The jungle - Manu National Park

Oct. 5th - 11th Having set up base in Cusco, probably the most visited city in Peru, I set about finding a tour agency to book my trip to Manu National park. It has been a lifelong dream of mine to go to the rainforest, and I wanted my trip to be perfect. Not having booked ahead, and being on somewhat of a tight schedule, I ended up booking a trip that left two days later, with Vilca Expeditions. There are only a limited number of agencies allowed in the reserved area of the park, and figuring out which ones offer what can be tricky. But now I know that there really isn't all that much difference, and in the end it also just depends how lucky you are with seeing the animals... We were a small group, a British couple, an Israeli couple, an elderly Peruvian gentleman and his daughter, me, Milton the boat captain, his helper Hilbert, Fernando the guide, and our cook, who kept us supplied with really wonderful meals throughout the trip. The trip was everything I could have dreamt of. I flew in to join the rest of the group at Bocca Manu, and the rest of the time we travelled by boat into the reserve where we spent 2 days on raised platforms. Staying at different lodges on the way back, we took the bus back up to Cusco after 6 days of wildlife heaven.


Geese


Black skimmers catching fish


A white caiman


Worlds largest rodent - a Capybara. About the size of a pig, just walking along....

Hummingbird

A spider eating a cocroach. We also saw tarantulas, and many other types of spiders. Good thing I don't mind them!

These birds make the most awfull noise!

Oropendulas and nests

A strangle fig

Fernando explains how the fireants who live in this tree, clear the ground so the tree can grow better. Fireants can kill a man in about 6 minutes, and the indians used to tie people to such a tree as punishment.

Family of Giant Otters

The tourists

Tailless scorpion - this thing is at least 25cm in diameter!

Sunrise

War paint on Amazon warriors

Fishing for Pirahnas

Bocca Manu village

Drinking fermented manioc beer - "masato"?!

Correct me if I'm wrong!

Pink Spoonbills

Wooley monkeys in cloud forest. One of 4 kinds that we spotted during the trip.

Lake Titicacca

29 sep.- 2. october
The highest navigable lake in the world, at some 3400 m above sea level. I did not quite know what to expect, but having met so many people who simply thought it was the absolute highlight of their trip to Peru, I decided to skip the Colca Canyon in Arequipa, and head straight for Puno. I did not stay there for long, my goal being the Isle del Sol on the Bolivian side of the lake. At Puno, I headed out to visit the floating islands of Uros, a must do if one is there. An amazing settlement, that seems to have grown from tourisme over the last years. A pity though, it is just too touristic to be authentic. But learning about the way these people build their islands of reeds, and live off what the lake provides is facsinating. One old lady was sitting with her craftwork, and had a number of young coots running around her, that obviously where kept as hens, for eating. She then showed me a chick that was only a day old, and an egg where the bird was just hatching. Where is their mother? I asked. She smiled and pointed to herself, and hid the egg back under her blouse. Later on, I kept thinking about the logistics of it all. Did she sleep with the eggs? Did she have someone else to help her take turns?

Crossed over to Bolivia to Copacabanna, and from there to Isle del Sol. Met up with 3 amazing girls who also where travelling alone. What are the odds? We hit it off straight away. We arrived on the Island in the afternoon, the plan being to spend the night there and walk across the island the next day. After a gruelling walk up a pile of Inka steps to the village, carrying all our backpacks, we chose a hostel whose manager assured us that there was hot water. As it turned out, that day was the day of the island fiesta, and we were told that all the water was to be used for that. Also, because the whole island was attending, there would be no restaurants open.
So we promptly made for the fiesta. There was a huge competition of local dancing, which had been going on for hours, and the costumes were amazing. We climbed a bit futher, and enjoyed the stunning views over the lake. A storm was approching, and the lightning bolts could be seen for miles. We just made it to the only restaurant open that evening, before the heavens opened above us, and it simply poured down.
The next day, I am afraid I got hit by my first real food poisning, I had an awfull cold, and the altitude brought me to my knees every 10 steps. So after a short walk outside the village, I spent the rest of a lovely afternoon in bed. But all in all, I highly recommend the trip, the lake and the islands are stunningly beautiful.

A lot of steps.

Arequipa

Left the coast for the first mountain town of Arequipa. A beautiful city, full of history. The cathedral and other buildings are carved out of white rock, that looks amazing in the evening light. Our friend at the hotel taught us to chew coca leaves, and life generally slowed down a bit, while I got used to the higher altitude. Discovery of Peruvian market life - very often the best and cheapest places to eat, and you gradually figure out exactly what you are eating too, by visiting the stalls. If a Peruvian invites you to dinner and asks polietly if you eat everything - this is a trick question, be carefull; if you say yes you might end up with a bowl of soup with half a sheep's head floating in it.
I took the time to learn a bit more about the Inca culture, and visited the Ice Princess, Juanita, a frozen mummy discovered in a volcanic crater not long ago. The Incas would sacrifice royal children who had been bought up for precisely this purpose, to travel to heaven on behalf of their people. The traditions and religion of the Incas, paint a picture of a very beautiful, but cruel culture, living in harmony with the land.

Visited a beatifull monastery; Santa Catalina. This huge network of brightly coloured rooms and passages was home to the daughters of some of the richest citizens in Peru. A life of chastesy and solitude, but a life in luxury.

Nazca

25.sep Last stop along the Pan American Highway was Nazca, famous for the many huge drawings made by the Incas hundreds of years ago in the desert. Most of the drawings are animals and birds; monkey, hummingbird, spider, ect. The most common belief is that they were signs to the gods, but there have been theories that they where used to plan events like growing crops when certain drawings were aligned with certain stars. Quite amazing, and they only way to see them properly is to fly over in a small airplane. So, despite the many lurches, I was really pleased we went up.

More coast - Huacachina, Ica

24. sep Came to Ica yesterday afternoon, and headed straight out to the Huacachina, an oasis in the desert especially for all the gringos who come out to enjoy one of the sand deserts main attractions; sanddune buggy and sandboarding. And generaly lie around by the pool and do nothing much... Great place to meet fellow travellers. On this route, everyone is either going one way or the other up or down the coast, and you keep bumping into the same people... Strapping myself into the sandbuggy I thought to myself - what the hell have I got myself into?! But it turned out to be great fun. Apart from Josh and I there where three guys from Isreal, who had not had that much experience on boards of any kind either, luckily. The buggy was an adrenalin kick - the drivers race up and down the dunes at a huge speed, and you get bumped around pretty badly. It's an amazing feeling to be standing in the middle of the desert, with nothing but miles of sand around you. The sandboarding is hard. You just keep falling over. The easiest way to get down is sliding lying on the board face down, but you get to swallow half the dune going down! Not many pictures - Did not bring camera....

The south coast of Peru - Pisco

Ok- have seriously got to start doing something about this blogging buisness... People back home must think that I have forgotten all about them, which I havn't! But I have been busy living life and travelling, which is the main purpose of this trip, so I hope I'm forgiven! So going back a bit.... Lima, the capital of Peru - time here was spent getting my bearings, and hey presto! finding a travelling companion - Josh, straight in from Las Vegas, and heading the same way down south.

22, 23.sep Headed for Pisco and got in quite late, found a hotel from the guide book. Pisco is only just beginning to be rebuilt after a big earthquake last year, and so the town is in shambles, no lights in many streets, and not really any streets for that matter. But they appreciate the tourists who come and spend money, to help the people rebuild their lives. Note: Pisco is famous for it´s Pisco sours; a drink made with whisked eggwhites and lime - tastes fabulous!

The hotel set us up with a tour agency based in Pisco that offered to organise most of the things we wanted to do along the coast, the first of which was to visit the Ballestas Islands. These can probably be compared to the Galapogos Islands, as they are teeming with wildlife, especially birds and sealions. Great experience, we saw dolphins, pelicans, puffins, cormorants, sealions and many, many other birds...