Lake Titicaca and La Paz

Lake Titicaca

Lake Titicaca is the world’s highest (3800m) commercially navigable lake covering 58’000 square kilometre and is therefore almost one and half the size of Switzerland.

From the Danish couple I met back in Vilcabamba, Ecuador, I got the hint, once I’d arrive in Puno, I should stay overnight on one of the floating islands. Normally, the floating islands are a bit of a tourist trap. Big boats with dozens of tourists navigate for half a day over to 2 or 3 of the man-build floating islands made of totora (reed). The tourists are all led through the same explanations how the island people live. They will be forced to buy handicrafts at a place they are led. There is a rumour that those island people, who are visited from agencies, do not really live on the islands. After the tourists are gone, they will be gone too. Even in lonely planet, it is stated, that most of the money the tourists pay goes to the agency and they force the island people to drop prices to an unhealthy level. So of course, quality dropped as well. In other words: the winners are the agencies and the losers the island people and maybe the tourists that being presented a false play. But they mostly don’t realise it.

I arrived in Puno with the company of three nice Swiss girls from Uri, which is somehow the “real” original Switzerland, because it belongs to the 3 founding areas of Switzerland, right in the middle of the country. I was very positively surprised as they haven’t met my stereotypes about the people of this area. Normally one would expect those to be kind of overcautious about everything they don’t know. But I spent a great time with them and they shared my love for high mountains (they all climbed later toward a level of 6318 meter) and I was happy to speak Swiss German after a long time not using it. Anyway, I checked into the same hotel and I asked at the reception about lodging on one of the Uros islands. The clerk told me, this was not possible. I could book a tour, leaving in the morning, and returning in the afternoon. Luckily, I got some more info from the Danish couple and with the help of the internet I got to the E-Mail address of Christina, the lady that runs a lodge on her family’s island. Her daughter, Maribel, replied affirmative, so a night on the island was fixed.

I got picked up by a taxi driver at my hotel and drove somewhere at the lake, where we had to wait a couple of minutes for the arrival of Abraham, who was going to take me to the island. He returned 3 people that spent the previous night on the island. They told me, they’ve had a great time. They got into the taxi and I got into the boat. So I was going to be the only visitor for that night. On the fare, Abraham explained to me the situation with the agencies from Puno and how they would try to keep away tourists from Christina’s place. An experience, I had already made.

The welcome on the island by Christina, her husband Victor and Maribel was very warm and friendly. They showed me my house, of course made of totora, as everything else on those islands and then I had some free time to look around myself. Afterwards I had a very nice session with Victor, who explained me the inca myths of Lake Titicaca and why it was so important in the believes of the Incas. Then he told me, how they build an island. They connect some wooden piles placed in a quadrate with strong ropes and then they put many layers of totora on the ropes until there is an island. Everybody can build an island there, but mostly it’s a family thing and on one island live between 10 and 20 people. The houses, the boats and most of the islands constructions and decoration are made of totora as well. I learned later on, they even eat it. But only the white part that is under water. Victor didn’t give me any totora to try, because of the lake’s water that would make me sick, as I am not accustomed to it. In other words: totora is all their live. They eat it, they burn it for cooking, the live in it, they drive in totora-boats, they walk on it… luckily, totora is a natural renewable resource. There is enough for all, always. So what can we oil-, gas- and uran-users learn from them? By the way, their electricity is won from solar panels, one of the good things that Alberto Fujimorji, a former president with the reputation of a cruel dictator, at least in Europe, has done for the poor people in the country.

On the other side of course, totora is a short-term living material. A big part of the life on the islands is constant renovation of the island. A totora boat can be used approximately for 1,5 years. The walls and roofs of houses have to be replaced every year. The ground has to be replaced constantly, because too dry totora is subject to fire hazards. A view out the lake and to other Uros islands explains what this means. There are always a couple of boats out, filled with totora. These are people coming back from picking totora and bringing it to their islands for manufacturing it to their island. It means constant work. In the morning I could help them to put a new layer of totora under one house. Victor seemed a little bit sad about this constant hard work just for living. I told him, I need to work to pay the rent of my apartment, he doesn’t need to pay for the house, but he works on his own house constantly. In the end, it’s not much of a difference. We both have to work for our houses. But his way might be a little more satisfactory, because it’s much more direct. He has a clear result and he knows why he has to work. This isn’t always the case with me.

Right after my return from the island I proceeded towards Copacabana, on the Bolivian side of the Lake Titicaca. I once again did not take the official tourist bus, but a small minivan, because that fit better in my time table. On the same van was Julia, a German girl. When we were dropped out of the van in Yunguyo, the last Peruvian village, she asked me to share a cab to the border. It always makes sense to cross a border not alone, although this border crossing was supposed to be very safe, unlike the ones in the north to Ecuador. Julia turned out to be one of the most terrible gals I ever met. She made troubles at the immigration, because they granted us only 30 days visa and told her she has to get prolongation in La Paz. But she complained a lot and got real angry, and the officer told her, there’s nothing he can do about it, but it would be easy to get prolongation in La Paz or Santa Cruz (which I can confirm: it was very easy!). If I heard right, as I was already out the door, pissed of by her attitude, she tried to bribe the officer which he nicely declined. Man, was she angry. She complained about the slightly higher exchange rate from USD to BOL, she took out her huge pocket knife just before the border to cut out a piece of barrier tape and told me, she always wanted to have one like this (what the fuck does she want such an useless thing for? And can she please put the fucking knife away? We are just entering Bolivia, leaving Peru behind, and people with mass destruction weapons are probably a bit suspect and not welcome! To which she replied, she would only be scared, if she still had drugs with her). The only thing she enjoyed was the outlook for a very cheap living (“Yes! Finally arrived in Bolivia, where just everything is cheap!”). I had just one thought: I have go get rid of her as soon as possible or I’d kill her in the end. Luckily, my hotel was of course too expensive for her and the problem was solved. Talking about expensive hotels: I paid there 18$ a night, which is indeed much for Bolivia, considering there could be dorm beds for 6 or 7$, maybe even less. But I got so used to my own room with private bath room that I don’t really want to share dorms anymore with people I don’t know. I don’t want to worry anymore, where I leave my things. Furthermore, this hotel was indeed really nice: generous lobby, big bed, well-sized room, all the time free coca tea, free bananas and a very good sized breakfast which deserves its name. Now anybody should tell me, this was not worth 18$!

My main activities in Copacabana were to enjoy the tranquillity of a small “beach” town just before heading into the big ugly moloch of La Paz and to visit the Isla del Sol, which in inca myth is the birth of the god of the sun.

Copacabana was indeed a nice place. The main street seemed a bit touristy, but as it is low season, it fitted perfectly. In the upper neighbourhoods there were very lively street markets. In Bolivia, everything can be purchased on the streets and the market streets were full of people until late night. It was a very friendly atmosphere, much less hectic than the markets in Peru. Here we have a difference of Bolivians and Peruvians. Of course, as we all know, generalizations must not be true for every individual, but after all, they got a true part in it. Peruvians are the sales-men, always loudly praising their product, almost penetrating their possible clients. The Bolivian’s sale recipe is a nice smile, accepting the first “no” they’ll get and no complains about their own situation.

Copacabana

What I liked a lot was the acceptance of things they cannot influence anyway. One evening, when I was still strolling through the market streets and enjoy the Bolivian life style, there was a blackout and suddenly everything was dark. How great was it seeing a dark city, flashing lights turning on, candles lightning up and the live would just go on as before. A look into the restaurants showed romantic candlelight dinners everywhere. Nobody complained. When I arrived at the hotel, they handed me a candle to go up to my room. I really feel that it would do us only good to be without electricity once in a while just to notice, life doesn’t end. So do we need new nuclear reactors? Come to South America and you will realize a little bit of less luxury available doesn’t kill you. Of course there are also a lot of things, they could learn from us: how to treat trash is something they hopefully will learn in the future. It’s unbelievable to see all the trash along the streets (or is it, because in Europe, we get it cleaned regularly?). But that may be the topic of a later entry.

The trip to Isla del Sol was really great. I entered a boat to the north side of the island and trekked the 8 kilometers down to the south where I caught another boat to go back. It was a perfect day for this trek and I enjoyed the beautiful views on the beaches towards the ocean like Lake Titicaca. But here, the pictures tell enough.

Isla del Sol

La Paz

La Paz was not nearly as bad as I expected. By what I read and people told me, I imagined the dirtiest and most criminal city of the world. The traffic is indeed terrible, but that’s the way in most of the big cities in South America. But there were some nice pedestrian areas which are kept real neat. In terms of safety I need to say in no moment I had the slightest feeling I could become the victim of a robbery. I think, people are a bit overcautious. They told me to wear by bag always in front, but soon I gave that up because there was no need for that, as long as a normal reasonable sense is used. In a restaurant, an elderly couple told me not to leave my bag unattended, while I served myself on the buffet. Of course, I always had an eye on it. I don’t doubt, bad things happen, but normally nobody writes that there were no problems at all. That’s how these cities get a bad reputation. I do write now: La Paz is a very safe city, as long as you stick to some rules which are true for everywhere.

I only spent a short time in La Paz because after all, this big city felt a little bit like a prison. There was really no way to satisfy my need for activity. Running was out of question because it would have taken me at least an hour to get somewhere decent to run, not being spoiled by big traffic streets. My google research of finding a swimming pool showed me, there are no pools around. Maybe some bathing pools in hotels, but not for swimming. What else could I do? Bus surfing neither was a good alternative, because most buses just got stuck in the traffic jams. So I used most of my time to do researches on climbing another mountain, but this story will be told next time.

What I found remarkable about La Paz were the often very young shoe-shiners that always hid their face behind face masks, as if they were the most despicable people. Even when eating, they turned their face to a wall so it was impossible to see their face. This need to hide which I haven’t noticed anywhere else made a big impression on me.

Talking shortly about economics: Bolivia’s yearly gross domestic production amount is 48 billion dollar (estimation 2010, Wikipedia). The profit of Union Bank of Switzerland in the same period is 8 billion dollar (http://www.ubs.com/global/en/about_ubs/about_us/keyfigures.html). What does UBS do? Exactly, shift money around. Nothing is produced. Nobody is really gaining something from it, except the ones that already have a lot of money and a few bankers. What does Bolivia export? Beans, coffee, sugar, cotton, corn and timber; things we all consume every day. How is it possible that a country with approximately 10,5 Mio people produces products and services with a sale value only 6 times higher than the profit (not turnover but net-profit, after taxes) of UBS with its 65’000 employees, which is 165 times less the population of Bolivia. Think about it.

The Inca Trail to Machu Picchu

The trail that leads to the archaeological sites of the 1911 rediscovered Machu Picchu is one of the most famous tourist attractions in South America. There are restrictions on how many people can do this trail per day. Because it is so touristy I was considering skipping it and doing another trail instead. But I was told by many people, the trail is really worth it and it doesn’t feel that touristy once you’re on the trail. And Machu Picchu should be a blast. That, and the lazyness of collecting information during my planning, made me decide to do this 4 day trail.

Because my feelings about it are mixed, I make a list, why I recommend not doing it and  a list, why you should do it.

9 reasons not to do the Inca Trail

1. Mass tourism

The whole trail is just meant to lead through a mass of tourists. Every group entering the trail is exactly doing the same thing: visiting the same archaeological sites on the trail, sleeping at the same campgrounds, eating the same things (when the group on the lower campground has popcorn as a snack, we got the same thing) and learning the same things about the same plants. During the whole trail I realized the whole nature experience which should consist of not meeting many people, is spoiled by the hundreds of hikers and porters using the trail at the same time.

People climbing up Dead Woman’s Pass

2. Landscape and the trail

If you are used to hike in the mountains, you have seen landscapes like this before. The landscape might be very nice, but almost everywhere you go, there are people in sight which I prefer to avoid when being in nature. If you expect the inca trail to be much different from any other trail you have hiked before, you will be disappointed. Most of the trail looks exactly like more modern trails. I believe humanity did not make much of progress in making trails.

Typical landscapes on the trail

3. Guide

Our guide, Diego, was an asshole. Overall I had the feeling he hated tourists and he’s been doing this for too long. He told us, he’s been a guide for 18 years. I’ll give you a couple of examples, why the entire group was so dissatisfied with him.

a) Everybody had a private briefing the day before we started. And everybody asked the same question when the discussion came to sleeping bags: do we have to bring matrices? He said no, they will be provided; you don’t have to worry about it. Good, everybody thought, something less to carry. It’s not the weight I worried about, more the space. I have a 32 liter daypack which was supposed to be enough for the 4 days. So everybody was happy about that. We were all very surprised when at the beginning of the trail Diego handed us over matrices we were supposed to carry ourselves. We confronted him with his promises of the day before and he just acted offended, walking away and telling us it’s not his fault but the company’s; that’s not part of his job. There would be luxury companies, in which tourists don’t have to carry anything but their cameras. So we were really pissed off with that attitude because he just lied the night before. He could have said: sorry guys, I was wrong and didn’t inform you correctly. But he just insisted that he was right. If I had known this, I would have brought my own matrice, which was much smaller and I could have figured out a good way how to attach it to the backpack. But this huge thing was a terrible drag for 4 days. I hated it! This was a very bad incident to start the tour with.

b) The third day, we started so late that we arrived quite late at the campsite. This was fine, as we had the chance to enjoy the trail with almost no people. But he didn’t tell us, there would be no time to visit some ruins very close to the campsite that evening. No word about it. We only found out at the campsite from other travellers that those ruins were different and really worth looking at them. At least I took a chance next morning and run up there with a Canadian couple to see them, and they were really gorgeous.

c) Because our group was not allocated the third night to the campground that was just two hours away from Machu Picchu, but to the peak of the 3^rd pass, about 2 more hours away, we would have to start walking in deep night down along dangerous steep steps to reach the check point after camp 3 at an reasonable time. If not, we would have arrived like 10 or 11 with the mass of tourists that came by train that morning from Cusco. Diego told us in the briefing, he is trying to get us down to the third camp somehow. After the incident with the matrices he said, he won’t do that. But things calmed down a bit the next days and we went down. But he got caught by the park rangers and received a warning. After 3 warnings he would be suspended from the trail. He blamed us for this. Well, first, I think it’s stupid that not every group has the same conditions to arrive in Machu Picchu at a decent time. Second I think, if it’s really like this (on top of the 3^rd pass, there was actually just one group situated), we would have had to deal with this. We didn’t ask him to break the law, although we appreciated the better situation in the camp.

d) I carried a small bottle of Pisco with me of which I always only drank from the lid, offering Pacha Mama its share. I also shared it amongst some porters and travellers I was with. At one point I offered some to Diego. He didn’t drink from the lid, he took the bottle and emptied it almost. I thought this to be very rude of him. I also realized, after he knew, I would take a swallow on each peak, he made sure that he was always close to me so he wouldn’t miss the Pisco. But I didn’t offer him anymore. He pissed me off too much.

e) Diego told me in the briefing there will be two men tents. But if the mix of the group would lead to a constellation that a guy and a girl who do not know each other would have to share a tent, there would be single tents. Well, this was a lie. I ended up with a Dutch girl. We both didn’t mind, especially, as the porters didn’t have to carry one more tent. But I know this could be a problem for some people. Why not telling it from the beginning? Why lying? Things like this happened all the time. We just couldn’t believe anything Diego was saying and it was the joy of everybody in our group to make jokes about that.

4. Stinky people

Because on the trail there are no showers around, every day people and cloths became a little smellier. When I entered my tent the last night, which I shared with the Dutch girl, it was not very convenient…

5. Human behaviour in masses

At the last day, everybody had to pass a check point about 5 minutes down the last camp. The check point opened up at 5.30 am. The first groups were there 2 hours before. Because, as an exception, the breakfast of our group was very poor and consisted of a pancake only, and somehow nobody was fooling around, we arrived at the check point as a pretty early group. But somehow there was something like a mass panic going on. A lot of people, who didn’t care about being fast the previous days, pushed and elbowed themselves forward. You know, I’m a fast walker, and I think I was also walking faster than usually, but some people were really running. I saw many people taking off their jackets while running. This is something I do during competitions or trainings, but not on a hike. I refused to play this game and stopped in order to take off the jacket and to take pictures. People seemed to be so hysteric about arriving in Machu Picchu, which was completely unnecessary, they lost their ability of reasonable thinking. I believe this is the kind of power inside humans that can develop a dangerous mass out of normally more or less intelligent individuals. Dangerous, stupid masses!

6. Machu Picchu

I’ve been in Peru for a while and I visited quite a few ruins. Machu Picchu only became so famous because it was redisvored in 1911 by an American named Hiram Bingham and its touristy reputation was pushed with an amazing success, so now they have to limit the number of visitors. There are lots of inca ruins around, many of them bigger and more impressive than Machu Picchu. For example the ones at Raqchi, a site, I visited later on my way to Puno at Lake Titicaca, were at least as interesting as the famous Machu Picchu. Or my favourite ruin was in Ollantaybambo. The ruins of Choquequirao are much more impressive. But they were discovered by Peruvians before Bingham visited this place in 1909. There is also an inca trail leading there. I knew this all before and I preferred to go to Choquequirao instead of Machu Picchu. But the only possibility to hike there I knew of was to hike 2 days to the ruins and 2 days back the very same way, which I didn’t like. That, and because many people told me the landscape to Machu Picchu is worth it, I decided to do the touristy Machu Picchu trail. I only found out later, there would have been other options to return from Choquequirao.

Inca ruins along the way

7. Cost

I paid for these 4 days 450 dollars, almost everything included. If you put a lot of research into finding cheaper options, you can get down to maybe 300 dollars. But I’m sure, the companies will make as much profit as usually, only the crew gets less. Since you cannot do the inca trail on your own, there is no way to avoid those cost. I’m kind of sad, I supported it.

8. The porters

The porters at Machu Picchu are the equivalent to the Sherpas at Himalaya. They carry all things the paying tourists don’t want or cannot carry. They run up and down the trail and carry heavy stuff. I talked to some of the porters who I accompanied for some time. One told me he is carrying 27 kilos, which was probably more than double of my bag back. Allowed would be only 25. Although only 2 kilos too much is not that bad, but to me it looked heavier. The quality of their heavy bags, sometime only potato sacks with straps attached, their mostly lousy shoes (some only wore sandals, and their toes and nails looked dead) is probably doing a lot of long term damage to their health. To be a porter is a job, I could imagine doing it as well for some time. I like to be in the nature, I like physical work. But a precondition would be perfect equipment (bag packs, shoes, raincoats etc.) provided by the tour company and a reasonable pay. The porters here had nothing of those, still they were always very friendly and smiling, when being talked to. But believe me, I saw some resting porters, who really looked too exhausted to carry on. I saw them running down the mountains, with a load, almost as big as themselves. I saw them chewing coca leaves, which is not a drug, but a little helper against pain and sickness.

9. Aguas Calientes

This is the town just at the foot of Machu Picchu. It has not much to offer except tourist traps. The hot springs, as I heard, were lousy. So we didn’t bother to go. We had to stay there almost 6 hours.

9 reasons why you should do the Inca Trail

1. Mass tourism

There is a reason, why so many people want to do it:  the landscapes, the original inca steps, walls and sanctuaries are more but just compensating for the maybe a bit overpopulated trail. On the third day, we were the last group to leave our camp and we walked all the way at the very end of the big group. All day, we didn’t meet many other people. That’s how we escaped the masses in front of us.

2. Landscape and the trail

It doesn’t matter how often you’ve hiked before and how many beautiful mountain sights you’ve seen, it is something special every time you stand on a lookout and see a mountain landscape, rugged by valleys and feel the magic of mountains and valleys and especially, when knowing, that trail you’re walking on was used by a sunken civilization. Especially on the third day, when you leave the typical Andean scene and enter the tropical cloud forest, it is amazing to see the change of flora and fauna within a few minutes of walking! The first pass, called Dead Womens Pass, because at some point the mountain looks like a lying woman, is a bit overrated, but the very highlight of the trail are the 100 steps up to the sun gate, just before arriving at Machu Picchu. You walk around the corner and you stand in front of a wall. The steps are high and make the path real steep. Many trekkers paid for their running before and crept up there by using both hands.

Dead Woman’s Pass

3. Guide

Our own guide may have been an asshole, but looking around in other groups and talking to guides that were somehow connected with our group, there were some really good ones.

4. Stinky people

Hey, it maybe takes some guts to overcome the point and accept the stinking, but once you’ve done it, it’s amazing!

5. Human behaviour in masses

Students of psychology and social science will love this field experiment. Take your time and study the hysteria at day 4, just before Machu Picchu.

6. Machu Picchu

You probably know the effect of having seen s sight 1000 times on great pictures, so you just look very much forward to see it for real. Once you arrived there, you realized, well, reality is nice, but due to high expectations the sight was no more impressive than shown on pictures. So you were kind of disappointed. This happens to me a lot. Machu Picchu is different. I’ve seen so many pictures, but not a single one could capture the real magic of that place. When you arrive after the 100 steep steps at the sun gate and spot for the first time the full sight of Machu Picchu, it is a real moment of joy and magic.

100 steps before the Sun Gate

View over Machu Picchu and Wayna Picchu from Sun Gate

7. Cost

Of course the trail and the entrance fee is quite espensive. But also think of the many people that live from it. Yes, the companies get the most, but every single porter is happy at least to earn something. And you can always tipp them better than the guides.

8. The porters

Every single porter I met and talked to was most friendly. They don’t complain about the hard work and they enjoy the nature. And it brings them money. If they wouldn’t have the chance to do this, what else would they do? It might be a hard job, but at least it’s a way to earn money for their families. Isn’t this, what tourism is about? To give local people something in return for making our stay comfortable?

9. Aguas Calientes

The best and most recommendable thing to do to kill time in Aguas Calientes is to collect those people you liked best during the trail and look for a pub in order to drink through the afternoon until it’s time to catch the train back to Cusco. I ended up with the Canadian couple and a lovely Brazilian couple that spent their honeymoon on the trail. The happy hour “4 for 1” and orders of always 4 pisco sours and 4 beers made sure the afternoon was short, interesting and funny. The ride on the train back was a huge party, as my empty bottle of Pisco was replaced, the supply of beer was guaranteed and everybody was happy!

Rock at Machu Picchu that has the same shape as the mountain  behind (not so good visible)

Lamas on the way.

Cusco

As Cusco can be regarded as the backpacker capital of South America it is probably worth to drop a few words about this city. Facts like the 350’000 habitants and its altitude of 3400 meter can be looked up at Wikipedia. So I won’t lose any words about facts.

Arriving in Cusco to me was kind of a culture shock. In most of Ecuador and practically all of Peru I was urged to speak Spanish and a lot of times I was the only gringo around. This suddenly changed in Cusco. There are many languages spoken on the streets, but the common one is English. At tourist places you get answers in English even when the question was raised in Spanish. But the good thing was, at restaurants and places that are less visited by the traditional lonely planet tourist, the staff was always very helpful and positive if approached in Spanish.

And there were loads of great restaurants for vegetarians. There was an amazingly good organic food restaurant (called “Sara” at Santa Catalina; if you go, you need to have a desert too), loads of fantastic vegetarians (my favourites were “Encuentro” at Santa Catalina and “Govinda” at Saphi) and if you wanted chicken, you almost had to search for it. In addition, there were some very decent places for coffee and juices. Lunch was usually taken at San Pedro market for 2 to 3 Soles, which is just about a dollar.

In an earlier post I mentioned that I don’t care too much about cities, because somehow they’re all the same. Some are better, some are worse. Cusco is different. It’s location between the mountains, the very narrow paved steep streets to upper neighbourhoods like San Blas with only little sidewalks, the variety of architecture and style between the major plaza, where everything is clean and colonial, and a little bit further, where no many tourists go and the stores and pedestrians become much more lively, the nice climate of warm days and cool nights, this all and more makes Cusco a place I always liked to return after my various trips to Inca ruins, jungles and treks. It’s no surprise I met a lot of travellers that got stuck here for a very, very long time. Sometimes for years.

But of course Cusco also has its bad and sad sides. Although it is tried to be hidden, it soon becomes obvious that there is a lot of poverty going on. The people sleeping outside in the cold and many peaceful old indigenous beggars along the streets tore my heart apart. Once, when I was reading my book in the sun at Plaza de Armas, a lady approached me. This is nothing unusual. When you walk along the tourist area you get approached by painters, handicraft sellers, massage women, shoe cleaners, waiters that want you to lead into a restaurant etc. almost every 5 meter. I think I said like 500 times “no, gracias” to ridiculously cheap massage offers (their answer usually was “Maybe later, amigo?”). Anyway, this lady approached me and despite of my “no gracias” she sat beside me and started to talk. She told me, after I opened up to her I was from Switzerland, she has been invited by a Swiss friend to Zurich a couple of years ago. Her friend, who previously voluntarily worked in Cusco for poor children, paid her the whole 3 month trip to Switzerland. That’s why she knew quite well the cities. We talked a little bit about differences of Peru and Switzerland. And of course, one topic was money. In the course of the conversation, when she explained to me her situation, her eyes became wet. She doesn’t have a job, has to get money for 5 children in her household (the oldest being 13 years old) and there is no such thing as social security. So she’s selling paintings she’s done. A few weeks ago, the police took away many of her paintings and told her she has to buy a licence for a couple of hundreds Soles. Remember, that many Peruvians earn not more than 600 Soles, which is just 225 dollars a month. I didn’t buy a painting, but I made a little donation in the end. So please, dear people in rich Europe: think about the situation of these people when you next time complain about having almost no money, while going to Ski and summer vacation every year, having a car and eating out on a regular basis. I do know very well, live in our society is not easy either, but sometimes I would love to see a little bit more humbleness and gratefulness that we don’t have to fight for our survival every day.

PS: The report about the Inca Trail is in construction process. I need a little more time.

Jungle Boogie

Another very big nature highlight I was very much looking forward to is history now. I spent an ultimately great week in the Manu National Park, a biosphere reserve east of Cusco district. This, at the beginning of the wet season. Our group and the crew were the best travelling companions I have ever met on a trip like this. We spent a great time together and by having a big amount of sympathy for each other, the experience of wildlife became even more fantastic! The tourist group consisted of 5 people: Alex from Bavaria, Martin, a(nother) guy from Germany, Melanie from London, Frederike from the Netherlands and of course me. The crew consisted mainly of Javier, our funny and sharp eyed guide, Mario, the nature loving boatman with the right view for the currents, Miguel or Patchita, the boatman assistant and most important man in the background and Luis, our sensational cook, that managed to prepare the perfect meals at the most impossible times and places under the most impossible conditions. Worth to mention is that our group consisted of 3 vegetarians! I was happy about that and Luis handled this challenge to the complete satisfaction of everybody.

Day 1: We drove about 10 hours by bus through the Andes down through cloud forests and all possible vegetations from 4000 down to 500 meter above sea level. The animal spotting process on our many stops to the Bamboo lodge was not yet very successful. But we did see some cocks of the rocks, a tropical bird, practicing their mating dance.

Cock of the rock

Bamboo Lodge, our first night stop

Day 2: After a relatively short drive we exchanged our bus with a boat to manoeuvre us about 8 hours down the Rio Madre de Dios. On the way down we stopped at some indigenous villages to refill our gas and food supply and to see their villages. The rain that accompanied us for a little while didn’t bother us as we were overwhelmed with the beauty of the thick jungle along the river. We were told that this river contributes about 20 percent of all water that flows into the Amazon much further down. After arriving at Maquisapayoj lodge, our base for the next few days, and carrying all equipment up, exposed to tremendous heat, we later on went for a night walk, where we for the first time became witness of Javier’s outstanding ability to spot animals. Wherever my flashlight went, there was just leafs, trees, trunks and mud. But Javier, while fooling around with us, stopped many times and his flashlight pointed to “small” animals like wolfspiders, grasshoppers, bugs, plants and even the red howling monkeys swinging from tree to tree were not missed. The walk was maybe just a few hundred meters long, but it took us hours to look at all the things just beside the trail. It was a first real intense contact with the immense variety that lives in the jungle. Did you know that some web spiders are building their castle at night just to eat it up again at dawn? They need the protein of their own web, so they cannot just abandon it. Javier had the answer for almost every question. He only first didn’t know what a Cucaracha de Trompeta is (in German, we call it “Brüllkäfer”). Alex told him, it is a cockroach that, if stepped upon, cries with some funny voice and starts to stink. In civilisation, we call it a fart…

View down to Rio Madre de Dios

Day 3: At a very inappropriate time in the morning we went off by boat and a little walk to a place where the Macaws (especially the blue red headed) and some parrots are licking clay every morning. What do they need clay for? Because these birds eat many fruits and leafs that are slightly poisonous, they need to neutralize the poison inside. Obviously, clay does this job. When we arrived at the spotting platform (by the way, we were always the only group so deep down in the forest), Luis unpacked the breakfast which we shared with the many wasps around, and we observed the birds uniting in the trees at the lick. They wouldn’t get to the lick until they felt very safe and made sure, that there are no predators like hawks and eagles around. At the lick they would be easier to catch. It took really a long time to see the macaws and parrots moving slowly down the trees until a few were finally brave enough to start the breakfast. But after the first one started it took only short time until the place was filled with these beautiful looking birds.

Macaws in action

The following excursion to the Camungo lake and the raft ride, where we experienced the tremendous deadly heat of the jungle, was not successful in terms that we were supposed to see otters. But we were substituted by swimming turtles, monkey observing us from trees and the piranhas they captured, but were released maybe due to my complaints about animal treatment (I didn’t like the capturing part, though). And to my extreme pleasure we could spot some rare capybaras along the river on the way back. Capybaras are one of my favourite animals and while preparing for my South America trip I set this up as a must-see. They are so cute… I just love them!

Capybara

Because of some heavy rains we decided not to spend the night on a platform at the Tapir clay/mud lick place about a one hour walk away from our base. Javier explained, when it’s that muddy, or even flooded, the chance, that any tapir shows up is quite low. The tapir is a quite rare, huge, very anxious mammal that needs its clay supply due to the same reasons as the macaws. We could postpone this to the next nights. Instead we did another night walk with loads of spiders, leafcutter ants, bugs and other creepy things. We became witness of an exciting scene. A huge bug trapped into a spider’s web. The spider itself was huge as well but it didn’t approach the bug. The bug was that huge that it finally escaped. In that moment we realized a bad smell. I missed Javier’s explanations, but I think the bug released some kind of defence odour so the spider couldn’t get him.

Ants carrying leafs

Hand sized spider

Day 4: The trip to Blanco lake was not successful again in terms of otter spotting. But we were again substituted by many other goodies. We spotted caimans, hummingbirds, a few different monkey species and loads of others. Again it was hilarious to see how Javier spotted those things, sometimes so far away and small, I almost couldn’t see it even with binoculars. He adjusted the telescope within seconds to the right spot and we could make photographs through the telescope and the pictures looked like we were really close.

Caiman

Because at this fairly sunny day we were able to go to the tapir lick later on, the afternoon was free at the lodge. We used this opportunity to collect some habitants in a nearby small village to have a soccer game, which was very much fun. The jungle people beat us. Not because we were worse or so, but they had a real great goalkeeper. Things, which went in on our side, just didn’t on the other side…

At dusk we started to walk to the tapir place, where we would not be allowed to do any noises and to use our flashlight. We would get there, install ourselves on the matrices under the mozzy nets and shut up. Not even snoring allowed. The tapir wouldn’t come if he realized any track of suspect voyeurs. Javier even recommended not using any soap or perfume on the shower before, because the tapir would smell it. So we laid at the platform just after 7 pm, ready to sleep. To lie there in the middle of the jungle and listen to all the animals around was and is one of the most unique experiences to be made. Somewhere in the forest there was a frog making a strange noise every one or two minutes. Maybe you know some TV-shows in which the host asks the guest some question. If the guest gives a wrong answer, there is a deep “Tooot” noise, indicating the error. That was, was the frog sounded like. I called him the “Error Frog”. I imagined all the birds, insects and frogs being part of one big animal concert and whenever an animal is doing a wrong tone, the error frog comes with its “Tooot” and dispenses the mistaken animal. This imagination became the laughter for some days. This, and the firefly, that was captured in my mozzy net. When I turned off the light, the firefly turned his on…

From where we observered the tapir

At 3.30  in the morning the waking up chain we made up before was set to start because a tapir arrived. I pulled out my head and followed Javier’s flashlight. I saw something run away. That was it. It ran away. Not even for two seconds I saw it, and it didn’t return. A whole night’s work and wait, just to see a tapir running away.

Day 5: On the way back to our resident lodge we discussed what had happened that night and Javier told us, how he knows, when a tapir is there. Because there were many false alarms brought to him, he said to us: Don’t worry, I won’t miss it. And he explained the sounds that imply a tapir hitting the stage.

After another walk after breakfast we had another free afternoon because we wanted to go to the tapir place again. This time I missed the soccer game and took some sleep.

When we arrived at the platform to spot the tapir that night, we were glad to hear the error frog was there again to supervise the great animal concert. At midnight, the waking up chain was set in place again. And there it was: huge in size and almost a little clumsy staggering around in the mud it moved around for about 15 minutes in front of us. Javier always had to make sure, he wouldn’t light into his eyes, which would probably scare him off. But this tapir seemed not to be afraid at all. I think we did everything wrong we could have done wrong: Melanie got a bad coughing fit, Frederike dropped loudly her binoculars, even Javier had to cough, we others had to laugh about that, and because my camera is sometimes acting strange, it didn’t turn off correctly and closed it’s lid with a loud “Beeb beeb beep”. The tapir didn’t seem to care. It even seemed to look at us and asked himself: “Why can’t they just be quiet? Stupid monkeys…” After the tapir finished his job in the mud he slowly staggered away. After that we all had a non-stop sleep. I think because we put so much effort in it and went there twice and experienced a failure, this tapir spotting was maybe the most exciting moment of the entire jungle trip.

Day 6: After a walk in the bamboo forest we started our way back and entered our boat to get to another lodge about 5 hours back up the river. It was really a nice place and we eventually saw some other people again. In this lodge there was a group of 3 English biologists collecting samples of bugs. We chatted with them about their work, which was really interesting.

The night walk this day was a frog dominated thing. I always thought of frogs being quite big, but in fact, there are so many, which are not bigger than middle sized bugs.

Day 7: This day started some kind of dramatic. After having breakfast we were, like always, running late with our preparations to walk into the forest. Because there was always one, that needed a longer stop on the toilet, that got stuck in some discussions, or that was just slowly packing out of laziness, we never reached Javier’s time schedule to head on. Suddenly there was action: The red howling monkeys were testing their diaphragms and of course some people wanted to make pictures of that. Than an eagle flew in, which is very rare at this place. The eagle transported something in its claws. When the eagle rested on a tree it was soon spotted, the eagle was carrying a squirrel monkey which he grabbed. This is like a big sensation so see something like this! And it stayed there for quite a long time.

Parallel to the eagle/monkey thing, Javier was running to the boat at the river to bring back the telescope up to the lodge and accidentally stepped on this snake. The snake was supposed to be deadly poisonous. So if it would have bitten Javier, we all would have been in big trouble. But Javier stepped on its neck and broke it so it couldn’t move its head anymore. This was his luck (and the snake’s bad luck), but he didn’t feel well about breaking the neck of a snake, that was peacefully dreaming its way, when some idiot ruined its life by breaking its neck. Javier brought the snake up to us so we could see it. And it was really still alive, but sure to die.

After this dramatic day start and a soaking jungle rain during a short walk, we continued our travel back up the river. We exchanged our boat against a bus again and headed for the bamboo lodge for overnight. By then, we weren’t sure if we could get back to Cusco next day, because of some heavy rains there were a few landslides.

Day 8: This day was used to drive all the way back to Cusco. The landslides were already removed for the traffic so we didn’t have any problems.

This jungle trip was once again something of the best I ever did, even if at some moments, the heat was really getting too much, even for me. And you know how I love the heat. But the showers that were available at all lodges, the unbelievable caring crew made us feel like it was a luxury trip in an area, that is not living friendly to civilisation accustomed humans. But what counts in the end is the experience, to see natural wildlife, unspoiled by human.

Oh, talking about the jungle is of course not possible without mentioning mosquitoes and other stingy and biting little bastards like ticks. I normally refused to put on my insect repellent, because I don’t like poison on my skin. A lot of times I was the only one with shorts. There were in total 2 occasions, where I decided to put on repellent because the mosquitoes were not bearable. I had a few ticks, but so had most of the group. This was insofar interesting, because Javier said, never before someone in his previous groups was bitten by ticks. We had loads of them. But all in all, it wasn’t that bad. My legs and arms even looked better in the end then the ones of others who used repellent every time and always put their pants into their socks.

If you ever have the chance to do something like this, you shouldn’t miss it. It will also cure your arachnophobia.

A lodge

Our Group

Too hot to sweat

Ups and downs of a traveller’s life

After the places in north Peru I disliked, I finally came to Arequipa in south Peru. Actually, with everything that happened in the northern part, the many ignorant habitants of those cities, the lack of other tourists around (often, I was the only gringo around) I could share the miserable of those places with, I somehow started to hate Peru. For example it happened at restaurants, that although I said I don’t eat meat, they mixed it in my meal, or they served me funny things like a fruit salad, which sounded good as an alternative, but they idiotically spiced it up with ugly sweeties. I really lack of imagination to guess where the hell they got this idea from. They didn’t understand the concept of being a vegetarian. It was already a challenge to find a place, which had not “Pollo” (chicken) in its name. After two or three bad experiences, I started to act ruder to anyone in restaurants. I sounded like this: “I’m a vegetarian and I won’t eat meat, fish or Pollo. You told me, in what I ordered, there is no such things in it. So if you still going to serve me those rubbish, I’ll send it back and leave without paying.”

There were also quite a lot of people trying to rip me off and selling me things I didn’t want. So I told taxi drivers: “I know the price for going there is 15 Soles and no, you don’t have to wait for me there to drive me somewhere else, nor do you need to show me around in the city. Just bring me where I ask you and leave me alone!” One guy even tried me to pay the gasoline!

So it was a real relief to arrive in Arequipa after a 16 hours bus ride from Lima. Already the bus ride was very good. If you ever have to drive from Lima to the south, take “Cruz del Sur” and don’t be afraid to spend a little more. The very spacious seats that can be shifted into an almost-bed, the secure driving – it never exceeds 90 kmh -, the luggage service, the entertainment on board including a bingo game (!), which is really funny the first time and I think there is nothing really to win, the possibility for vegetarian food and the service in general, makes it worth to pay more. And with about 60 Dollars for a 16 hours night ride including meals is not that bad after all. Just imagine what it costs in Europe.

Arequipa was no disappointment. I had a very good feeling in the stomach already at the bus terminal. I got recommended an excellent place to stay and I immediately set up a two day hiking trip to Colca Canyon, where I was supposed to see condors, the mighty Andean birds.

In Arequipa I found a big choice of vegetarian restaurants, and they were always quite busy. And one of them, the “Pippala” turned out to be the very best restaurant I’ve been to in South America. I always took the menu, a 4 course dish, which was so delicious, that I ate there as often as possible. The place was always quite full so I was never alone at the table and I talked to very nice locals, who were finally aware of the health of this food and shared my opinion about those bloody Pollo places and the people that know nothing else. This 4 course dish was 7 Soles, less than 3 dollars. Ok, with a strawberry juice as a drink, the price was almost doubled.

The city itself was very relaxed and nice. People warned me to go into a certain area because it’s supposed to be dangerous. I walked in there anyway and I found the most interesting multi-cultural boutiques and the big hall with the street market in it. I love to stroll around in those markets and have a juice here, buy some fruits there, maybe buy some bread, have lunch for 2 – 3 Soles and look at all those handicraft pullovers, hats, gloves etc. Why they told me, I shouldn’t go there, I never found out. The city lies at 2300 meters and has the perfect climate: always sunny and very warm during the day, without leaving you sweating, but rather chilly nights. If you put a long sleeve jersey on, you’ll be fine.

The hike down to Colca Canyon, 1200 meters down in this amazing landscape with a group of nice people was beautiful. Unfortunately we didn’t see any condors, so we hoped for the next day. We spent the night in an oasis. It reminded me once more to paradise. Although equipped real basic without any electricity around, we could fully enjoy the remoteness and nature of this place. The only means of transport in this canyon are donkeys, which they call “mules”. It was amazing to see them walking up and down the trails, but no condors again.

Beside Colca Canyon, I spent 4 full days in the city of Arequipa. This is a length in which I start to set up some routines. One of them was to eat lunch at “Pippala”. Another one was after enjoying the sunset at Plaza de Armas to drink my late afternoon beer in an alleyway one block away from main square. I got to know all waiters and waitresses around and I spent a nice time fooling around with them and the pedestrians walking by.

I also started to actively work on my Spanish because I realized it just doesn’t get better on its own. Of course I became much more fluent. And I also talk in Spanish whenever possible. It’s amazing what I can say with my limited vocabulary. I just keep on talking, and if I don’t find a word, I’ll try again another way. But now I started to look up those words I was missing during the day and write them down (look at it again later is another story). And I also started reading Spanish. I was to buy a book of the Arequipian author and Nobel price holder in literature Mario Vargas Llosa. But reading just the first paragraph of a book, I considered it as impossible for me. So I fell over the children book “El principito” of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. I have read it back 20 years ago in French class. Whether it was my French knowledge or my memory, I don’t know much about it. I’m doing it the slow way: looking up every word I don’t know and reread every chapter until I know every word. Maybe, one day, I will be able to read Spanish books without a dictionary beside me.

Meanwhile I arrived in Cusco, the backpacker capital of South America. I don’t feel myself in a position yet to decide whether I like it or not. But not long after my arrival, I had an incident. I arrived early in the morning and after I found a place to stay I put on my running shoes and hit the road. I previously saw on the map that the Inca ruins of Sacsayhuamán (pronounced “Sexy Woman”) are very close and should easy be reached by running. But the road was badly marked and I ended up at a dead end street. It was forbidden to go any further. Ok, no worries, there was an off road trek and I took the stairways up. I didn’t come far when there was this crazy dog running towards me. I turned around and run down. Way too fast for an off road stairway. At the bottom, I stumbled and fell down. For a minute or two I couldn’t stand up. With a few scratches at elbow, back and leg I may have been lucky. What disturbed me the most is the broken triathlon pants, but meanwhile I got them sewed for 2 Soles. But I was kind of dizzy the whole day… maybe some kind of small concussion.

Talking about incidents: The replacement of my Ironman sun glasses I mentioned recently lasted for 3 days. The frame broke without an identifiable reason. This is another way to constantly exceed budgets…

 

All the taxis in Arequipa have ads on their top. One morning I ran into this and found it very funny

View of la Valle de Colca

Sunrise over la Valle de Colca

Mules

An oasis – our night resort

Plaza de Armas, Cusco

Eventually traveling

In this post you will read a rather Gonzo style collection about different topics, such as: trip to paradise, high-speed travelling and a writer’s block. Although slightly Gonzo, I will not be nearly as destructive and evil as its major represents, because I cannot afford a lawyer or a bail to get me out of here.

Short resume of all the places I stayed overnight between Quito and Lima

After I left Quito, tracks of mine can be found in Baños (+), Riobamba (-), Cuenca (-), Loja (+), Vilcabamba (+), and Chiclayo (-) and Trujillo (don’t know) in Peru. The places with “+” I liked, the other’s, I didn’t. To save time and in order not to bore you, I resign giving any further explanations. But of course, you can write to me and I’m telling it all.

Vilcabamba, the valley of longevity – a trip to Paradise

I came to this place in the very south of Ecuador almost by accident. While I was in Cuenca I picked up a flyer of the Hosteria Izhcayluma in Vilcabamba. Of course all the flyers about hostals praise its place and services. You know: things like TV (which I never use), Wi-Fi, breakfast, free water, centrally situated, etc. But which hostal hasn’t all this? Maybe the ones that do not invest in any flyers? So I usually pick them up only to drop them later.

But this place was different: it promised relaxing days in an out of village compound in the middle of a beautiful landscape in perfect climate, loads of hammocks, a pool, a bar, games and everything else you will probably wish being on lazy vacation in a remote resort. To shorten this up: the flyer was no lie! The truth was even better: the lovingly build cabins are a blast in its simplicity. It got huge natural stone walled bathrooms with hot (not only lukewarm) water – always. Hilton as a reference can fuck off. The two Bavarian hosts and its great staff do everything to make you feel great. They even offer various kinds of massages, which I heard are really good, for a price of less than 20 Dollars for 75 minutes. Most meal dishes on the menu card can easily be replaced with Soya. This place was also free of any weed smocking and batik-shirted hippies I had expected in such a relaxed place – and I was a little disappointed about that. And there are lots of hikes to do too. During my whole stay I found perfect nice and funny company in the form of a Danish couple and Sara, a Dutch girl that later shared the joy with me of crossing the border to Peru by night. Only thanks to her pills and care (as I was badly hit by fever and headache) I was able to do it.

Because it is located out of the village in some kind of forest there are of course many animals around, which you can hear, mainly during the night. It has this lodge-kind romance, without really being a lodge. But it was funny, especially during dinner, when the bugs dropped from the roof, one by one, to scare off freaky tourists. A poor little cat strolling around people’s feet was mistaken for a bug sometimes and probably got a few unfair kicks.

It really felt like arriving in paradise! And if you ever come to visit Ecuador, be sure to stop by in Hosteria Izhcayluma in Vilcababamba, unless you cannot bear creepy things. The town itself is famous for its very old habitants. A lot of people easily reach 100 years of age and you can also hear about people from 120 – 135. And although it is pure luxury (oh yes, the Swiss 200 EUR per night Spa resorts could learn a lot from these two Bavarians), the 3 nights / 4days including everything like food, drinks, bar, tips etc. cost me not more than 100 Dollar.

 High speed travelling and Pisco Sour

I know I was very quick on my way from Quito down to Lima. Two reasons: First, I was afraid of getting stuck in one of the many good places as I’ve seen in Ecuador, and second, I didn’t like the north of Peru and I wanted to continue to a place I like, which I think I get to in Arequipa, finally back to the mountains. Who needs beaches anyway?

It only took me two weeks, including my 4 days vacation in Vilcabamba. This is as close to high speed travelling as I can get. Generally, that’s not too bad, with less than 10 days left before I have to be in Cusco, I now have enough time for the wonders of Arequipa.

Anyway, at some point I met two crazy German guys, two backpackers, proud to stay off the beaten track. Their way is leading from Quito to Rio de Janeiro. Well, mine too. Maybe instead of Rio it will be Buenos Aires, but who knows that, almost half a year ahead? But they do that in freaky 4 weeks! Of course, they won’t do the loop to Patagonia, but what do they see on their way beside spending so much time on bus-schedule studying?  But from me, they got 10 points in the category of high-speed travelling.

Lima – an epic journey into unconsciousness

Lima is hitting me very hard. While having lunch in a vegetarian restaurant, I ran into a very nice guy from Cusco that showed me the only Amsterdam-style coffee shop in Lima and I got my first Pisco-Sour ever. Man, that drink really wasted me! Well, all things led to another, people left, people came. I ended up spending a bloody fortune on other’s people drinks, feeding a whole poor family I got “invited” to, rushing around party-headed in taxis to Miraflores and back, with the Pisco-Sour kicking in.

Next morning, waking up hung over and recollecting fragments of memories, I reminded myself, why I should not be drinking. But who knew that one Pisco Sour is that deadly…! Also, my beloved sun glasses with the Ironman logo I received few years back in Clearwater are gone as well. I forget them on somebody else’s nose. That night definitely justified my ambitions of Gonzo writing.  I’m glad, there were no pictures, no addresses, no names, nada…

Culture

Yes, that’s right; my cultural and sight-seeing activities in cities were bound to a minimum. Of course I went to see some pre-Inca ruins up in Chiclayo and cruised the cities by my own, but to be honest: those things are far less breath-taking than the green landscapes in Ecuador. For me as an architectural low life and as I don’t like churches and religion, the cities have not much more to offer. Maybe, another reason, why I didn’t come to like Peru so far: religion, in combination with bad cuisine (don’t they eat anything else but chicken?) is killing me. I’ll leave the joy of writing about the life of a vegetarian in South America for later.

Something personal – A writer’s block

Maybe it was my sickness, or maybe the lack of extraordinary experiences that are worth filling a whole entry with. But I made a couple of attempts writing this blog, before ending up like this. Since I demand from myself some minimum standards of quality and entertainment potential I realized soon, that my previous attempts were rubbish.

I just have read through several essays that approached the issue of writer’s block: some shorties by T.C. Boyle and an introduction to Jack Kerouac’s “On The Road”, which is maybe the perfect choice to read while actually being “on the road”.

Climbing Cotopaxi (5897meter) and bye bye Quito

Climbing Cotopaxi

 

 

Introduction

 

In my last entry I announced a further big highlight of my travel. To climb the volcano Cotopaxi was originally not on my itinerary, but I decided to skip the 2 weeks of Spanish lessons in Cuenca for several reasons:

1) At the moment I think it’s better to practice my Spanish while travelling instead of school, as they focus on grammar. But I lack mainly of vocabulary, not of grammar. In order to learn more words, I just have to speak a lot and use it, which I am trying to do.

2) There is so much to do here in Ecuador and the planned time until I have to be in Cusco, Peru (a trip to the jungle starts November 20^th ) is quite tight if I want to see all those places in between I have in mind. I may have to skip one place or another, but others are added on recommendations of people I met.

 

The idea of climbing Cotopaxi is not new, but I didn’t really think it would be possible without having experience in climbing glaciers. Sandro, a Swiss fellow I met in my school in Quito has climbed it and told me about it and showed me his amazing pictures. He told me that climbing Cotopaxi is not so technical. That was the point of decision to climb Cotopaxi.

 

Acclimatisation

 

Right after my return from Galapagos on Sunday I started preparation for the big day. I strolled through tour operator offices on Monday, until I found one that was willing to organize things for me. Although in the beginning it was planned to have a small group it soon turned out I am the only one. I liked this idea, because that would give me the possibility to go always my own speed and will not be hold back by less trained climbers. At Galapagos I met a Swiss guy, a triathlete like me, who in spite of good acclimatisation had to return at 5100 meter because of headache caused by altitude sickness So I didn’t want to be hold back because someone couldn’t deal with the altitude, or in case, it was me, I didn’t want to hold back anyone.

 

On Tuesday, after we fixed the conditions for climbing Cotopaxi on Sunday, I decided to actively support my acclimatisation. Previously I spent 2 weeks in Quito on 2800 meter. But then I went for 8 days to Galapagos at sea level. How much did this destroy my acclimatisation? So my idea was to sleep at the refugio up at volcano Pichincha just above Quito at 4500 meter. But everyone I spoke to told me, it is not possible to sleep there and hiking there alone would be to dangerous as there were reports of robberies and rapes. Although I didn’t really believe it would be impossible I had to drop this idea and went to Papallacta instead, the highest village in Ecuador at 3300 meter. Not much higher for acclimation purposes, but it was a possibility to flee from Quito to see something else and hike around on higher altitudes.

 

So I arrived in Papallacta, 2 hours south of Quito, late Tuesday afternoon. Papallacta has 1300 habitants only and is famous for its thermal water. A lot of people from Quito go there for the weekends, but during the week it is very lonely. I think there were only about 2 more people in the hostal I checked in. The hostal was simple, without heating and there was no internet around, but it had its own thermal pool which I tried out the same evening. Because there was nothing much to do afterwards, I was happy I brought my computer, so I could watch “The third man”, a black and white movie I had saved on my disk.

 

The next day I hiked up to Cayambe-Coca national park to see the lakes. It was an easy 6 hours return hike up to a level of about 3900 meter. That night I entertained myself with Bruce Springsteen, live in Dublin 2007 (thank you Michelli for all those videos! Hope to see you soon!). On Thursday morning I returned to Quito.

 

I was picked up at my hostal in Quito at 5.30 am on Friday morning to get to El Chaupi, a small town between the national parks of Cotopaxi and Los Ilinizas. Bladimir, my driver drove me to his hostal where I took breakfast and met my guide for today, Jaime. He was to take me up to the north peak of Iliniza at 5225 meter for acclimatisation. We drove up to the parking at about 4100 meter and started to hike up to the refugio at 4700 meter. He went ahead of me with a high speed and soon I felt sweaty whereas I couldn’t detect any sweat on his face. It was pretty fast but also on cycling trainings back home I do in groups with very strong riders, I am very rarely the one that asks for lower speed. I tell myself when the speed goes crazy, ok, one minute more, and then one more etc. And mostly it’s someone else that falls back and asks for lower speed. Anyway, it took us 1 hour 15 minutes to get to the refugio. Jaime, who was not fluent in English, so we spoke mostly in Spanish, said normally it takes him with tourists more than 2 hours, sometimes 3 hours. It was fast, but I felt fine. After the refugio the rock climbing part started and we worked ourselves up in one hour to the peak. So we did in less than 2,5 hours what people normally have about 4 -5 hours. Everything without problems. The only bad thing was that there were too many clouds and the view was poor. But I was happy, as this 5225 meter was the highest point I’ve ever been to.

 

I am really bad when it comes to track down the mountains and I sometimes fall behind people that do not any sports at all. The way down was very sandy and I struggled a lot until Jaime showed me a technique of sliding down. Then it was almost like skiing and we were pretty fast. The afternoon was to relax. I am glad I met a German / Polish couple to shorten the time a bit. They were to climb Iliniza the next day, getting up at 4 am.

 

Ah yes, for me the climb of Iliniza was for acclimatisation, but Jaime was about to participate in a two stage mountain bike race on Saturday and Sunday. I would never climb up a mountain one day before a race, but he said it’s fine. The appointment with my guide for Cotopaxi was set at about 1 pm Saturday, so I had all Saturday morning for doing nothing. Luckily, the start of the mountain bike race was just vis-à-vis the hostal so I spend the time walking around the sporting village and watch the athletes preparing. It made me miss my competitions.

 

Suddenly, just outside my hostal, Evelyne, Tamami and Mai, three girls that were at the same school in Quito passed by horse riding. What a surprise!!! And how small is Ecuador! (Actually I met at the bus station in Papallacta the Swiss triathlete again I met at Galapagos.)

 

Climbing Cotopaxi

 

Later on, when my guide Diego arrived, we took lunch and drove up to the parking lot below the refugio of Cotopaxi at 4800 meter. The climb to the refugio took us about 45 minutes. The refugio was really basic and besides a small kitchen and a big room with matrices, there was nothing. And the rooms were not heated as well. There were about 25 people in there. Most of them were to climb Cotopaxi that night. All of those people looked well equipped and professional, whereas I only had some rented equipment and I didn’t have any idea how to use it. Furthermore, it turned out I should have brought my sleeping bag. At the travel agency, we made a list of all things I have to bring and I could not rent, you know, batteries, warm clothes, toiletries, inner gloves etc. No word about a sleeping bag, so I reckoned, there would be sheets. But no: plain beds! Ok, the night would be very short anyway and I would just put on the climbing clothes.

 

We went to bed at about 7 pm, as we settled our wake up time to be 30 minutes after midnight. I couldn’t sleep anytime soon and the temperature was close to the edge of freezing. After half an hour I put on my climbing boots as my feet were bloody cold. I continued trying to sleep. At 10 pm I knew it was going to be a very short sleep. At 11 pm the first people started to get up and prepared for the climb and I gave up sleeping. I only waited for us to get up. Diego knew, I should be fast, so we were about the last ones to get up and there was only a group of 3 people that left the refugio a few minutes after us at 1.30 am.

 

To start hiking in the dark with all those flashlights of the people ahead us was something I have read about a lot in books about climbing Mount Everest. It was so thrilling to me that now I could see this magical scenery with my very own eyes! It was beautiful: the few moving flashlights above, and the lights of Quito in the distance below us. I then knew there would be perfect conditions!

 

After half an hour we entered the ice and I put on the crampons and took the ice axe. Diego went ahead, and me about 3 meters back at the other end of the rope. He told me we would go slow but steady. It was a perfect pace, not tiring at all. As we overtook other climbers I caught fragments of conversation about one guy has probably to return because of headache. We didn’t do many stops, and if, only for about 3 minutes. We didn’t talk a lot either. It took a lot of concentration for not falling into ice wholes. But the climbing was more or less easy. With the crampons it’s just walking up. Sometimes, when we stopped, or I came to close to Diego and I had to wait 1 or 2 steps, I noticed how very steep the area was we were climbing through. Maybe it was good I couldn’t see too much. I said to myself: “Just keep on going, don’t think.” Diego asked me a couple of times how I was, and I always answered with very well. With the exception of my stomach feeling a little funny at the beginning, I felt perfect.

 

At about 4 am we realized that we passed all other groups and we were going to be the first ones on the peak. Getting closer to the peak, there were a couple of difficult and dangerous passages, which I all coped with no help of Diego. The first light of the day started to brighten up the mountain and we saw that there were almost no clouds.

 

We reached the peak as first group at 5897 meter after 4 hours 15 minutes at 5.45 am, the perfect time to see the sun rise. This was one of the best moments of my life, similar to the one finishing the Inferno Triathlon! No way to describe this.

 

We took a couple of pictures, enjoyed the amazing view and ate some chips and chocolate until we started to climb down at 6.10 am. It was very cold up there, I almost froze my fingers off, when replacing the batteries of my camera, which I couldn’t do with the gloves on.

 

After about 5 minutes of climbing down we crossed the second group. Within about 5 minutes more we crossed all about 15 people that were going to reach the peak that day. So there must have been a few that returned.

 

Again, going down is not my preferred field and this time I fell a lot and it was probably good, that I was still on Diego’s rope. Also my feet began to hurt as I was struggling to walk properly. One time we sat down for a while, just for enjoying the view.

 

We reached the refugio at 7.45 am, where we picked up the few things we left behind and after a small snack we left the refugio at 8.30 am, a time, on which the day for many people is about to start. After that, I started to feel that I haven’t slept a wink and I took a little nap on the way back to El Chaupi, where Jaime just finished his second stage of the mountain biking race.

 

Diego told me, with a strength like mine, I would be fit enough to climb the volcano Chimbarazo, which is technically more difficult than Cotopaxi. But for the moment I had enough and said, I might be climbing other mountains later on in my travel, but now, I got to move on or I’ll never get to Cusco by November 20^th.

 

 

Bye bye Quito

 

I arrived back in Quito, checked in once more at Casa Canela, where they know me pretty well by now. I soon found out, somehow I was finished with Quito. Though I met many great people and I experienced so much in Quito and around, I knew now, it’s time to move on as in Quito itself, there is not much to do once you’ve seen the things you wanted to and I felt a little strange about it. Luckily I met up with Tamami and Mai for the evening and they cheered me up a lot and I decided, this is the right moment to move on, saying goodbye to them and all those places I loved in Quito. It meant, I was not going to see anymore my host family and some students I would have liked to meet again, which I had in mind doing it. But farewell is something very common in travelling. I have done it so much and it always hurts. But there is always something new coming up which makes it worth to go on. Next stop: Baños.

 

Pictures to climbing Cotopaxi

 

Galapagos Islands

To be honest, I have no idea how it should be at least slightly possible to justify the immense beauty and surrealistic live on Galapagos Islands within a modest essay. The nearness of wildlife animals as well as the rough volcanic landscape on this relatively new archipelago is so absolutely stunning and out of the ordinary, words can only lack of meaning. Also pictures can’t justify reality. Maybe even my mind won’t be able to catch this for a long while. Since I am not particularly interested in anything special but in the total experience of nature with least possible impact by humans, the destroyer of our planet, I couldn’t always follow the great explanations of our guide Franklin, a native Galapagos habitant. In fact, to me it doesn’t matter too much if I’m confronted with a red or blue footed booby, a Nazca booby or any other bird. What thrills me much more is simply the fact, they are here, right beside me, so numerous and all over the place that I have to watch my steps in order not to step on them or their nests.

 

Maybe the most important fact about Galapagos is, that the animals here never experienced human as enemies because beside the introduction of foreign species in earlier times, humans did the most possible to remain wildlife as they found it. The way the animals look at humans varies from welcomed playmates over ignoring them to feeling disturbed by them, but they are never afraid. Isn’t that the way it should be everywhere? Even a lot of the animals seem like having agreed on something like a peace contract. They depend on each other. For example some birds are specialised in eating the placenta after a new born sea lion has arrived or they eat babies that were born dead or died because the mother never came back from fishing. Other species are served well when sea lions or other animals leave their shit behind. So every animal has its job and overall nothing is wasted and the nature is kept clean. Nature can be cruel, but it is constantly forming itself to a perfect balance between threat and protection. If only humans didn’t step into this…

 

To go to Galapagos cost a lot of money. It’s been at least so far the most expensive week of my life, but it was worth it! On one hand the high cost keeps the junk food eating and thoughtless waste producing backpackers away that always follow Lonely Planets suggestion of saving another dollar on food while spending it on parties. On the other hand, the lectures that can be learned here could put people that still think they are on the top of living species to a more respectful view towards nature and make them realize, what an insignificant piece of shit they are compared to the wonders of live. But I doubt it would help. In my travel group I got the feeling I was regarded as a little bit strange because I’m a vegetarian; the only one in the group. I explained my point of view trying to be not judging on them. But somehow they didn’t seem to realize the conflict between loving animals with their natural way of living (and they all love animals, otherwise they wouldn’t pay a fortune to see this all) and the unnatural production of the meat they’re consuming. How can you snorkel around and be fascinated by the immense variety of colourful fish, turtles, sharks, stingrays and whatever it is that swims below, and accept and support the damage caused by mass fishing when eating a fish the very same day for dinner?

 

The archipelago contains about 20 isles and almost 70 small isles and rocks. Most of them form a unique world of live and endemic animals. To read more about the significance of Galapagos Islands within researches that has Charles Darwin brought to the theory of evolution, please look it up at wikipedia.

 

A trip to Galapagos is about visiting different islands in the archipelago. To do this, you need a boat. Since distances are quite long between islands (sometimes a sail takes the whole night) and you sort of live on the boat for the length of the stay, the quality of the boat and its crew is of importance. I boarded on the Swiss owned “Angelito” which my local Globetrotter agent highly recommended. And it really was a great boat and an outstanding crew! Though it is not a luxury boat and cabins are just big enough for baggage and a bed, it has everything you need for a good trip and the crew does everything to make you feel very well. This includes a little snack after every land- or snorkel trip, fresh towels, free café and water 24 hours, 3 meals a day, warm water (I mention this because I had loads of cold showers in Quito, and you know how I hate being cold), electricity, equipment for everything you may need and a crew including a guide that is available more or less 24 hours a day. But if you need internet, forget it; you’re away from civilisation for a while.

 

The only thing the crew cannot do anything about is seasickness. I had no problems with it and there was no need for taking pills. Half the people had some troubles the first day. I felt very sorry for a girl on the boat that had to leave us after 5 days because she could not sleep in the cabin, threw up on rough sails and could not even eat with the group. So before you book a trip on a boat, please make sure your body can deal with this, otherwise the experience of Galapagos is badly impacted.

 

Our group contained 16 people for the first 5 days and 8 people until the 8^th day. Comparing our group with others we met, we considered ourselves really lucky, because with the exception of two elderly Ecuadorians, all of us were between 25 and 35 years old and everybody was keen to walk, climb rocks, duck trough tunnels and jump on boats quickly. A very uncomplicated group. We saw groups of higher ages and we imagined everything taking a little longer.

 

During my 8 days I could enjoy so many really cool things and I witnessed many funny animal situations. I leave it here up to a few highlights:

 

Already on our first snorkelling trip a sea lion joined us for swimming with us. That guy seemed to have much fun with us and swam around us, dived with us and showed us his swimming ability. As soon as we went out the water he followed us. Swimming without us was probably boring to him.

 

While sitting on a beach and enjoying the sun and looking at the sea lions and Iguanas lying on the beach, we became part of the social life of sea lions. They just came to lie in the middle of us and they walked over our towels and bags. We were just a part of the group of animals resting on a beautiful white sandy beach.

 

While snorkelling we had a few sharks below us. There is no need to fear them, they normally don’t attack humans, and our guide said they are vegetarian…

 

The turtles we snorkelled with were not really active with us, so I preferred the giant turtles on land in a forest who were not bothered by people looking at them eating.

 

And of course there was the albatross. This bird has a wingspan of almost three meters. It needs a runway to land, almost like a plane.

 

We saw hundreds of Iguanas resting on land. Mostly they are black and camouflaged perfectly to the many volcanic rocks on the way. So we had to watch every step, because sometimes they only became visible the very last moment before we stepped on them.

 

A Nazca booby was standing on our path and tried to pick everybody passing by. So we had to throw little stones in front of him in order to occupy its attention, so somebody could sneak through behind. This little incident took 5 of us more than 5 minutes.

 

The Galapagos Islands: A first very big highlight of my great travel is history. A week full of wonders and beauty I will always remember! But the next big highlight is coming up, but I don’t tell you yet what it will be. It is something that was not on my original plan.

 

Pictures can be found here: https://kunzegoeslatin.wordpress.com/pictures-galapagos/

Soccer and sports

A little delayed, but here is the report about a soccer game 10 days ago:

Sport is in Ecuador a big thing. As you know, so it is for me. In order for me not to drop all of my previous good shape, I do not only walk a lot around in the city, I also did a couple of running trainings to and in La Carolina Park. But normally not longer than 50 minutes which is compared to my work outs at home considerably short. But running on 2800 meter is different. Maybe it’s the air pollution (you should see the buses: they produce thick black clouds and the following cars become invisible for a few seconds), the altitude, my weakened shape or eventually a combination of it all. I even did a couple of sprints of which I do at home normally 8 x 15 seconds, this, after a 8 x 1000m interval. Here I did no interval before and I had to stop on the third sprint because I just could not continue. Well, enough about my training methods. I only intended to emphasize that La Carolina Park is full of runners, volleyballplayers, basketballplayers, walkers and of course soccer players.

 

With soccer being here such a big thing, and our school being so close to a stadium, and Venezuela’s national team visiting Ecuador in this stadium for South America’s qualification round for the world cup 2014 in Brazil, it was soon clear a big part of the school would go to see this game. So my last school day on Friday was cancelled as we all went to the stadium before noon while the kick off was scheduled at 4 pm. A lot of time to wait in the stadium, exposed to a hard burning sun. And to get drunk too. But we didn’t. When I saw the massive crowd before the toilet at half time, I knew why I didn’t feel like drinking too much.

 

Ecuador started very well and made it to a couple of great chances in the first 10 minutes which all were not used. But after 20 minutes we had a goal from Ecuador, a brawl about 10 meters beside me which the police had to stop and a little harmless dog that walked into the playfield and had to be carried out (in an disproportionate violent way to which the spectators to my joy immediately replied with a loud “hijo de puta!”). So although the game was getting boring, there was enough entertainment going on.

 

The game ended with a 2:0 win of Ecuador which we went to celebrate at the Mariscal, the going out barrio of Quito.

Postscript Security

I have to make an amendment to my last blog regarding thieves trying to rob people. After my own experience I could enjoy the following story of a girl from Thailand at my school: She was carrying a bag on her back when a thief wanted to get possession of that bag. Well trained in martial arts as she is, she turned round and placed her fist in the middle of that guys face. He tumbled down with a fair amount of blood on this nose. That must have been a sight! She showed us her swollen and blue fist… so watch out, ladrones of Quito! Spanish students are no easy targets