Kapitel Peru - Merry Christmas 🎄🏖

Hello, hello and hello, it's me again...

Today's episode is about the hiking experience in southern Peru that was unexpected for us, extensive, but somehow expected due to the Andes.🥾🧭

Our first destination took us to the origin of the story of a world-famous classic, Cusco (known for a kingdom for a llama, Cusco's royal class and possibly also because of Machu Picchu) 🦙🏞Cusco (in Quechua "Qusqu", but no one could pronounce it) is the heart of the Inca Empire, also the Inca capital.🇵🇪

Cusco was supposed to be the starting point for a spontaneous 70 kilometer hike. 🙃Through the Andes, over hill and dale🗿, like two mountain chamois with their backpacks clambering gracefully like Uncle Werner up to 4600 meters above sea level. The hike takes you on the Salkantay Trek (this is the cheaper version of the Inca Trek, which you can also walk alone without paying for a guide and route) to Machu Picchu.

Nevertheless, you actually only meet people who pay around 300 euros for this path just so that they can walk the path with a guide.🤝

Anyway, let's start:

It started with us lining up at half past six to catch a local collectivo (collectivo = shared taxi, cheap way to travel around South America 🐓). But of course there are also disadvantages, they usually only leave when they are full, like ours. We knew that we had some time pressure because it was supposed to get dark around 5:30 p.m.✨🌌

After we arrived at the starting point, we had to go up 900 meters in altitude and then realize that it was awesome, everything was foggy and there was no view 😶‍🌫️. However, we had our mission to reach the first stage destination before darkness fell, so we grabbed our motivation high (gained by reaching the first summit) and continued straight down. 1 hour, 2 hours... 2,000 m downhill, time passed and we asked locals how long we had left and when it would be Zappenduster..☔️🌚

We heard everything from 1 hour left to 3 hours left, but in the end it didn't help. Night came, it was completely dark, it started pouring out of buckets and we still had 3 kilometers to go (picture 3 shows which forests the way went). You can imagine the feeling of just stumbling down a jungle path with no real light in heavy rain with no signage on a bad, rocky path without really knowing how long it is and whether you're even going properly lul, but it was cool ( an experience).🦫

The next 2 days of hiking consisted mostly of going downhill🍑, which really gets annoying after a while, everyone who knows it knows how bad it is to go 3,000 meters downhill, but we were able to harvest coffee and avocados, roast the coffee and taste some was very cool and free (all Swabians rub their hands).☕️🥑 The last stage took us from Hydroelectrica🌀 to Aguas Calientes ♨ (no made-up names at this point, I swear), the starting point to visit Machu Picchu, or rather to climb^^. We bought our tickets, booked the cheapest hostel we could find, ate some really bad pizza and then went to bed at 8 because we had to get up at 4:30 (you have to get used to these inhumane times if you're hiking anything in South America wants)🤢

Brr brr my phone vibrates... Let's go, but it would be funny if it had just worked without any problems. Anna had caught something and the first thing in the morning she went to the toilet to throw a stomach smoothie out of her mouth. But you're only there once in your life, you just have to go through it now. So we started up the thing at 5 a.m. without breakfast. 2 hours uphill on stairs, just stairs. Po from Kung Fu Panda is right, they are the biggest enemy... 546 meters in altitude just climbing with a backpack at 5 a.m. with 100% humidity and the sick Anna who fought her way through it.🦷

There have been better days. But when we got to the top, the mood was still a bit down because there were more steps and Anna's condition was constantly deteriorating.🙂

But the view you had at the top at 6:00 a.m. with almost no people - unique. We'll save you the way back + 11 hours of collective travel for 200 km and the vomiting :).

After the Salkantey Trek it was time to relax, spend a few days in the hippie village of Pisac, where there is ayahuasca, mushrooms, cocoa ceremonies and, as I said, hippies, but not the cool old ones, never the "new wave", who make a few Instagram stories in addition to their spiritual experiences , trading Bitcoin and being totally grounded like your Thailand pants.🍄🐘

And what do you most like to do after a long hike? Simply go on another hike. Let's keep it short, otherwise the blog will be too long for reel blasted synapses.🌄

Colca Canyon, the second deepest canyon in the world, getting up at 3 a.m., 6 hour bus ride to the starting point, hiking 24 km, 2,000 m altitude, 34 degrees, no shade, 2 days and 1000 meters down steep cliffs while being grilled and slipping . Was nice. Great pictures and it takes 1:58 hours to climb 1,027 m. It was a good time too. Then 6 hours back and off to Lima.

Lima, better than everyone says. People who say hey what are you doing in Lima for 3 days, they only go to Starbucks and McDonalds and hate the sea and the crazy markets and the food in the markets.🍯

Lima is an incredibly vibrant place, shaped by waves of immigration, slavery and of course the Spaniards, horns everywhere, screams, crowds and all of this results in damn delicious food. You have to be brave, there are a lot of things that you probably wouldn't eat in Germany, especially not from slightly dirty street stalls that sell grilled beef hearts. However, our all-time favorite was and is ceviche (traditional Peruvian -> raw fish in lime juice, with chili, red onions, sweet potato and Peruvian corn).🎣🎏

Even Anna has started eating ceviche again, if you have the chance just try it and put it behind the tawl gills. Another thing worth mentioning is that Lima has a huge park that is full of cats for some reason (we love it), you can surf there really well, especially as a beginner, everything in Lima is very far from each other but a good lunch menu is available from 3, $50.🤑

From there we took a comfortable 22-hour bus ride to the dry north of Peru to finally escape the hikes and swap them for the beach and sea. Our city of desire, Mancora. A small surf and party place a few hours before the Ecuadorian border.👯‍♀️🌊🏖

Yes, what can we say, Christmas is different here, flashy plastic Christmas trees🎄, warm weather🌞, actually sunshine yes, apart from one or two Christmas jingles🎷 you hardly notice any of the normal Christmas madness. We still made the best of it and had a nice AirBnb with the Brits from the language school in BA and celebrated together once on the 24th (like any normal person) and then in British style on the 25th. Here, after a long time, the helmet was dented again, the control panel was repainted, and 8 arms were simply cast behind the hood. Because it's Christmas, kids: the time for long walks on the beach, free seawater nasal showers, sunburns and diarrhea.

Merry Christmas

your golden heads 👩‍🦳👨‍🦳