The eternal walk

We finally did something! After hanging out for a couple of weeks stuffing ourselves with German food, relaxing with German and Swiss people, if you want taking a holiday from our strenuous trip that really nobody should be envious of, we keep on rolling. Well, I should say kept on. Right now I’m lying in a hotel room dried out to the bones waiting for my stomach to recover from … McDonalds! I should send out pledges to all guide book publishers warning people from eating at the big M while traveling through South America. Never had any problems with the street vendors and now a Mc Nificent (I should have known…) strikes me down and brings out the best in me: Water.

But let’s start with what we did because it might be more fun to read than bathroom stories, though Boris Becker and others have proved the opposite. We were in Lima meeting Glenda which was great meeting her after such a long time again in a completely different world. The fun just lasted for a day, though before we went on to Cusco. We had planned to go to Arequipa in the south of Peru where the Colca Canyon, the deepest canyon worldwide I believe, was waiting to become explored. The bus tickets already booked we received an email from a former work colleague from Maiken who had been in Choq’equiraw in May. We had asked her about it, but after not receiving an email for some days we kind of forgot about it and wanted to go on. While being in Lima Isabella sent us an email with her experience from that trip and well, she must be a good writer as we changed all of our plans. Glenda called the bus company, we changed our tickets and went on not to Arequipa the next night but went on a pleasantly short bus ride of 22 hours to get to Cusco. Maiken already gave you some insights into the inner life of her stomach, so I will skip this part just handing out a recommendation to the non German friends to use the translator for Maiken’s story of having uninvited guests in Cusco. The city itself is stunningly beautiful but being exactly that as well as the basecamp for the hordes of people visiting Machu Picchu it is full of tourists and full of tourist infrastructure like money changers, people offering a massage (though after the trek I did consider one) or people dressing up like the Incas did(n’t!) to accompany tourists on their travel memories. The pictures become even better when the tourists themselves dress up like the people in the villages they had seen out of the tour bus before. But I might have to keep it down after having bought a winter hat that might provoke a few laughters back in Germany, still I like it. Walking the city it is recommendable to walk a little bit out of the center to still enjoy the mixture of Inca and colonial architecture but avoiding the image of those Mc Nificent houses being occupied by tour operators and souvenir shops. Well, we had decided not to go to Machu Picchu since it is too crowded and costs a ridiculous amount of money just for visiting for a couple of hours. We ended up paying less for a 4 day hike to Choq’equiraw including food and drinks, two mules and a guy who they listen to. That site lies rather inconvenient for a bigger crowd. Our plan was to take a bus from Cusco to a city called Abancay because between those cities you can get off the bus and take a cab down to Cachora. There is the trailhead which leads to the site. After the Lady in the bus told us in Cusco that she would let us know as soon as we arrive at the road down to Cachora, she then not only forgot about it, but when we realized it ourselves told us that all she said was she would let us know. Getting out of the bus was not possible because there is no bus office at that place. Anyway, the next day we started our trek if a bit later since we had to stay in the next city and find our way back. We took the worst decision just before starting the trek. When somebody warned us that there are a lot of mosquitos we ignored his advice of getting repellent. Holding it to save 10 Cents at a gas station toilet would be a better way of saving money. I never had as many bites during a complete summer as I had during these 4 days, and saying this I am not exaggerating. My arms still look like I went to Abu Ghureib for a few days. The trail itself was wonderful, though. Dayme who led the mules had a lot of stories to tell which were interesting to know about and we really ended up having a mule leader and a guide in one person which we didn’t quite expect before. The only thing a bit annoying because now it has happened so often is the glorification of Hitler and the other German figures of his time that have brought so much despair over mankind. I don’t blame anybody, the people here were not directly affected by it and I can see the point seeing the war in a rather technical way which is what happens. Hitler in line with Napoleon and The Lord of the Rings, that is how quite a few people with a lower degree of education see it. As I said I’m not blaming but sometimes it can get on your nerves trying to explain in my rudimentary Spanish why killing 6 million Jews is not what I consider a successful life achievement. But I am going off topic again, Dayme had a lot more to say about the world and the region we’ve been to which made walking with him a great pleasure. The first day he insisted we should walk 6 hours in the dark since we couldn’t start before 3pm due to our delay. So we did and went down the 1500m deep canyon first and on the other side about 600 meters up again. That way we had already finished part of the ascent which was perfect for the next day which was hard enough. We climbed about another km in altitude with lots of up and down again. The site itself is very big as well. The nicest section is the Lama section. Before the Spanish came there weren’t any horses or donkeys down here, so the Lama was crucially important for the Incas which is why they honored it with this site. Yet only 30 to 40% of the site is discovered, it is believed to be a lot bigger, though for us it was impressive enough they way it is. The setting in the mountains between snowcapped peaks is impressive and the fact that there are no more than 10 people around adds some magic to the place. I think it makes it even better that in a way you have to earn getting there walking like in old times with mules.

After that trail was finished we went back to Cusco which again was a bit of a hassle because first of all you have to find somebody out of that village driving you up to the road. The idea is to knock on the doors where people have cars and ask if they can use 10 Soles extra to drive us up there. At the time nobody apparently was in need of money which is good but not for us. Besides most of the people with cars had left the village in the morning. After two hours of waiting an actual taxi came down and we could go. Next task was to stop a bus in the street, but we had to wait another three hours before there was one and that had exactly one spot available. When the driver started accelerating we jumped in as it would have been our last chance at night and so we went. Back in Cusco we had to buy some clothes since I kind of lost my only warm jumper which is simply stupid in altitudes of 3000+. The bus ride over night here to Puno was horrible due to the Mc Nificent problem I had and still have. And so it’s a Sunday that people dream of: Lying in bed, watching the US Open Ladies Final which quite disappointingly only entertained me for about an hour until the match point was played and do basically nothing. The TV reminded me (no, it was Maiken two days ago already to be honest) that today is the 10^th anniversary of 9/11 and I still don’t want to believe how much the world has changed since then but discussing that goes way too far now, it’s just an eternal topic.

Lars

VIVA El Perú! Cusco from the top

Church at Plaza de las Armas

Classic game of chess

Inka Wall in Cusco

Maiken wanted to ride it but we walked too slow and Dayme wanted to have lunch with his mother, so we didn't catch Mr. Ed anymore.

Dayme with Susanna, one of our mules

The other luckless mule that had to carry our food, stove, clothes, water, tent... Dulce

Had nothing to do with us but Maiken thought it's cute

That chick recently celebrated her 94th birthday and still had some self made corn liqueor left for us

Dayme loading Dulce

From bottom up: Dayme's mom, Maiken, Lars

I said: One more, two did listen

My first time with a mule

Panorama

Down down in there is the canyon we'll cross some 10 hours later

Good spot to enjoy the landscape and let it flow

Mystic canyon

Evening time, Dulce is still in a good mood

Me as well

Attention whore... on the left I mean!!

Ok, but that's Maiken again...

Snow in the Andes

Did I mention we had two watchdogs with us?

More snow peaks

What a mimic contrast

My job was to calm down that emotional animal, hard enough as you can see

Water, sunscreen and Mosquito bites let me appear more handsome than ever

For Maiken it's heat and exercise

Menú del Día: Rice

Dayme's advice not to scratch was well meant, but 40 bites on just one hand ask for action

The most loyal dog Leika who stayed with us even when we left her master

Sombrero, Cabron!

In bloom

The first sign of the site after 34km walking

Beautiful as ever!

Do it

Choque

The main square

Plaza from top

Other attention whore

We needed some alone time

Andes

Me and the Bavarian chick I'm travelling with

Square

Sorry, not even for the picture we wanted to be in the sun anymore. At that point we were exhausted

Still laughing

Between the Lamas

Greta the Great

inseperable

Us

Plaza before sunset

same same

Rape szene

Our campsite

Small and strong: Dulce

Long and strong enough: The Bridge

Maiken and her walking stick

The canyon from the lowest point

Papaya Trees

Kitchen

Oh, saturday we could go windowshopping!

Just 13 km to go to reach the village, just two more uphill

Bites everywhere

Cuy waiting to be slaughtered and eaten

The village of Cachora

I'm thinking about putting a bid

Listo, Done, Fertig

They don't need a mule, sometimes I feel worthless