Sonntag, 23. Januar 2011

12. Bolivia

Bolivia - unfortunately another country we did not have a lot of time for. Money was not an issue as Bolivia is definitely one of the cheapest countries in South America.

Bolivian popcorn

At lake Titikaka, we spent one night in a beautiful scenery on Isla de Sol (3900m) and enjoyed a great sunset.
Bolivian beer @ Isla del Sol
Afterwards we went "down" to La Paz, the highest capital in the world (3200m), a mandatory stopover on our way to Argentina. There are some nice spots in the city, but overall Bolivia has to offer a lot of beautiful nature, and La Paz is just another huge South American city you don't want to spend too much time in.

Streets of La Paz
From La Paz to Buenos Aires we went for the South American solution to save some money - more than 2000 km and 48 hours by bus! We ended up being the only Non-Bolivians in the bus and spent 10 hours at the border before being able to enter Argentina, but we eventually made it to Buenos Aires after 60 hours (I promise not to complain anymore about delayed trains in Germany!). One of the bolivians in the bus won a return ticket to La Paz. Good thing the lucky one was neither me nor Franziska!

Donnerstag, 6. Januar 2011

11. Peru

When entering Peru, we were a little scared as we had once again entered a country that is not famous for being the safest place, but what we experienced in Peru in the next two weeks left us with such a good impression about this country, Peru has to offer so much - desert, djungle, beaches, mountains, historical sights and of course good food (Gracias, José!)!

We started in the north enjoying the beach and at the same time experience Pre-Inca culture near Trujillo. This is also the place where the famous fur-less Peruvian dogs can be found. They might not win beauty competitions, but are sure the first ones to be drafted for zombie movies!
 Lima, our second stop, is a typical Southamerican city. The old town is colonial style and somewhat touristy, the modern part at the ocean front ("Miraflores") offers fancy restaurants and Western style shoppings malls and is a lot nicer and safer. Thus, wealthier Limeños as well as tourists are usually to be found here.
My zombie dogs in Trujillo


Pacific-View from Miraflores
After a comfortable 20h-bus-ride (food was served, and they showed 7 movies!) we arrived in Cusco, the starting point for the Inca-Trail - a well organized four-day-hike passing several Inca sights in an altitude of 2500-4200m and finally reaching the one and only Machu Picchu. We hiked in a group of 11 backpackers including us, 2 guides and a team of 16 porters and a cook, which means that we had to do the hiking, but everything else was taken care of - our luggage was carried, tents were set up when we arrived at the camps in the afternoon and a 3-course-lunch and dinner was served in the middle of nowhere every single day!

"Inca Trail Survivors" would be written on the typical Gringo shirt now ;)
In Puno, at the lake Titikaka, we spent another 2 nights and experienced how people used to (and still do) live on the lake, building their houses on floating islands on one of the highest freshwater lakes of the world - 3800m!

Franzi munching the local fast food