PERU - Arequipa & Cusco

After a more or less cruel bustrip from Sucre via Oruru to Iquique I arrived safely in Arica - alltogether 27hours and a few fights with the busdrivers. Meanwhile, I was by myself but not for long...At my next destination Arequipa I met up with Melanie, a friend of mine back from uni. From Arica I took a "train" through the dessert to Tacna in Peru and from there a bus for another six hours. As Peruvian people are extremely jaelous I had to stay at a hostel which did not bother me too much. It was a really chilled out place with a roof terrace, some hammocks, and a lot of nice people. I decided just to do nothing in Arequipa after all that travelling I had done over the last weeks. Mel and I met daily, had a drink, and kept on talking forever. I was really happy to see her again. After three nights it was time to head on-Machu Picchu!


From Arequipa I took the safest bus company to Cusco. Announce- ments were like on a plane yet the comfort more like economy class. Next to me sat a gringo from Oregon who would spend the next two days with me. Eventhough we did not sleep too much, we went straight on to Auga Calientes, the access to Machu Picchu. We dropped off our bags at the hostel where I would stay the next week (planned were two nights). As everything that only includes the name "Machu Picchu" is heavily overpriced I used Mel´s advise to get up there as cheap as possible. We took a bus for about two hours to a village of which I still cannot pronounce or write the name and then the train two hours to Agua Calientes. Using my "personality" I safed sh.. loads of money by receiving discounts on the train and half price for the entrance fee for Machu Picchu. We spent the night in Agua Calients, did some shopping and visited the Hot Springs. The next morning the bus left at 5:30h to go up to Machu Picchu. For 15 minutes each way they charged 14USD-F.....! Yet it was worth it-it is just too fascinating what the Incas created about 500 years ago without any machinery and difficult accessible terrain. Now just look at the pics-luckily I was there in the low season so you see more ruins than tourists :) The clouds gave this impressive sight a mysterious touch...
The big steep mountain you see is the Waynapicchu...But even a 73-year old made it all the way up. Being on 2500m and a really humid climate it was really tough! The same day I went back to Cusco-completely exhausted and out of order...

Due to that ever socializing Loki Hostal, fun people (one of them being Tom who I met in the San Pedro) I got stuck like we did on Ko Phangang two years ago. In the days to follow we decided to do a three day/two night rafting trip on one of the 10-best rafting rivers. Well, the night before we left they left us a note on the backpack of one of the two girls we were meant to go, that we are not enough people and that we can only do the two-day trip. I do not want to go too much into detail, but we got really pissed off, argued a little and then enjoyed the two days/one night. Did rafting the first day, enjoyed the camp with just us (Tom, Niki, Hannah, and I) and did the same piece of river the next day again...Luckily enough we had a really cool guide how made the second day a lot more exciting! It was fun and wet!

On Monday we got our money back and thus had a really really cheap rafting trip...Tom went on to Lima, the girls stayed and that same night I went to Copacabana on Lake Titicaca...