Hey folks, this is the first bunch of pics i could obtain …
This is just a small selection, but see yourself: more pics on demand 😉
Arequipa - view from rooftop, the great volcanos ...
First day with Miguel
Three germans and one peruvian shaman.
That's what a sweatlodge looks like. "the turtle"
Valle de Colca, hute agave.
Miguel and me on the "mirador de condores"
on the way from Chivay to Puno, "the pampa"
Chivay - streetsellers
Nasca - on the plane
Hey folks,
i am still alive and doing well, we arrived in Cusco yesterday night(Miguel y yo).
This has been a very interesting and amazing month, so here in short what happened:
After Medellin, Colombia I decided to meet Goshy(Phillip M.), in Bogota. So i changed my plans going via Equador to Peru, to flying to Leticia and crossing the border to Peru over the amazonas, because Schuessi (another german friend to meet on the 16-04-12 in Lima) was coming to Peru. So EQU was pushed to the return part of the trip(I skipped it for Bolivia).
Leticia(COL) – Iquitos(PER) – Lima – Arequipa – Chivay, Valle de Colca – Puno(Lake Titicaca) – CopaCabana(BOL) – Sorata – Puerto Acosta – Cusco(PER).
As we landed in Leticia, still Colombia, but next to the peruvian and brasilian border, the climate changed to hot, humid and mosquitoish weather – that’s the jungle – no way in or out, only boats or aeroplanes …
But we stayed for some days. Phil and me, Mr. Mike(S) and a girl from the U.S., and as i could speak spanish the most, my job for the next days turned into a tourguide for them 😉 So we relaxed, rented motorcycles and did a day trip on the amazonas and crossed three borders within a day. That day was awesome, we went with a little motorboat over the borders of Columbia, Peru and Brasil, saw amazing animals: sloths, macaws, eagles, monkeys, snakes, spiders … and: pink dolphins! The nature and the green ambient have been one of the most impressive events on my trip – till now.
Then we took a speedboat to Iquitos, 12h into Peru. Still in the Jungle-Amazonian area, the heat was hard to handle. But you’re getting used to the sweating. I still had to get used to the “new” country with its currency, people, food and prizes. So we just checked out the city, some more animals, and some live salsa festival. Mike and the american girl went into the deep jungle for 2 days to do some “Ayuasqua-rituals”, that was to quick for me, because you need to keep a special diet some days before. And i was looking forward to the sweatlodge-ritual phil and me want to do in Lima, with a woman shaman. So we flew further on to LIMA.
The first 2 days in  Lima i got ill, for one night, with a horrible stomache. So i stood still for 2 days watching peruvian movies 😉 After recovering, we picked up Schuessi from the airport (16-04-12). And went on to the sweatlodge-ceremony, 1,5h outside of the city, with a female shaman, Mary Anne. That was a very interesting and revealing spiritual day. The day after we recovered. After one week in Lima, Miguel(Schuessi) and me decided to go on, Goshy stayed for app. 10 days in Lima to work …, as we took a plane to Arequipa, because there have been demonstrations and manifestations by the miners in Peru, closing down the Transamericana, and several streets from and to cities: Lima, Arequipa, … and some more.
As we flew to Arequipa, we met Chris(Bremen) again, and we joined him to hike in the “valley Colca”, so we had to get to Chivay first. But as the demonstrations continued in Arequipa, we had to stay “one more night” … and then got to Chivay on the next day, with a bus that left at 4 p.m. in the morning; we passed the PASS of some nice snowy mountains (5.000-6.000m), gourgious view from Arequipa. Then we hiked for three day in the beautiful valle de Colca. We hiked from 3.600m down and up again, to do some sports and to get used to the height, with all our backpacks (for me 12.8kg). It was hard on the first and the last day, but “vale la pena”(worth it).  We did hard hikes, transgressed limits. We saw wonderful nature, the river within the valley, nice and handsome indigenous people, we ate Alpaca and had a really great time.
After that, we went to the lake “Titicaca“, the lake is great, on 3.800 m.o.Sealevel, but all the cities we’ve been to, like Puno(COL), Copacabana(BOL) haven’t been that great, so we went on … bad weather, cold, touristy …
So we went to Bolivia by bus, crossed the border by foot and did the whole circle around the lake within 6 days, after a small stopover in the nice village of “Sorata“. Schuessi and me went up north again, towards Peru, but on the other side of the lake. We thought, that it would be a great idea, but Murphy was with us … 😉 So we went by bus to the last bolivian village, “Puerto Acosta”, but after that there were no more busses to cross the border … so we hiked again 😉 After 5 hours we arrived at Conima, and took a bus to Leticia (dirty ugly city, not worth the visit), still as illegal immigrants … and went on to Cusco, within the same day/ night.
So we are now in Cusco, to visit the famous mountain. The first thing we did this morning was to checkout the immigration office, where we have been told, that we are “clandestinos”(Manu Chao), so we “arranged” a solution, more about that, when we are through with it 😉
greets from the heart,
.fle
PS: on detailled or more infos, or translations, comment or write mail 😉
Pics, taken by others, follow 🙂
Give it a try: Hiking! Salteños(kind of a bol. empanada, but not fried)!  Skip: Sleeping in sleazy hostals at the end of the … lake Titicaca 😉 cross borders without immigration-infos 😉
Flezen 