Yes, I know. Kind of a leap here 
History isn’t really my thing most of the time. It’s just something that happened before you know? But it is important and the more I read about something, the more I find it interesting. When history combines with something nice to photograph….bingo! As you all well know, without history we wouldn’t bee here.
Rest easy, I won’t bore you with a lot of history. It’s enough with photos for this post.
When we arrived at Cusco we were quite tired from quite rough riding so we took a few days to enjoy the wonders of civilisation, a.k.a KFC Then we decided to try a national treat, cuy – a.k.a guinea pig a.k.a as a pet.We opted for getting it oven baked and apparently presentation of the dish was very important. This was quite an experience.
And the taste? Like chicken of course! No, not really. More of a rabbit kind of taste to the meat. Good, but I wouldn’t say wonderful. Love rabbit though. Another pet….seeing a worrying trend here….
I’ve been to Machu Picchu once before, in 2001. And things have definitely changed. Or rather, the prices have really changed. The ruins are the same – a bit disappointing, you think that they at least should have managed to get a bit of pavement in, an escalator or at least some roofs in 15 years.
But anyway. The price to do the trek was ridiculous so we decided to take the cheap route. First a mini-van ride of death to a place called hydroelectrica and then walking along the rail road to Aguas Calientes.
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From here we took a bus up to the ruins (about 20 minutes). Now I know how sheep must feel when herded. And at every corner – pay some more. Ok, ok, I’m sounding a bit negative. It’s a really nice place and a great experience. Just bring a lot of money and be prepared to stand in line.
Oh, and book everything ahead by a couple of months at least.
The amount of people that visit Machu Picchu is quite extraordinary. In low season (which this was) the toilet alone brings in about 2000 dollars a day.
Restrictions are being discussed since the huge amount of people is causing the city to sink. Go humans! Even in the mountains we manage to sink a city.
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Back in Cusco we ran to KFC again before setting of towards the coast and the heat. By the way, our fascination with KFC is quite strange since the main source of protein in Bolivia, Peru (and Ecuador) seems to be…chicken. There’s chicken everywhere in every kind of way. This youtube-video about the chicken industry made me feel kind of bad about he whole thing for a couple of minutes afterwards.
From Cusco we made our way to Nasca to see the famous Nasca lines. I get motion sickness easy. And even writing about these lines now a couple of weeks later gives me a bit of a sour taste in my mouth.
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No, no. I did not throw up in the small airplane. But this took a lot of effort. Motion sickness is terrible. Cold sweaty and trying to keep my stomach where it’s supposed to be I still somehow managed to take a couple of photos.
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Totally NOT worth it.
But now we at least where at the coast with very comfortable temperatures. We rode along the coast to Ica where we stayed in the middle of an oasis surrounded by sand dunes.
It’s a nice place – even though the oasis itself continuously depend on water being pumped in as not to evaporate. So, yeah, it’s a bit of a fake oasis. But there was a real one here before so it counts!
After a quick detour to India…
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…we made our way toward La Cordillera Blanca (the white mountain range).
Here we rode through the most beautiful mountain passes so far on this trip! Simply…amazing scenery
From here we took a trip through a multiple of dark, hand made tunnels down Canyon del Pato (the ducks canyon) to the coast again.
In Trujillo we visited Fox motors Peru where our bikes got a bit of attention (20.000 km service).
At this point we were really craving for the beach. From the start in January we had only taken a swim in the ocean a handfull of times. Most of the time we spent in the mountains or along the coast in Chile where the water is freezing most of the time. So in Máncora we got stuck for a while. Perfect weather, perfect hostel with a pool and 200 meters from the beach. The days where spent reading, working on the computer, running on the beach and eating really good food.
And now we took a look in the kalender. Time is a funny thing that always have fascinated me. A month can at the same time pass in an instant an last an eternity. We realised that time had passed. And that we had to prioritise. So sorry Ecuador. I love your national song (Ecuador by Sash!) but we decided to just drive on to Colombia. So we entered Ecuador, blasted Sash! in our helmets, stopped for a quick cop of coffee (read tea) and then entered Colombia. (Not really that fast, it took us three days, below you se Quito)
In Colombia we couldn’t quite slow down fast enough, so before we knew it we arrived at the Caribbean Sea!
Ok, back up a bit.
This is what happened on the way:
- We stopped at a cool church in Ipiales.
- Saw impossible high palm trees in Valle del Cocora (and got a bit of good advice).
- We met with a facebook-friend (now real friend) in Medellin and also saw the new X-men movie.
- Climbed up a really big rock that boasted with “the best viewpoint in the world.”. Sadly it wasn’t (but still very nice).
- Reached Nirvana (our hostel).
And that’s where we are now (not quite…you’ll see)! The temperature outside our air-conditioned apartment in Taganga is around 30 degrees (celsius of course, who uses fahrenheit for real??). The temperature in the ocean is around 28 degrees on a cloudy day. The beach is a 5 minutes downhill walk and the pool a 1 minute walk next doors. After a bit of mix up with our room we ended up getting our own apartment.
Our days are filled with activities such as waking up, breakfast, swimming, lunch, running, dinner, watching tv-shows, drinking tea, reading, watching to many youtube videos, editing photos, learning cool stuff…and so on. So yeah, not complaining about much right now.
Next step? In a couple of days we move on to Cartagena to await the sailboat that is going to take us to Panama; The Stahlratte! What better way to change from South America to Central America than by a four day and three night cruise on a sailboat. With our bikes! In Cartagena we just booked an apartment right by the beach with a pool on the roof. Looking forward to…continue doing what we are doing right now with the added bonus of cinema and maybe, maybe a KFC? 😉
By the way. This is the best thing I’ve read in a long while: http://waitbutwhy.com/2015/05/elon-musk-the-worlds-raddest-man.html
Bye for now!
P.S The internet connection wasn’t good enough to upload so many pictures so we’re actually in Cartagena now
