Wrap it up,,, Ecuador here i come

long time ago when i updated my blog... so lot of things to write about, pero primero..
quiero dicer un felicitacion para dos personas quien tienen su compluaños este mes.

Feliz Compluaños para ustedes

A. van den Berg
y
tambien S.Becu

mucha salud, suerte y divertir en su vida
disculpe por este muy muy tarde.

i`m city hopping and when traveling for so long you started to lose your sense of time.
okay the pictures are from top to down: the nasca lines (the tree), Lima (plaza de armas- cathedral), Chavin temple (the head), Huaraz (cordillera blanca), Chan Chàn (city of Chimu),
huanchaco (nearby chan chan).

Nasca is a sleazy town there is practically nothing in town excepts restaurants and hotels. the picture of the line i took from the mirador, (not going to pay 100 bucks for the aerial tour)
so it`s slighly unclear but it is still amazing to see it from close range. but i did went to the planetarium and the museum and they were really interesting. especially because they provided a good knowledge about the origin of the Nasca culture (pre-inca).

Lima on the other hand is a huge metropole, really similar to Buenos aires. the upmarket district of miraflores and san isidro are good places to stay and much more beautiful compared to the center. The cathedral at the plaza de armas housed the remains of Pizarro as well a good collection of paintings (worth the visit).

From the dessert coast i went back to the andes to the cordillera blanca. the main city is Huaraz.
Huaraz is the base to trek the cordillera and / climb the highest peak of Peru, or go skiing when in season. but it also the site of what they said the precursor of the andean culture. the Chavin culture (pre-inca). nearby huaraz in the city of chavin there is a small remains of the temple fortress ¨chavin de huantar¨ the building is magnificent and the relief are really good. the chavin culture (peaked at about 800 b.c.) dominated about the half of peru at it`s golden time. the fortress is much more amazing than macchu pichu. right now, really think that machu pichu is overrated (and overcharged).

another interesting pre-inca culture is on the north coast of Peru, the Chimu. it was as Inca a conquering tribe and it was expanding about 1000 km in total (at it`s peak). the chimu was kind of the successor of the moche culture whose thrived from the agriculture and fishing aswell. the city of Chan chan is made from adobe (stamped dirt and water) but the amazing thing is they enclosed the palace with huge walls (from adobe). Another amazing building built from adobe: the first version of great wall of china. on the center of the palace there was a huge well dedicated to the god of fertility and it was also a ceremonial center. through the whole sites there are images of fishes and sea animals, it`s really shown the strong connection with the sea.

not far from Trujillo and chan chan there is a small fishing village of huanchaco. it was actually the place where i was headed for, for the sun, sea and .... surf. according the history it was also the place where the people started to surf. the fishermen still conserved the old tradition of the moche and chimu by using reed boats to fish on the sea. the boats are flat and it kinda surf on the wave.. so in theory here was the first time that people started to surf. surfing itself isn't really hard if you have the help of the teacher (considerated to be one of the best surfer in the north of peru) but when i tried on my own i wasn't able to stand up.. so in theory i need more practice :).But.. For some reason i kept bumping german speaking girls (maybe i should learned german), like the girls in my surfing class.

Abrazo

Ch´

the flight of the condors

I thought that i would love arequipa. but i didnt, not for one bit. it`s even didnt make the name truth as ¨ciudad blanca¨, the true ciudad blanca is still Sucre, Bolivia. (and the best city ive ever been) Asi, asi, Bolivia por lo mejor mundo. i really hate to be treated like a bloody tourist. on my trip ive never felt molested like when i was in arequipa. i couldn´t even walked a arcaded hall without somebody yelled ¨amigo¨or ¨konichiwa¨. I do not have any interests in your overpriced restaurant, ¨uruse, baka¨.

so i did not spent one night in arequipa and just used it as transit to camana and Colca canyon. which are 2 amazing spots.

arrived in arequipa i went directly to camana. one of the ugliest beaches ive ever seen in SA. it`s the dessert background that make the place sligthly unpleasant. but when i was theere, the lady of my hostal told me about her place in Colca canyon. well the canyon was my goal to be in arequipa departement anyway so yeah of i go.

i had really bad luck the night ive arrived in Yanque. it was 23.00 and the town was desserted i walked around and try to find a place to sleep but there was no one that answered my called.
so i went to the hospedaje of the lady of camana and decided to slept on the porch. in my mind i knew that one day i would stranded without a place to stay, and so luckily i stranded there in yanque where is relatively tranquille.

i learned more about the town from doña Gloria. a cafe owner, a guide and director of a NGO. and also a coca leaves reader. the first time i saw someone read coca leaves. she also told me about the colca (it`s a circular pre -inca tombes build inside the canyon walls). also on my way there when i asked for the direction, the guy was gladly offered to walked together (he headed to the same direction) and asked me about Holland, and what kind of stuffs people cultivated and also offered me information about the canyon and surrounding area.. and without expecting any money. sometimes i lost the faith in humanity but things like this made me really happy.




the next day i went to cruz del condor. its the deepest part of the canyon and also a natural habitacions for the condors. one condor strucked on a rock really nearby and sat there for 45 min without even bothered about the just arrived group of french speaking tourists. after that 10 condors circled about and flew really closed. when they cruzed nearby you could heard the wind whizzled. the colca itself with 3400 m depth suuposed to be the deepest canyon in the world and with the chain of snowcapped peaks of the andes it provided a majestic thrones for the majestic birds. one of the best spot in peru ive visited.

next stop: Nazca

abrazo

Ch´

Macchu Picchu y Valle sagrado

eu sou do brasil. Sao Paulo no Liberdade...

well that`s what i told to the taxi driver when i went to Moray (inca laboratory). I wasnt really sure to tell the truth because that taxi wasnt licensed. but it workd out really well. he believed in it. because everytime people think that i´m from Japan so i use that as my weapeon now (like aikido, hehe). Liberdade is the japanese district of sao paulo. you probably need to go back to 4 months ago when i was in Brasil.

but anyway i was going to tell you about the amazing machu Picchu. in Cusco, i met a muchacho from Chile and we decided to went to machu picchu together. we took probably the most economic option to go there. and that`s by taking the bus to Santa Maria and after that to hydro electrico. we arrived at hydro electrico at 17.00 -17.30 and we followed the rails to Agua Caliente. that was probably the most amazing walked ive ever had. with the light from the half moon we made our way to agua caliente and seen the mountain machu picchu lighten by the moon. AMAZING. really tired we arrived in agua caliente and after we bought our ticket we decided to go to sleep becaues the next day we need to walked up to the entrance of machu picchu. another amazing experience to see the sunrise on the lush vegetate valley. we ran to the entrance of wayna picchu (the hill back of machu picchu). because they only allowed 400 people/ day on that hill. so we climbed another hour an half to the top of that hill. but it was really worth it because the view over the whole sight is amazing. after that we (me, chileno y ecuatoriano)
walked our way back to the templo de la luna. made our way back through the jungle and after that took some picture of machu picchu and listen to the guide (for free :D, just sit around and listen to a guide when she / he explained things). So right now i know the difference in the inca architecture. Cusco the capital has alot of buildings with brilliantly cutted stones. that kind of stones were only used for the most sacred buildings or for the royals. machu picchu contained alot of building with stone and dirt mixed all together, which in theory it made machu picchu a place for the plebs. so it was actually a city for the commons. only the temple of the sun is beautifully made from cutted stone.

so after that when i visited a ruin of the incas i looked carefully for the stones and how they put it all together. which brought me to the sacred valley. My chilean companion decided to take the train (cheapest option $30 until up to $ 500) but i decided to walked back to hydro electrico. on my own it was less tiring and i made it much faster. but in santa teresa there was a road block of angry drivers (never had that problem in Bolivia) and in santa maria my bus was about 1 hour late... great. but i arrived in ollantaytambo and diced to spent a night there. the day after i walked around the ruins of ollantaytambo (the great walls of sun temple was great). and after that i went to urubamba, where my next destination was Moray. Moray is really interesting because it was actually an incan laboratory. its here where they experimentated with the maize to produce a better maize. inside the circulair terrace i could feel the different in atmosphere (how lower how colder), so it really had it`s own micro climate it was really amazing to see.

after Moray i went to Pisac (when someone cutted a pocket of my pants and took my alcohol, to wash hands, that i bought in La Paz for 1, 50 €). no respect for someone`s property... that`s the side that i hate here in Cusco. But anyway Moray is another great site in the sacred valley. i think it`s area is much bigger than machu picchu but it contains less building. But its amazing to walked around and discovered new ruins everytime... hey that part i haven`t seen, ooh another one i haven`t seen.

but now i`m back in Cusco. to stay another night and go to arequipa tomorrow, i still miss saqsaywaman, ruin with stones over 70 tons in weight !!!

Abrazo

Ch´

La diablada Oruro, La Paz en Lago Titicaca Y Cusco (Peru)

there is no peace in La Paz instead you need to be very cautious.

After arrived in La Paz from Potosi, ive made a huge mistake. used to the tranquility of the others Bolivian city i decided to wandered around with all my belongings. the results i felt in a swendell to rip money of the gringos (cuenta del tio). after that, i spent about 6 hours in tourist police + FELCC to report what i`ve lost. already not feeling really well this add more and more the agony. But after all that i decided to go to Oruro anyway.

La Diablada



there is a famous carnival in the city of Oruro, it called La Diablada. it`s actually better to go to Potosi and did the mining tour and after that go and watch the carnival because right now i know what the true motives of the carnival really is.

La diablada is dance of the devil, or ¨el Tio¨ how the miners called it. But it`s also in honour of the Virgen de Socavon (Virgin Mary of Socavon a patron of the miners) or as the indigena called her ¨pachamama¨ (earth mother). the carnaval is a mix of catholic faith, indigenous believed and as well represented the struggle of the indigenous miners against the Spaniard oppression. UNESCO declared the carnival as a cultural humanitarian heritage. yeah right, The south american handbook said, ¨the tour from La Paz pick you up from your hotel at 4. 30 and go back to La Paz at 17.30, so you`ll be missing alot of fun¨. yeah right, which fun¿¿ paid 80 bolivianos for a seat and after 5 hours it`s started to get really boring. LA diablada itself it`s fun to see because their masks really are beautifully done. but the rest of folkloric parade it`s all the same (thousands of spaniards looking faces, thumbs down). so i went back to La Paz (i stayed in La Paz because it`s cheaper). after that i felt really ill and stayed almost the whole sunday in bed. the monday ¨la diablada y moreno¨ went back to Oruro becasue i want to see the play of ¨San miguel vs 7 deadly sins¨. that was really fun to see because it has more action than only dancing and parading around.

PADRE NUESTRO
Jesús nos enseñó a rezar: (Mateo 6, 5-15)

Padre nuestro que estás en el cielo,
santificado sea tu Nombre;
venga a nosotros tu reino;
hágase tu voluntad
en la tierra como en el cielo.
Danos hoy nuestro pan de cada día;
perdona nuestras ofensas,
como también nosotros perdonamos
a los que nos ofenden;
No nos dejes caer en tentación,
y líbranos del mal.
Amen.

La Paz

la Paz is actually nice city if you not get scammed or something. it`s cold in the night but the days are warm. because i stayed in altiplano i didnt have any problem with the altitude. but i catched cold because they have throwed bucket of water at me.. (this tradition started to get annoying). anyway when i was done with the police i decided to go to copacabana on the lake Titicaca.

Lake Titicaca

Here is where i find La Paz (the peace), the lake really is incredible. stayed for a month in the inland of Bolivia, it was really surprising to see that huge inland sea on the cordillera of Andes. copacabana itself is really touristic. but what really great was i stayed in a hotel next to the basilisc of Virgen de Copacabana. and it was only for 20 bolivianos per night, the cheapest and the cleanest of all residencials in Bolivia. the main attraction of the lake titicaca is Isla del Sol where Manco Kapac and Mama ocllo were borned (the creators of inca), at least that`s what they believe in. In the island i stayed in a house where i slept on the floor with thin matress (for 1o bolivianos you can`t ask for much luxury). the worse thing was, that night rained alot so it got really cold. In the north and the south of the islands are Inca ruins, but in the North east of the islands there is a stone where the manco kapac y mama ocllo were borned. I looked and looked but couldn´t found the stone. but i did found the sacrificial table. Although the isla is heavily touristic the atractions were really bad signed.

Cusco (peru)



2 days after the isla i crossed to Puno on the other side of the lake and now i`m in Peru. the bus terminals of Peru is crowded with Jalagringos (salesmen that tried to sell their hotel to just arrived travellers). Luckily i read that on my handbook. but now i act more harshly, and not going to talked with those stupid salesmen or anyone on the street trying to sell things. Peru is on one hand similar to Bolivia but on the other hand also really different. I think here in Cusco i cannot felt the different really well because same as copacabana, Cusco is heavily touristed. everywhere where alot of tourists are around the atmosphere is a bit more relaxed. Cusco is a wonderful city with a lot oc colonial city intermingled with old stone buildings of incas. so far i liked it here in Peru, but the damn cold started to get annoying. so after macchu picchu i`m going directly to Arequipa where it`s a lot warmer. and after that back to the pacific coast to the north