Cusco, Peru

After an 11h bus ride with a brief stop in Puno we arrived around 23:00 in Cusco. Luckely the taxi ride to the hostal was short and we checked in and dropped into bed dead tired!

The next day we spent in Cusco sightseeing the beautiful city and trying to organize a 3 day trek. We booked a moderate 3 day hike from Lares to Ollataytambo with guide, cook, horse, and tents. Cusco is pretty touristy and every few minutes you are interrupted by some street merchant trying to sell you something you for sure don't need! We visited the Mercado Central, Anja's favorite place to hang out, and also various artisan markets.

Today we took a bus up to the Inka ruins of Tambomachay (Inka cleansing baths) and hiked back along various other Inka sites including Pupkapukara (royal hunting lodge), Q´enqo (spiritual sacrifice site) and Saqsaywaman (fortress). 4 hours later we were back in Cusco and are now preparing for our trek. We'll be leaving at 5:30 2morrow morning and should be back in Cusco on Saturday at 19:00.

Isla del Sol - Lago Titicaca

After a 9 hour bustrip through the night we arrived in Sucre at 4:30 am. We spent the next 3 hours on a park bench until stores opened and we were able to enjoy a big breakfast. Our flight from Sucre to La Paz left at 10:30 am and after that we took a taxi to Copacabana on Lake Titicaca. From there a boat ferried us to the beautiful Island of Isla del Sol. All in all the trip involved bus, plane, taxi, and boat on the same day from the southwest to the northwestern tip of Bolivia.

The first day on Isla del Sol we did absolutely nothing except enjoy the magnificent view of the Cordillera Real, Isla de la Luna, and Lake Titicaca itself. Ok, I guess we did eat lunch and dinner :) Besides that we listened to the sounds of a small indigenous community: birds chirping, donkeys crying, sheep doing whatever they do, and pigs snorting.

The second day we hiked 3 hours on the ridge of the mountaineous island to the northern most tip and visited a bunch of Inca ruins. Then we took the coastal path back. All in all a 6 hour hike. Note that Titicaca sea level is 3870m and the various peaks along the ridge were over 4000m. Since we've been living above 3000m for the last 5 weeks it really wasn´t too bad, but your still short of breath on the steeper climbs.

Last night we met a guy from France who is living in Puno, Peru and along with two other french women and two guys from the US (Alaska & Texas... talk about opposite corners of the country) we had dinner. Unfortunately, Anja picked up some kind of food poisoning and was up all night with not so pleasant issues :(

This morning we decided to head back to the mainland early to make sure that we were close to a doctor. After checking into a Hotel Anja rested for a couple hours and is feeling better, albeit still not 100%. She is currently on a Banana, Coca-Cola, Sprite, Fanta Diet. For the lack of better fluids such as Gatorade or "Isostar". Hopefully she'll be back to full strength by 2morrow afternoon when we catch a bus across the border to Peru with destination Cusco.

Potosì Silver Mines - Uyuni

Yesterday we visited the silver mines of Potosì. It was another incredible and humbling experience. We witnessed miners working with bare hands on their knees picking away at the hard granit rock in an effort to make a living for their families. Other miners pushed 4 ton carts by hand through the mines in badly ventilated shafts working sometimes 15-18 h days. Their average life expectancy is around 15 years afters starting work in the mines, this experience only being softened by the continues chewing of coca leaves, giving them energy and an escape from the incredible physical exhaustion. It seems surreal that such hardship and physical work is even still a possibility in the 21st century.

On a lighter note, we met an wonderful couple from Belgium (Hilde & Patrick). They were on the mining tour with us and we have since arranged our travel plans together. It's exciting to share our experience with other travelers and it makes for a much richer experience.

Today we traveled 6 hours by bus to the southwestern city of Uyuni. This town is located on the Altiplano of Bolivia at around 3700m. The landscape from Potosì to Uyuni reminded us a little of the southwest of Utah. It's a desert with lots of fantastic rock formations, canyons, cacti, and of course the worlds largest salt lake.

Tomorrow we are headed on a 3-4 day (depending on snow conditions) tour of the Salar de Uyuni (Salt Lake of Uyuni). More on this landscape from a different planet when we return.

Sucre, Bolivia

Hello from Sucre, apparently the official capital of Bolivia. Yet another beautiful city built in the mid 1500s, in true colonial style! Our trip here was delayed somewhat by a snow storm in La Paz the morning of our flight and we spent half of the day at the airport. That's what you get for building airports at 3500m above MSL :)

After taking a taxi from the airport to our hostal we found out that all of Sucre is celebrating an International Arts Festival. As we walked toward the center of town we passed a highschool with an art exhibit and also saw a flyer advertising a Contemporary Dance performance for the same night. Of course that was a must, having a professional dancer as a wife. We managed to grab some dinner and headed in the direction of the performance only to find out that there was another concert in progress before the dance show. We decided to push our luck and bought two tickets ($2 / person ... what a steal). When we opened the doors to the main venue we couldn't believe our eyes. A solo classical guitar concert by one of the top artists, Piraí Vaca. Having studied classical guitar myself for quite a few years, I sat in my seat for 2 hours straight, jaw dropped and applauding wildly after every piece. Piraí held our attention through from Bach to Tango. I guess God wanted us to be here... dance and classical guitar in one evening in the same location.

After the concert the contemporary dance was staged in the entryway of the theatre. Well, it wasn't exactly what we expected. It was rather interesting. I will let Anja elaborate more on the critique of the various pieces :)

All in all, it was an evening filled program of culture and we fell into bed around 12pm dead tired after a 18 hour day.

La Paz, Bolivia

We touched down in La Paz at around 11:30 pm last night experiencing the first chill of high altitude (3900m) with fog and temps in the low teens (celsius). After a short taxi ride down to 3600m we arrived at our hostal around 1 am to closed doors.... hmmmm... i guess people sleep at this time of the night.

After a couple more rings a sleepy bolivian opened the window... yes, we had a room for the night.

Today we slept in until 9 am and started our tour of this high altitude city. Actually, a large portion of the day was spent organizing the rest of our itinerary within Bolivia. We were able to rebook our outbound flights from Cusco, Peru instead of La Paz. This will allow us to visit the famous Inca ruins of Macchu Pichu along with a trek in that area.

However, first things first: We wandered the steep streets of La Paz in the afternoon and enjoyed the livelyness of this city. There are thousands and thousands of people in the streets, traffic is a virtual grid lock, and vendors line the streets trying to sell you items from toilet paper to dried llama foetuses. What a crazy city!

We also managed to visit the Coca museum and Ethnicity and Folklore museum. Both provided interesting perspectives, especially the Coca museum, telling the story of Cocain from an exporting countries perspective.

Tomorrow morning we are flying on to Sucre, in the south of the country, the old capital and place of the supreme court. Then we will continue on to Potosì, visiting the silver mines and finally Uyuni where the largest salt lakes/flats await us. More on those destinations as we continue our travels.

Otavalo

Well, sometimes things don't quite work out as planned. After taking a taxi for 50 minutes to the Loja airport yesterday early morning and checking in, we found out 5 minutes before departure that the flight was cancelled due to high winds, disallowing the plane to land in the high valley. The airline informed us that we had to take the taxi back to Loja and from there a bus to Cuenca. After 40 minutes taxi ride and another 5 hours bus ride we arrived in Cuenca. We finally caught a flight back to Quito and arrived around 7 pm.

The hostal owner was kind enough to wait for us so we added another 2 hours car trip to Otavalo. Arriving here we were invited to a wonderful cultural music peformance of indigenous music and dance. We enjoyed pan flutes, harps, guitars and other local instruments until 1 am, finally crashing dead-tired at our friends house.

Today we are exploring the famous Markets and hope to be able to send back some local fabric, clothes, etc. for all of you to enjoy.

Travel Day: Vilcabamba - Loja - Quito

Today and tomorrow are travel days. This morning we checked out of our hotel in Vilcabamba and said goodbye to some wonderful Swiss friends (Iris, Barbara & Sabrina - see picture) that we met. We took the bus to Loja.


In the afternoon we visited the Feria, a local festival and saw traditional dances from various countries of South America - of course extremely fascinating for my dancer wife... I have to say I enjoyed it as well.

Tomorrow we are flying back to Quito, 40 min flight on a small puddle-jumper. Then we will be heading to Otovalo to visit the famous market and possibly some hotsprings. The hostal owner from Quito, another swiss woman (they are everywhere these swiss), invited us to her cabin. We are looking forward to getting the inside scoop. Of course you always see more when the locals show you around.

Vilcabama - Mandango Ridge & Waterfall Hike

Two days ago we arrived in the beautiful valley of Vilcamba approximately 1h south of Loja by bus. It is called the "Valley of Longevity" since people are said to live to age 120 here. It's a relatively green valley with sun burned ridges and mountains rising all around. Since the Sierra of Ecuador is currently in the dry season there are a lot of brownish and yellow bushes along the mountain slopes which I am sure turn a wonderful green during the rainy season.

We are staying at a Hostal a little bit up the valley from the main town, run by two Germans. This is making communication a breeze compared to our horrible attempts at spanish. I should say, Anja is doing quite well, on the other hand my skills seem to be deteriorating daily :(

Yesterday, we hiked from Vilcabamba 1500m up along a ridge to the top of a scenic mountain called Mandango (2040m). From there we continued along a precarious ridge with lots of wind back down into the valley. The scenery around us was marvelous and after a short lunch break we enjoyed the rest of the day relaxing at the Hostal.

Today we took the "free" mountain bikes (come with the Hostal reservation), and biked up a side valley until the trail was too narrow to continue by bike. We stashed the bikes with a local, and continued by foot along a refreshing little river. Our destination was an mysterious waterfall, which we reached after climbing steep hills for about 3 hours through coffee plantations, corn fields, and other exotic vegetation. We skinny dipped underneath the waterfall - what a wonderful feeling after spending hours in the scorching equatorial sun.

Cajas Parque Nationale - Cuenca

Today we hiked in the beautiful National Park of Cajas northwest of Cuenca. We met two Americans, Alex and Matias, actually, Matias originally from Argentina and we had a great time. We started our hike at about 3700m and hiked up along sometimes not very clearly marked trails to 4000m. In the process we got lost a couple of times... but the scenery was soo breathtaking that it didn't bother us too much.

After the hike we enjoyed a "Heissi Schoggi" and took the bus back to Cuenca. We cooked dinner at the Hostal with another Swiss couple and Matias. What wonderful people you meet when you travel. I am sure many lasting friendships with come from these short but intense encounters.

Baños Bike Tour

Today we rented a couple of Mountain Bikes and headed from Baños, where we are staying, toward Puyo, which is in the Amazon Territory of Ecuador. On the way down the beautiful green valley we passed by many waterfalls, mandarin plantations, and cute little villages nestled along the cliffs of the Rio Verde. We stopped by a little cable car (see picture), used to transport mandarins, that took us across the valley. We hiked along the cliffs on a gorgeous trail discovering many flowers, spiders, and other creatures. Our trip with the bikes ended in Rio Negro. We took the bus back uphill, happy to arrive in one piece... bus drivers in Ecuador have no fear of steep cliffs and dropoffs. We enjoyed a wonderful Spa at our hotel (see picture)