Bored!

Bored right out of my mind. So bored, in fact, that I´ve degenerated to taking photos of my foot in the hotelroom. Natalia´s left since a few days back and I´ve been working but I don´t dare go out alone at night and the only people I´ve spoken to for days have been the salespersons. I´ve finished several books and I think I have been able to make up for the last couple of weeks silence. There´s a fierce storm going on outside and it´s freezing... as usual. But during the day the sun is scortching hot. From outside you can hear (gun?)shots - but no one reacts cause it´s not too uncommon. And for once there isn´t any demonstration going on in the streets. From the three sterios you can hear the three most popular tracks. Once you´ve heard them 1000 times you start liking them.

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Yesterday a 15 year-old girl approached me and begged me to bring her home with me. "As my pet?" I asked somewhat sarcasticly. Yeah! She replied enthoustiasticly. "I´m sorry, my friend, you can´t imagine how many people have asked me the same thing." "But bring MEEE!" She said. It made me really sad to imagine the kind of dangerous situations girls like her can get into. Once in a while you see couples that suspiciously look "arranged", but there are also a large quantity of men (and women from what I´ve seen) who take advantage of it and promise a future together (=visa) but only taking the person for a ride. Some guidebooks even announce "good places to meet pretty peruvian girls".

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What follows is a pót-pourri of ´photos from my trip.

Bye Natalia! See you in Buenes Aires for your birthday!!!

This is not show that I´m eating penguin,,, it´s to show that penguins, like apes, are cruely held hostage at restaurants... the gigantic plate of soup is just to show what they serve as starters here... then there´s the main course, a drink, and sometimes a desert. The whole ordeal sometimes costs $0.5!!! Sending a postcard costs $2, so you might understand why not all postcard make it to their destinations... but I have spent a fortune sending the cards, so I hope at least SOME of you get them.
I miss my cat! Mischa has kept me company instad. But hey, Elin can´t take care of Sataña.. could any one else take her this fall?????? I pay for her food and a little extra for the trouble (even though Sataña is no trouble at all).
A regular roof top... reminds you of my roof, hey?!

The workers once again. I just really like these photos.

My friend in Arequipa is starting a Trout-farm here. Isn´t it precious?!

All the famous pictures of Machu Picchu are actually taken from here. But you can only climb here during a few hours a day. After that the wind gets too strong and it´s a real hazard being up here.

The climbers once again.
We passed quite a few coca plants. Here they are left to dry for 3 days to later be chewn or drank as thé.

The Inka´s knew there was something special with the coca leaves. This is the coca leave ceremony: apu Salkantay apu Waiyna Picchu apu Machu Picchu
Except for climbing, we had to crawl down and through some caves. High mountains is one thing... but small, dark, uneven spaces.... ugh! Scarry!
The chinese walls actually reached Cuzco

Inka hyrographs.

Taking photos of ruins and landscapes is sort of a pitty, cause you almost never capture the essence. So for your information: this was a very impressive site.
Well, the sun had risen when we decided to give up... Hey, I´ve only had a few nights of party on this trip... besides I´m turning 30 soon and I am very proud of myself for doing an all-nighter. And it´s to make up for the fact that there are no photos of me singing Caraokee... in spanish... then I freaked out and started singing I´m Barbie girl and all that... brings me back to the University days in Uppsala.
See what?!

A house I just loved, and the enterance to Cuzco

Puno

This isn´t Lake Titicaca but another lake nearby, which is actually higher, but not navigable. The island is called Uma... something. Uma means head in Cetchewa (and horse in japanese... and of course one in portugese).

Donkies carried this boat to Lake Titicaca which took 6 years. The motor is Swedish (yeah!) but the boat has yet to be fully restored to sail again.
But have I ever been a good listener? No, so me and Natalia took the steering wheel and...

This is an old burrial site, with poth Inka and Pre-inka constructions. They were really quite impressive ingeneers.

Machu Picchu

Machu Piccchu at dawn. We got up at 4 in the morning to climb up in time to see the sunrise.
Temple of the moon


We got there in time

I had made a promise to smoke a cigarette once I got to the top. So I did, but it felt out of place... and it wasn´t very appreciated by fellow tourists.

If you chew enough coca leaves you can see that this depicts a falcon. I have been chewing coca leaves non stop for some time now so I see it quite clearly. Other figures have been much harder to disypher. I won´t bother you with the pictures.

As if climbing 1 1/2 hours (on an empty stomache) to get to Machu Picchu wasn´t enough, me and Natalia and some Brasilians decided to go even further. We climbed another 2 hours to get this view from Waiyna Picchu.

Then we climbed another 2 hours to see the Temple of the Moon. At every stop we hade to to a coca leave ceremony. You guys probably think I´m a crack addict by now, but coca leaves aren´t actually stronger than coffee... and it´s much better for you.

When asked about my memories from Machu Picchu, this will be my reply: Climbing. It was still dark when our guide deserted us on this trail with no food at 4.30 in the morning.

Look at the distance we climbed!

To get to this:

And we climbed.... and climbed. Up and up and then down again. In total we climbed for 10 hours! On an empty stomache! If it hadn´t been for a Brasilian with a sweet tooth who took mercy on us and gave us a chocolate bar each we would probably have withered away on that mountain.

On the way we learned some tricks on how to catch a mate.

Before getting to our destination we took a well deserved bath in the hotsprings. Our guide was still with us at this time. Which was good cause it was pitch black when we got to the village we would be staying at that night.

This is what Machu Picchu looks like from behind. After this photo we walked some tedious 4 hours along the railroad tracks. The idea of such a hike sounds quite romantic, doesn´t it, but damn it was boring!

Do you see the path? Well, the second day of climbing was along these paths. It felt A LOT steeper than it looks here.

We dare deviled the fierce river several time. Both by cart...

And across the bridges.

We climed all the way up here from the river, and then some, before climbing down to the river again.

But it was a beautiful trip.

We started off in the clouds.

In the rainforest we passed several coffee plants. (And more or less legal coca plants) We met a wonderful man, José Antoine DeLi Qui...something, in his early 90´s who was once a great farmer. He still cultivates and processes coffee. Here the coffee is left to dry in the sun.

José had won his 27-year old wife´s heart by playing the harp for her. He thought he´d see what the banjo would do for us.

We were definately charmed, but not even the honey glaced bananas from his yard made us stay to learn Cetchewa.

Once again: I climbed this!!!

Not all of the passage was pitoresc in the same sence.

Some traveling tips:

I prefered the bike.

And of course we had some minor difficulties on the road.

Before biking down into the rainforest (to climb up the other mountains) we took a bus up to the glaciers. I was on cloud nine. But touching a cload DOESN´T actually feel like cotton.