something-to-remember

Montag, 15. Oktober 2012

Cusco to Puno... 10. Day

Hello folks and again you had to wait a little, but work was calling me...
Anyway now it's time for the last Days... of my journey in Peru... Just now it seems so far away and I have to make sure that I believe it by myself that I was there... The autum/ fall is coming and it's starting to get cold and rainy the most days... So maybe this is the right time for warm memories..
I could say the 10. day was just a traveling with the bus through the country for hours. But it was more then that. We did several stops and watched again artifacts and archeological sites... from the time before the conqueror came...
The first stop was to watch a church, called the sistine chapel of Peru, which was not really to much to say.. it was really painted all over and was kind of beautiful.. of course not the way in Rome, but anyway it was very nice to see what they did without all that gold, which used to be there in churches and chapels... One o the guides told us the traditional background of the robe the Jesus is wearing and that they used to light candles of different colors... You know, white is good for everything, but yellow is for friendship and black against all bad... and so on...

hidden... so was I with the camera... forbidden...

Next stop was that Inca temple - the Wira Cocha Temple in Raqchi...-
Also there where a lot of houses for the priests and helpers... to honor the god of sun... Looks absolutely different to what you expect from the Incas...

Then is was time to reach the highest point of the journey- 4313 km over the sea level.... and of course some shopping on the street and all tried to make a pic from that place as it never was able to get a thing like this... o.k. in the background you saw hills with snow and one single cloud and they where even higher and the air is really thin in that area for us who use to be more near to the sea level...

Then our way was for a long time just like driving through the states... just like in the middle west with it's steppe... little grass, some fields, more houses you think there would be, because it is absolutely not amusing living here.. well when it is about the luxury and the temp. I mean here it can get really cold in the nights in the winter time... and they just have those simple houses and just in the kitchen en open fire place and maybe little electricity... not much to live with... most of them are very poor and you can see it and then for us it was wow the Anden are very big, far and then somewhere on the horizon comes the hills.
With the time it started to bore you, because all the time you where busy doing something and then.. just sit in the bus and look out of the window, the sun on your face and .... getting bit tired...

Well, then we reached a village, of course next to an little archeological place... with a big church in the middle of this village, not to oversee and next to the market place. The church by the way was simple from the inside... that was enjoy able for some of us... oh there was a little museum, but some of us thought we did already have been in kind of to many museums.. so we decided not to go in....

Next stop was a restaurant called the -tourist restaurant- which is exactly what it is... just for tourist with a big buffet. The best food we ever got on the journey was here in the middle of kind of nowhere... next to a train line...
...and that traditional music... I already was so over...
But to be true after Machu Picchu I needed a rest day and it seems not only me... so this journey was quite exhausting...
Now came the last part... happy but before we reached Puno we drove slowly through Juliaca the town called the black market of Peru... because Bolivia is near it is really a big black market and you get here everything you want... kind of..... but oh this town is dusty, a lot of tuk tuks and people everywhere, never will be finished houses and like the guide told us, 90 % don't pay taxes... cowboy town you could call it..like in an western movie...
... so the streets are way to bad... that's why we had to drive slowly... a dog walks faster then we drove... Really no one had the need of climbing out of the bus. This town did not seem to be beautiful in any way... and here is the airport some of us will use? How does this look? Thanxs god they will bring us there... No wonder we see a lot of big Jesus statues and crucifixes... in the country... ;-) But also we see a lot of little crucifixes and oxen on the roofs of houses...

Puno itself looks very much like Cusco, just the town is build on the hills... with a view on the Titicaca lake and the late afternoon is filled with watching TV... Briget Jones 2....

my view from the room of the Plaza del sol hotel

luxery on the inside... never judge a book of it's cover...

isn't this sweet?!

LOVE & LIGHT

Dienstag, 9. Oktober 2012

Matchu Picchu... 9. Day

The DAY! The Day most of us where waiting for... Going up earlier and driving with a shuttle bus to the bus station Poroy, about 13 kilometers away from Cusco and even higher.. from 3300 meters to 3486 meters in the sky.... Poroy is just a little average village, but here is the train waiting for all the tourist to take a journey to Machu Picchu... the place called so wonderful and hidden...
Machu Picchu self is not that high in the sky, just 2400 meters... The train station is full and all want to come to their place in the blue train with windows even on the roof of the train...
The time we travel will be about 3 hours, but it's not that far away actually... sooooo.... how come that we need so long?... Well the rain is very, slowly.. about 20- 30 kmh... That means everyone can take a pic from time to time from the beautiful hills with snow ( Hill veronica.. 5700meters high), surrounded of clouds, from the valleys, the stones, the tropical forrest, the plants on trees and the river next to us, from the backpackers, who get off the train to take the Inca trail, which takes about 3 and a half day to 4 days and it's just for people who have enough time and power... We cross the river and pass the dead valley, we drive through fields, but also on a street in a little village, next to us the houses and cars... as we where just a bus, a bis bus and the engineer was sounding the horn a very, very lot time... and then the fluid music all the time... when we drove back same day this music went on to jump back and back and back again, after starting for a minute... Just though after the 15th times I gonna kill myself if I hear it starting again....
Well, sometimes the train drove in a Zigzag course... and it was absolute amazing driving under the hills and the forrest trees... the train may be slowly, but was to fast to make pics of that... You saw so much.... but sometimes, people where standing and trying to make pics as if they was never a chance again and because we had good weather, which is really a luck, the light was reflecting on the windows, which causes kind of a tumult in the way, that everyone ones to make the pics outside the window or on the open windows and that- was not that easy, cos the train has little windows... and small once...
Arriving in Machu Picchu town it was like, wow a town in the middle of the rain forrest... deep inside.. how did they make it.... The train actually goes on about another 10 kilometers but we had to get off here and cross the bridges to come to the busses. You know, from every tourist arriving to Machu Picchu town, the town gets 3 Dollars for the city council. Sound much when you think about that around 4000 tourist a day will arrive every day of the year.. but then.... everything needs to be brought.
Of course the Cola for the tourist is four times expensive as in Cusco. Most tourist will just stay a day-- Daytrip, but some stay at night in the hotel and then go to Machu Picchu in the morning the next day. The good thing then is, the sunrise and much less tourist around you.
The sun was still shining when we reached the busses who took us in a half hour ride to the entrance of the "holy" Machu Picchu. Take your time and don't have much baggage... that's for sure... To talk about what we saw and did there up in the sky, surrounded by the breathtaking view, the hills the fact that there is such a thing like this town... that it was hidden for so long.. and it is really breathtaking cos you had to climb up the stairs ... wow... heart attack danger!
There was first just those small stairs with big steps in the bamboo forrest like part... I did not expect bamboo at all.. the butterflies and birds around us... Well my dear readers, look on you tube to get to know more about this place, the history, the buildings... the stories... it's so much they found out in the last ten years and so many good books out there... just do a little research if you want to know more... just now.. enjoy the pics of our day...