Peru
Now we have been in Peru for a little over a week, and a lot has happened! We started out from Copenhagen to Madrid on Friday the 28. June, but when we arrived at the airport, the plane was overbooked, and some people had to be taken off. And that had to include the four of us, unfortunately, so we waved goodbye to our friends Anne Mette, Jacob, Thomas and Sofie. After a prolonged route via London, we once again met them at Madrid airport. So luckily we reached the night-flight to Lima.

In the morning of Saturday 29. June, we landed at Lima Airport. But – our luggage did not! So once again we had to talk to the personel from the airport service and fill out forms. They insisted that the luggage would arrive the next day in Cusco, to where we were leaving 2 hours later. So we flew to Cusco in the firm belief that everything would be taken care of.

In Cusco we were picked up by a driver, who took us to a very nice, small guesthouse, clean and with a cozy backyard with a lot of flowers. We were now at 3400 m above sealevel, and the air was very dry. So during the day most of us suffered from a little bit of headache and noseproblems. But not as much as we had expected in beforehand.

Ken and I had to go buy some clothes because of our missing luggage. It gets very cold at night in the Andes, and we didn’t have our jackets or any other warm clothes. The boys were getting tired, as the time in our bodies were 23.00 when it was 16.00 in Cusco.

The next day, Sunday, our luggage didn’t arrive – so we hung on the phone for a long time, with no luck. The next morning we were going to go on a hike on the Inka Trail, an event , we had been planning for more than half a year. Now we had a day to get all the stuff needed for this hike, in a town where it was not easy to get equipped. Well, we did what we could – the biggest problems were Christian and Ken – it seems that children and men in adult-size do not go on hike!!!

On the morning of 1. July we were picked up by Raoul, our guide on the hike. He was a very nice guy of 28, with a wide knowledge regarding Inka-history and –culture, religion, Peruvian society, fauna and flora of the Andes. After this hike we have learned a lot! And the hike it self – a four day walk, with climbs from 2400 m to 4200 m and down again, on steep steps, not easy accessible trails, in a weather shifting from sunshine to rain and temperatures from 3-4 degrees during the night and mornings and 15-20 degrees during the day. It was a fantastic trip, at times very hard, but with wonderfully beautiful sceneries and views, a very varied landscape and nature, from dry and flat pampa to rainforest with hummingbirds, orchids, bamboo, begonias, fuchsia, eucalyptus and other spectacular plants. At night we slept in tents, waking up very early with views over the mountains, clouds lying beneath us. Marvelous. On the way we visited many Inka-sites, where Raoul explained the use and history of the Inkas. It has been a very special society during the 14. century. On the morning of the 4. of July, we got up very early, 3.30, tracking in the dark wearing our headlights. Right after sunrise we reached the Inti Punko, the sun gate, where we got the first sight of Machu Picchu – the holy, forgotten city. And what a sight! It is so well preserved that you could almost sense how the inkas had their daily life here, in a total pact between nature, religion and power. They were a spiritual people praising the sun, the mother earth (Pacha Mama), the heavens and the surrounding mountains. On top of that they understood how to grow a wide variety of corn, quinoa, potatoes, beans, fruits and so on.

We had company from 12 porters, who formally ran with huge backpacs in order to serve us with breakfast, lunch and dinner every day. We spent some time swallowing our pride as rich “gringos” from Europe, and I am sure that the Danish health- and safety authorities immediately would have stopped their work… L . But they did a very good job to make the hike more comfortable for us, and we surely would not have been able to go through with it, had it not been for them. In the morning they brought warm water to us, so that we could be refreshed, and they woke us up with hot coca-tea in the morning. How fit they must have been – Raoul told us that in 2005 a marathon was arranged for the porters, and the winner spent only 3 hours and 37 minutes on the whole distance – it seems almost inhuman seen in the light that we spent almost four days….! The distance is about 46 kilometers, but a lot of the distance is up and down, up and down.

When we arrived in Machu Picchu on the last day, our highest wish was a bath and a real toilet – staying a long way away from civilization, the toilets were not that delicious, to say the least!! So leaving Machu Picchu we were really looking forward to reach our hotel and get clean clothes and a hot bath. But – back at the hotel our luggage was still not arrived, after 5 days! So we were not happy…!

On Friday morning on 5. July Ken and I went to the airport to get things settled. They were very helpful out there, so we went back, again in the firm belief that our luggage would arrive the next day. We had a talk with our insurance company, and there were luckily no problems at all. The rest of 5. July we spent on sightseeing in Cusco – a very charming town, the ancient capital of the Incan community. Cusco means “navel” in quechua, the language of the Incas, and they meant that Cusco was the navel of the world.

We had expected Peru to be much more uncivilized than it is. The infrastructure seems to be working alright, the traffic is wild, but not that wild, a lot of people want to sell us a lot of tourist-stuff, but they are not as persistent as other places in the world, like for instance in Egypt or Vietnam. There is a huge huge gap between rich and poor – the people working with tourist seem to have enough money, having done their teeth and wearing high quality clothing. Whereas the poor spend a whole day trying to sell security-pins or small amounts of self-grown corn, for instance.

The next day, on Saturday 6. July, we got our luggage again! So very nice, and we could relax. So we decided to finally leave Cusco , on a nightbus to Puno, a town situated next to the Titicaca lake. Everything went well; it was a very comfortable bus, with seats that could lie down. The trip lasted 7 hours, and arrived in Puno we went directly on a day-trip to the lake, visiting the Uro-islands and Taquile Island. It was interesting to see how life also can be lived, so totally different in these islands, where the people since many years have developed their own special way of life.

After a long day (and night) we almost dropped dead at the hotel in Puno, where we all slept like babies!

We spent a day walking around in Puno, not at town of specific significance. And at 15.00 we once again sat down in a bus, this time with termination in Areqipa, also known as “The white city”. The guide book tells us that Arequipa is the most beautiful city of Peru, with an average temperature of 25 degrees. So we are looking forward to a few days with relaxation by the pool, reading books and recharging the batteries for further experiences J .