¡TravelSickness!

Panorama from Pisac Ruins

The area east of Cusco is called the Sacred Valley, because there are many ancient Inca ruins. We had just come back from Aguas Calientes and Machu Picchu, on our way back to Cusco, and we almost passed the Sacred Valley but it seemed it would have been stupid, not to look. Although I was a bit tired of all the Inca ruins, which we had already visited, including Machu Picchu, which is of course difficult to beat, However, from the beginning of the travels I had wanted to see the Sacred Valley. So, we ignored our fatigue and the desire to recover at Casa de Mama a little longer and explored this famous area.

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Inca Ruins, Ollantaytambo, Peru, Pisac, Sacred Valley, Salinas, South America, Travel

We have been in Cusco for over four weeks now, and what do we have to show? Not so much really (except some handy Spanish conjugations), but we do have a few more photos to share. This place has strangely come to feel a like home, and it will be sad to leave. Lena and I will be heading into the mountains tomorrow, towards Machu Picchu… Hopefully we will be back in another week or two with some more stories to share.

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Cusco, Cuzco, Peru, Photos, South America, Travel

Finally after a month in Cusco, I was able to drag Lena out of bed into the cold night to experience Cusco at night. The moon was full and high and we waited until as late as we possible could so that there were fewer people and cars on the streets to disturb the photos! It’s a really beautiful city sometimes, and it’s strangely come to feel really a bit like home. Our nice apartment, going to school every morning, walking familiar streets in a foreign country, our favorite bakery, the insane San Pedro market, ruins just a few minutes from the house… It’s a really strange city, but it starts to get to you after a while and I think that though we are both excited to move on and see what’s coming next on this journey- We will both also be a little sad to leave this place…

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Cusco, Long Exposure, Night Cuzco, Peru, Photos, Plaza de Armas, San Blas, South America, Travel

Our very last weekend in Cusco! We had finished our Spanish classes and have been busy preparing for our upcoming journey to Machu Picchu via Salkantay. But our Spanish teacher had organized an excursion to nearby Tipon and convinced us to come along.

Tipon is an ancient Inca site in the Sacred Valley located about 15km from Cusco. It is believed to have been a hold place for upper class members of the society and a center of agricultural importance. There is also a very impressive Intiwarwi (Sun Temple) high above the agricultural terraces. This was one of the most advanced of the Incan cities in the area in terms of engineering, and there is an impressive system of canals and fountains that still function to this day- many hundred of years later.

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Hiking, Inca Ruins, Peru, Sacred Valley, South America, Tipon, Travel

This past weekend, Lena and I finally ventured out of Cusco for the day for a hike in the surrounding countryside. Within less than 8km of Cusco there are at least seven major Inca ruins in the hills here. There are many of smaller ones as well, unnamed which one sometimes stumbles upon accidentally. This day, we left from San Blas, and hiked up the hill to Q’enko. We had heard that it was possible to enter to the ruins for free, so from the hill we just walked in through the rear of the complex. We had a few minutes to explore, but when we tried to go to the main part of the ruins, we were stopped and asked for our tickets. Of course we didn’t have any, but we just played dumb, and when the guy threatened to call the police we just left. Still our plan was ruined- We couldn’t continue to the other ruins, so we just started walking in the other direction where we heard there were other ruins which could be visited for free. So, from there we walked across the countryside and eventually found the Temple of the Moon and from there followed an ancient Inca road over the valley pass to Puka Puch’ara. By the end of the day when we made it back to Cusco, we had walked more than 18km- Good training for our upcoming trek to Machu Picchu.

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Cusco, Cuzco, Hiking, Inca Ruins, Peru, Q'enko, South America, Templo de la Luna, Travel

Jason at Pisac Market

After we were already two and a half weeks in Cusco and never had time on the weekends to get out of Cusco to see something of the surroundings, we finally made it last Sunday to Pisac. Pisac is located in the “Sacred Valley”, as the surrounding area is referred to around Cusco, because so many Inca ruins are found here. And on every Sunday there is the spectacle of a huge handicraft market in Pisac, attracting both tourists, and locals alike. One can really get lost in this market. The entire marketplace of Pisac and all the little streets around are studded with stalls, selling all imaginable kind of handicraft products of Peru: Scarves and sweaters made of alpaca wool, colorful caps and sleeves, Jewellery, ornate carved gourds, Ponchos, Masks and much more.

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Market, Peru, Pisac, Sacred Valley, South America, Travel

Well, I admit this blog thing hasn’t been going so well lately… We have been far behind posting since we began. Unfortunately, due to technical difficulties, we now have to skip all of the United States roadtrip (perhaps to reappear at a later date, since there are a lot of stores to tell about that!) and try to write about some more recent endevors…

Fast forward two months…

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Lima, Peru.

After months of planning and anxious anticipation, we finally arrived in Lima, red-eyed and tired from 18 hours of travel. The first task was to find a cab to take us to Miraflores in the south of the city, where two couchsurfers were hopefully waiting for us. Gringos fresh off the plane (and even worse, speaking almost no Spanish) made us prime targets for all kinds of scams, robberies, and general taking advantage of. We grabbed some cash from the ATM and headed outside to a mob of cabbies yelling and trying to bid for our patronage. I tried haggling a bit with a few of them, but we were so tired there wasn’t too much we could do- If we had another half hour to spare, we might have saved a few soles, but as it was, we were pretty happy just to find a bed that night…

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Lima, Peru, Photos, South America, Travel

I knew from Valerian in Leipzig, that he would stay at the same time with us for a week in New Orleans. His girlfriend had completed an internship in Canada, which was now over, so the two took a little trip through the states. Of course New Orleans was one for them as French (if we even want to talk in clichés) high on the list.

Since the two only had a French mobile phone, I stood there with my German mobile phone, the deposit amount is slowly but surely coming to an end, and Jason of course has absolutely no mobile phone, raised the agreement one day, a meeting place and time as schwiriger out, than it really should be the case. Finally, we have then done after much back and forth but still the brilliant performance to take the two in New Orleans.

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French Quarter, Louisiana, New Orleans, Travel, United States