightbus took us to Lima where we stayed three nights at a great youth hostel with lots of activities and social life. We did'nt get much chance of enjoying this though, since Tinna decided to be very ill with high fever and was forced to stay in bed. To be mentioned, Elka was an amazing private nurse during these boring days ;-)
As soon as Tinna was better we headed south to Ica in the desert and from here to the tiny oasis of Huacachina - and we had found another paradise!!! We truly though that this kind of place only excisted in cartoons! Huacachina is a laguna in the middle of desert with palmtrees and a couple of houses, this little oasis surrounded by enourmous mountains of light sand! The oasis was extremely peaceful and the only thing you could see was the desert. We stayed at a nice hippie-hostel with an amusing little monkey, turtles and a relaxing swimmingpool - fully enjoyed after the cold highlands :-)
Huacachina was also the place giving us a great rush of adrenaline. We went driving in a dunebuggy (open car made to drive fast in the desert) and sandboarding down the mountains of sand. Driving in the dunebuggy was like a rollercoaster-ride and the sandboarding was a true thrill aswell! Though we, because of our laking boarding-skills, mostly did the sandboarding on our tummies ;-) It is really difficult for us to describe this amazing experience in words - we can just say: you could go to Peru only for this! :-)
On this trip we met two american girls, Sarah and Paula, and two guys from Australia and England, Ben and Jake. The following very special day (BIRTHDAY!) we travelled to Nazca joined by Ben, Jake and Arent (our dutch friend from Vilcabamba). In Nazca the five of us took a tiny propel-airplain (with only five seats) over the historical Nazca lines. Both the plainride and seeing the lines was a big experience, though we were almost puking during the 45 minutes long turbulent ride ;-)
We wanted to go straight to Cuzco the following night and therefore we booked a cheap nightbus at 9 pm. After waiting at the busstation for two hours, the bus finally arrived. We jumped on in a hurry and the bus took of emidiately. After a couple of minutes in the stinky old bus we realised that there was no seats for the five of us! And this was going to be a busride for 18 hours... Five minutes after take-off the bus stopped for "dinner-break". We were very dissapointed, shocked and a bit terrified, so we took a quick group discussion and agreed on taking a taxi back to Nazca. 18 hours in a bus with the risk of theft and on dangerous roads, we were more than willing to take the chance of not getting another bus and/or loosing our money. Fortunately, back in Nazca we found a reliable bus company and in addition got a little discount on the expensive tickets :-) So we learned from this unpleasant experience; don't trust the cheap bus companies - though it looks good on the posters! ;-)
Saturday afternoon we arrived in Cuzco after 18 hours of beautisleeping in the luxurious bus of "Cruz del Sur" ;-) We went straight to the recommended youth hostel "Loki" and here we were told about a great 80's party in the hostel the following night. We were tempted right away and went straight to the secondhand stores of Cuzco downtown. Here we found the ugliest clothes ever and with some imagination and scissors we had the coolest 80's outfits ever! ;-) We had a night of great fun with several of the people we had met earlier on our travel in Peru.
The next days were spent relaxing and enjoying the international atmosphere at the hostel and the cosy town of Cuzco. This is where we are now and tomorrow morning we will start hiking the four-days long "Inca Trail" to the lost city of "Machu Picchu".
Hope you are all well... Hasta luego amigos!
Surprisingly, right at the beginning of our stay in Peru we realised that we were now travelling on "the Gringo Trail" meaning the trail in South America that is most popular to backpackers. All the time travelling through Peru we have always been part of a group of young people travelling together; never just the two of us.
Our first cultural experience in Peru was in the surfer's town of Huanchaco, situated nearly on the beach in the desert of northern Peru. Here we stayed with four others from four different nations; Mona, Josh, Arent and Monica from Norway, Canada, Holland and Austria. With them we rented a taxi-driver for a whole day visiting the ruins in the area, to be highlighted "Chan Chan" (the biggest pre-Inca mud city in the world) and "Huaca del Sol y Luna" (amazing pre-Inca pyramids still in archeological investigation and development). After this demanding day we made each other the promise of no more ruins until Machu Picchu :-)
Next stop was Huaraz in the Andes joined by Arent and Monica. Huaraz is a center of outdoor activities situated 3091 meters above sealevel and surrounded by the highest snowcapped mountains in Peru. Here we took a nice trip to the stunning lake of "Llanganuco" which was quite interesting because of its turqouise/green colours and the breathtaking mountains and glaciers surrounding it.
From Huaraz a nightbus took us to Lima where we stayed three nights at a great youth hostel with lots of activities and social life. We did'nt get much chance of enjoying this though, since Tinna decided to be very ill with high fever and was forced to stay in bed. To be mentioned, Elka was an amazing private nurse during these boring days ;-)
As soon as Tinna was better we headed south to Ica in the desert and from here to the tiny oasis of Huacachina - and we had found another paradise!!! We truly though that this kind of place only excisted in cartoons! Huacachina is a laguna in the middle of desert with palmtrees and a couple of houses, this little oasis surrounded by enourmous mountains of light sand! The oasis was extremely peaceful and the only thing you could see was the desert. We stayed at a nice hippie-hostel with an amusing little monkey, turtles and a relaxing swimmingpool - fully enjoyed after the cold highlands :-)
Huacachina was also the place giving us a great rush of adrenaline. We went driving in a dunebuggy (open car made to drive fast in the desert) and sandboarding down the mountains of sand. Driving in the dunebuggy was like a rollercoaster-ride and the sandboarding was a true thrill aswell! Though we, because of our laking boarding-skills, mostly did the sandboarding on our tummies ;-) It is really difficult for us to describe this amazing experience in words - we can just say: you could go to Peru only for this! :-)
On this trip we met two american girls, Sarah and Paula, and two guys from Australia and England, Ben and Jake. The following very special day (BIRTHDAY!) we travelled to Nazca joined by Ben, Jake and Arent (our dutch friend from Vilcabamba). In Nazca the five of us took a tiny propel-airplain (with only five seats) over the historical Nazca lines. Both the plainride and seeing the lines was a big experience, though we were almost puking during the 45 minutes long turbulent ride ;-)
We wanted to go straight to Cuzco the following night and therefore we booked a cheap nightbus at 9 pm. After waiting at the busstation for two hours, the bus finally arrived. We jumped on in a hurry and the bus took of emidiately. After a couple of minutes in the stinky old bus we realised that there was no seats for the five of us! And this was going to be a busride for 18 hours... Five minutes after take-off the bus stopped for "dinner-break". We were very dissapointed, shocked and a bit terrified, so we took a quick group discussion and agreed on taking a taxi back to Nazca. 18 hours in a bus with the risk of theft and on dangerous roads, we were more than willing to take the chance of not getting another bus and/or loosing our money. Fortunately, back in Nazca we found a reliable bus company and in addition got a little discount on the expensive tickets :-) So we learned from this unpleasant experience; don't trust the cheap bus companies - though it looks good on the posters! ;-)
Saturday afternoon we arrived in Cuzco after 18 hours of beautisleeping in the luxurious bus of "Cruz del Sur" ;-) We went straight to the recommended youth hostel "Loki" and here we were told about a great 80's party in the hostel the following night. We were tempted right away and went straight to the secondhand stores of Cuzco downtown. Here we found the ugliest clothes ever and with some imagination and scissors we had the coolest 80's outfits ever! ;-) We had a night of great fun with several of the people we had met earlier on our travel in Peru.
The next days were spent relaxing and enjoying the international atmosphere at the hostel and the cosy town of Cuzco. This is where we are now and tomorrow morning we will start hiking the four-days long "Inca Trail" to the lost city of "Machu Picchu".
Hope you are all well... Hasta luego amigos!
Wednesday, November 7, 2007
Ecuador finished...
Well well, we arrived to Peru yesterday...
Just gonna tell you briefly about the last part of our trip through Ecuador.
After the jungle-trip we went to a mountaintown called Baños. Here we just chilled out and regained power plus a little hiking-adventure in the mountains :-) Hehe, we got lost, it started to raining and we ended sliding down the very steep mountainside on our buts!!
Then we headed to Cuenca, the third biggest city in Ecuador. Here we arrived just in the beginning of the days were the town had a major annual festival celebrating its indpendency. This was done by carnevals, fireworks and a huge amount of people everywhere. Among others we met a group of cheerful Norwegian volunteers which we spend most of Saturday night with - playing cards, haha...
After Cuenca our plan was to go to Peru through a southern town called Loja. But in Loja we met a traveller from Holland who convinced us that we had to visit the small village of Vilcabamba in the mountains. So we went to Vilcabamba... And here we took a whole day of hiking and horsebackriding in the mountains visiting a beautiful national park. On this trip we were accompanied by our dutch friend and two guides :-) Just to add, for those of you knowing horses, these western horses that we found in the Ecuadorian highlands could go both lull (grisepas) and tölt plus the normal gaits! We were quite surprised yes... Our longtime riding experience didnt seem to do much good though - we walked (and felt) like old women after this demanding trip ;-)
From Vilcabamba the trip moved on to Peru in an overnight bus. Here we have stayed a night in the city of Piura and now we are in the surfertown of Huanchaco with four other people.
Now we are gonna head for a swim in the waves and a barbeque! :-)
Adios amigos!
Just gonna tell you briefly about the last part of our trip through Ecuador.
After the jungle-trip we went to a mountaintown called Baños. Here we just chilled out and regained power plus a little hiking-adventure in the mountains :-) Hehe, we got lost, it started to raining and we ended sliding down the very steep mountainside on our buts!!
Then we headed to Cuenca, the third biggest city in Ecuador. Here we arrived just in the beginning of the days were the town had a major annual festival celebrating its indpendency. This was done by carnevals, fireworks and a huge amount of people everywhere. Among others we met a group of cheerful Norwegian volunteers which we spend most of Saturday night with - playing cards, haha...
After Cuenca our plan was to go to Peru through a southern town called Loja. But in Loja we met a traveller from Holland who convinced us that we had to visit the small village of Vilcabamba in the mountains. So we went to Vilcabamba... And here we took a whole day of hiking and horsebackriding in the mountains visiting a beautiful national park. On this trip we were accompanied by our dutch friend and two guides :-) Just to add, for those of you knowing horses, these western horses that we found in the Ecuadorian highlands could go both lull (grisepas) and tölt plus the normal gaits! We were quite surprised yes... Our longtime riding experience didnt seem to do much good though - we walked (and felt) like old women after this demanding trip ;-)
From Vilcabamba the trip moved on to Peru in an overnight bus. Here we have stayed a night in the city of Piura and now we are in the surfertown of Huanchaco with four other people.
Now we are gonna head for a swim in the waves and a barbeque! :-)
Adios amigos!
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