Im lost for words - machu picchu!

Thursday morning 5am walking in the rain to the bus that is about to take me to Machu Picchu and a sight so unreal it might have been a dream! After some running back and forth to get the busticket and the entrence ticket we were on the bus, a bit tired from a horrible trainride the night before. We were supposed to leave from Ollantaytambo at 19.30 but becuase of a rockslide the train was delayed and we didnt leave until around 22.00!! We arrived at the entrence went in and after a little turn, there it was the ruins of machu picchu! I wanted to cry of happiness, it was absolutely beautiful and mindblowing, to stand there in the middle of these perfectly fittet stone buildings and think about how many many many years ago they were build, by the inkas, humans with only the technology of their minds! It makes you think about them, wonder what they were like and how they looked and acted. It is hard for me to grasp even now that i was there and it was right infront of me. We watched he clouds cover parts of the mountains everywhere and the sun peaking out between the mist and the clouds. At 7 am we climbed waynupicchu! The climb was not all that easy, it was very very steep and the stairs taking us up had very very small steps, some where you foot could only fit if going sideways!!! We got to the top, and what a view, completely happy i just felt like screaming!!! I felt so little there on top of waynupicchu overlooking all of the amazing ruins of machu picchu... After being up there for some time, taking in the breathtaking view we went down... Then we started a long hike to the caves and the temple of the moon, it was cool but not entirely worth the hike that took all remaining energy out of us! Maybe also because i hadnt eaten anything and we, in comeplete excitement, had forgotten to bring water... But our luck we ran into michael and sean, whom we had met earlier in huacachina, and they might have just saved our lifes, at least thats what it felt like, with their water!!! We went back to the ruins and then went out to have the most expensive luch every! but in need of food we had no other option but to pay! We went back into the ruins, went up to the guards house in the ruins and from there we got the amazing view that is very famous and you see in all books and on postcards, it was pretty unreal to be looking at it with your own eyes... We went around the ruins, saw the temple of sun, were i did a payer to the sun god, it was pretty amazing and powerful. We went up to the inka stone clock, where the sun hits the stone every june 22 and december 22 at 7.15am! There is a little squared stone cming of the side of the main stone and if you hold your hand over it, not touching, you get the energy from the sun! It was very intense and both Angelique and I felt heat in the palm of our hand!!! I got really conviced of the power of the sun and was a bit surprised!!! Unwillingly, we left Machu Picchu at 5 after 11 hours of hiking around it. Absolutely amazed, i felt fulfilled!!! I cant describe the experience in words, i think it is simply something you have to see for yourself! That night we went to the hot springs, it was amazing being there, but getting up into the pourring rain was not so fun! We were absoultely soaked!!!! And so we went to bed freezing cold but i was happier than ever!!!!

Cusco and Pisac

Cusco is absolutely amazing, it is surprisingly big compared to what i had imagined but even though it is very big it still has the amazing south american feeling to it. The streets are steep and have old pretty houses with blue balconies.. Cusco has alot of really nice plazas and small parks! We went to the market yesterday and got supplies for the cold weather, sweaters, hats, socks, scarfs and so on... so now both in our ourfits we look amazing! hahah... We had alpaca steak last night, which was quite tasty! This morning we set out to see four different Inca ruins along the way to Pisac... We had our laughs along the way because we get so out of breath after walking like 5 min uphill..The inca ruins were nice, but i dont think ill be blown away until Machu Pichu which we are doing on Thursday!!! But still one of the heaviest stones we saw today is 70 tons!!!! How did they move that??? We arrived in Pisac which is really pretty and cozy, its very small but it has that same south american local atmosphere which i jsut love! We spent the afternoon in the very colorful market! Now i will go have dinner, it seems very commen that people are extremely loud in internet cafes and it really drives you crazy... so i should get out of here before i stab someone :)!!!

Pictures from Huacachina

Pretty sky from the bus

Sunset

How we get around!!

Huacachina

At the pool, before lobster time!

Bracelets

Huacachina from the distance

The fullmoon

Patrick and I

Hrello...

The buggy

My board and I

In action!!!

The sunset in the desert

The desert...

We play bingo in the bus!

Pictures: Loja, Chiclayo and Lima

The lion looks strange!!!

Loja

Statue in Loja

The kids who threw bugs at us!!!

Loja

Crossing the boarder!!!!!!

Sunset, Chiclayo - Lima

The witches market

More...

Lucky charms

Woodoo!!!

Mmmmhhhh, fresh fruit!!

A very passionate statue, Lima

Lima

Delicious juice

Lima

Lima

Lima

The changing of the guards

Huacachina!!!!

We spent a couple of days in the absolutely beautiful little oasis called Huacachina!!! It is in the middle of the desert, surrounded by huge sanddunes! The first day we decided to just take it easy and chill out and since we came from rain and cold weather we thought it to be an amazing idea to do some tanning! But little did we know, the sun was very very strong and later that night we went to bed pretty sunburned! I guess we learned our lesson - tanning in the desert this close to the ecuator is not the same as tanning on a beach in Europe!!! The next day we went on a sand buggy tour... Into the desert we went! The driver was absolutely crazy and went soooo fast over the huuuge dunes so it was a very wild but fun ride! We got up to the top of the sanddunes and then we got out the boards and started sandboarding... it was sooo much fun, kinda different from snowboarding though... the sand is so heavy that it is very hard to control the board so most of the time we just went straight down!!! The last ride Angelique and I decided to wax our boards to go faster... but we def didnt expect it to go so fast so all of a sudden we both landed face first in the sand! Hahah.... We saw the sunset, covered in sand, and it was very cool and beautiful to see the sanddunes light up in golden colors from the reflection of the sunset! We rode back in the dark, but that didnt stop the driver from going insanly fast, I now in a seat without a seatbelt, but it was so much fun!!!!! The next evening we set out for our 18 hour busride to Cusco!!!!!

Crossing the boarder to Peru

Finally the coast opened up, the alarms were over and so we boarded our bus from Loja, Ecuador towards Peru!!! We left Loja at 7 am and reached the boarder town Macará at 1pm! It was a looong and extremely hot busride, and the aircondition only worked 2-3 min at a time when holding still! But then infront of us we saw a huge sign "thank you for your visit in Ecuador" "WELCOME TO PERU". We got out of the bus to go to the immigration office, filled out some papers and then walked over the boarder which was the Macará river and once on the Peruvian side we went to a second office handed in the paper and filled out another one, got some stamps in our passports and then to the last a third office! In the meantime the bus had gone across the boarder ahead of us and for a min we were very concerned that our backpacks were on the way to Puira without us, but then bus waited on the other side and we got across with success!! We arrived in Puira at 4pm, a very confusing town with loads and loads of people so we decided to get the first bus going to Chiclayo!! Once we arrived in Chiclayo it was getting dark, around 7-8pm, and so we got a taxi and told him to take us to a hostel we had found in Angéliques guidebook!  After asking many people, and getting replies about it being very dangerous and driving around 45 min to find it and the taxi driver laughing at us we got to the hostel... It was in the middle of nowhere, in the pitch black, surrounded by only a few half torn down houses!!! So we got out of there pretty quickly and went back into town!!! Chiclayo was very very strange, and the Peruvian accent is so hard to understand!!!! We woke up the next morning, and set out for the witches market... we asked many people for directions but noone seemed to know what we were talking about! At last we found two security guys and they escorted us into the witches market which turned out to be in the middle of the normal market!!! The witches market was crazy, filled with the strangest things, dead animals, claws, dried herbs, woodoo dolls and any weird thing your heart desire!!! We bought some fruit for breakfast and then stopped for a sugarcane juice, which looked better than it tasted!!! We had a yogurt at a little granola place, and they put soy sauce on my yogurt!!!! Seriously peru is strange!!! Then we went to the beach, excited for some relaxing and tanning we were in for a surprise... The sky was blue, not a cloud in sight... but as soon as we got to the beach everything was soooooo foggy and you couldnt see your hand infront of you!!! It was crazy! It was really chilly aswell so we went to talk to the police at the beach! The police told us that it was because of the Tsunami, it had hit the beach yesterday with big waves but not serious damage!!! So we headed back into town!! That night we took the luxurious nightbus to lima! We arrived the next morning in Lima! The capital of Peru, one of the biggest cities ive ever seen... we drove through Lima for like an hour and still we hadnt gone through all of the city! We found a nice hostel and then we went to the coast! We saw the beautiful view of Lima and the cliff its on, we walked to the "park of love" where there are loads of couples all making out and a big statue of a couple kissing and holding eachother! We went down to the beach and sat there for a bit! At night we watched the sunset over the ocean!!! Pretty!!! The next day we went into the center to see the guard change, a little dissapointed because they didnt come on the street but still an experience!!!! I got sick in Lima and overwhelmed by the huuuuge city i just wanted to get to a place where we could relax, so we travelled on and that night we got to Huacachina!! The little oasis in the middle of the desert!...

Pictures from Cuenca

Cuenca

The new cathedral, cuenca

Church

The view of Cuenca

The cui!!!! (guineapig / marsvin)

Mmmmmmmhhhh.....

Pictures from Alausi

Watching the sky at sunset

Alausi

Enjoying the view

Alausi

The statue and the little moon!

Finding something!!!!

This is what we found! (Its big by the way!)

The cathedral by night!!

Pictures from Baños

Baños, the cathedral by night

At the hotsprings, hrello there

The street in Baños

Lighting a candle in the cathedral

About to jump of a bridge!!!

Hiking to Bellavista

The view from bellavista

Bellavista

This is where i jumped of the bridge!!

The bridge!!!

Story of our lives

The swing over the side of the mountain

At Runtun