The Big Trip

Yesterday we arrived in Cuzco, the heart of the once-mighty Inca-Empire, after an extremely long journey of about 36 hours. The first part from Huaráz to Lima took us 8 hours by bus. In Lima we had to wait 8 hours for the next bus from Lima to Cuzco. Taking advantage of the hours in between, we went to the Larcomar Shopping Mall in Miraflores, a nice area in Lima. The Shopping Mall lies directly at the Pacific coast and has lots of fancy stores and restaurants. That was the right thing for us after three days of base camp and living in a tent in the mountains. We went to “Mangos” where they had a delicious breakfast buffet for us. They had everything from fruits and waffles, over egg and meat dishes, to delicious desserts such as strawberries covered with chocolate and little pastries!!! After breakfast we strolled through the stores and from the mall’s balcony we watched the surfers in the Pacific Ocean trying to master the braking waves. The climate was so-so but quite typical for the season as we found out in our travelers bible, Lonely Planet. It says, from April to December, a melancholy coastal fog (garúa as the Peruvians say) blankets the city’s skyline and so it was.

At 14:00 we carried on our journey toward Cuzco. 20 hours later we arrived somewhat exhausted but not too bad thanks to the “Cruz del Sur” busses, luxury class, with padded, leather seats, blankets, DVDs and airplane type food.

Yesterday we spent some time in the afternoon to get our visit to Machu Picchu, the world-famous “Lost City of the Inca”, sorted out. Of course, you can do the Inca Trail to get there but you have to book the trail months in advance (depending on the season) to make it happen. Since we didn’t book anything in advance (we like to stay flexible), there is no chance to do the Inca Trail. Sincerely, after the Pisco climb we were not too interested in doing it anyway and we got quite discouraged hearing what a touristy thing it is to do. So, we asked around what would be the easiest and cheapest way to get to the Lost-Inca-City. It didn’t take too long before we knew what to do. We bought the train return ticket from Ollantaytambo to Aguas Calientes, the bus ticket from Aguas Calientes to Machu Picchu and the entrance ticket to Machu Picchu the same afternoon in Cuzco. To Ollantaytambo we will take a bus from Cuzco. On our way there we will visit some Inca-Sites of the Sacred Valley or “El Valle Sagrado”, such as Pisac and Ollantaytambo itself. Tomorrow morning we will set off and will be in Aguas Calientes at night. The morning after we will take the earliest bus (5.30) to Machu Picchu to get there before all the masses of tourist groups will do. We’ll see if we succeed.

Some words about Cuzco. It is definitely touristy but ok if you can bear hearing people offering you pizza, Mexican food, any food, pisco sour, tours to Machu Picchu, any other tours, postcards, watercolor paintings, massages, pedicure, manicure, cocaine, mate de coca etc ALL THE TIME. It is also quite expensive in particular the entrances to the historical sites, churches, Inca sites etc.

We have decided not to spend too much time in Cuzco since we prefer less touristy places. But Machu Picchu is a must see and can’t be missed on a Peru visit.

You’ll hear more from us and the Inca site visits including Machu Picchu in a few days.

Lots of love,

Sabrina and Fredrik

That was really something...

We left Huaráz early Thursday morning. We travelled about 2 hours before we reached the starting point of the hike, at an altitude of 3900 m. The group consisted of Fredrik, Sabrina, Emily (from Australia), the guide Americo and the porter/cook Roger. The plan was to hike to the location of our base camp at 4700 m and set up camp there for the night. It was relatively cloudy and we were a bit concerned about the weather predictions for our climb to the top the next day. A man with two donkeys transported the equipment and the food.

As we reached the site of the base camp it started to snow. It wasn’t too bad, it was just a little. We set camp and Roger prepared some tea, crackers and soup with rice. Fredrik was already feeling the altitude and had a headache and was feeling pretty nauseous. Already at 4700 m. Great. We went to bed at about 7 pm and got up already at 1 am in order to start walking. We slept probably no more than an hour in total but in the morning Fredrik was feeling better again. Sabrina felt so-so, but we had a small breakfast and went on our way.

With headlamps we trekked through stony terrain and reached the edge of the glacier when the sun started to rise, i.e. about 6 or 6.30 am. As soon as we stopped, Fredrik was sick and said goodbye to his breakfast. We put on the crampons, tied ourselves together with a rope and grabbed the ice-axes. It was already a mighty sight to see the sun rise over the snow capped mountains.

Slowly, slowly we started moving upwards. We had to keep the rope tight, but at the same time not too tight as to not hinder the person in front. At the same time we should breathe, something that would prove to be the hardest part. Damn, that was tough! Fredrik felt constantly sick and Sabrina was exhausted.

Hour after hour we fought on. Emily was so cold she didn’t know what to do and Americo had to do the trick with the armpits you know (warming her fingers in his armpits) and when the sun came out it was all right.

It was an indescribable walk over the glacier. We stopped and rested a couple of minutes every half hour or so and then we kept going and so on. We were ready to give up on several occasions but kept on going.

After a total of 9 and a half hours of hiking we reached the summit at 5752 m. Fredrik was sick one last time and immediately felt better. The view was amazing!! We stayed for about 20 minutes, took photos and enjoyed the sunshine. Wooao, incredible!! Once we started our descent our strength started to return. Now we just had to go back as far as we had come!

Downhill was definitely easier and we returned to the base camp at 4 pm, after 14 hours of tough hiking with only short breaks, hardly anything to eat and far too little to drink. But what happiness to be back!!!

We took it easy for a while, everybody was pretty exhausted. We had soup, rice and fried eggs. The night was clear and we could see the constellation "the southern cross", which is only visible in the southern hemisphere. It was cold, but we fell asleep straight away after having put out the lights, at about 7 pm.

The following day the weather was great and we packed everything together and started our walk back. We saw our first Condor!

All in all it was pretty tough. It was incredibly beautiful and feels great having done it. Next time we will make sure to be better acclimatized to the altitude and to do a couple of shorter hikes/lower peaks before though.

Tonight we start our marathon buss ride to Cusco (Machu Picchu). The coming two nights we will spend on busses. Hold your fingers crossed that nothing happens. We just read in the latest edition of Lonely Planet that they warn about bus robberies, roadblocks and assaults!!!

Take care,

Fredrik and Sabrina

We had anticipated the weather to be something like in Quito but maybe even a bit colder. After all Huaráz is situated a bit higher up in the mountains and further south from the ecuator compared to Quito. However the weather here has been incredible. Very sunny and warm during the day with clear blue skies. Of course its cold at night but we had expected it to be worse. It kind of reminds us about being in the Alps, only higher up.

To save some time we decided to go directly from Máncora to Huaráz, a trip that took us 24 hours by bus. It was pretty tough, but with so little time and so much to see, what do you do? The first bus took the prize, they showed no less than 3 Steven Seagal movies. Volume blazing. The TV was just over us so we could see it if we bent our heads as far back as we possibly could. Then when they were finnished they showed all three movies AGAIN!!! The torture stopped around 01.00 am....pfff....
The second bus was through "Cañon del Pato" a dramatic canyon with amazing scenery, ravines, landslides, tunnels and we went on a small winding "trail" with hundreds of meters down on the side. On the left hand side we had the "Cordillera Blanca" or the white mountainchain, with its snowcapped tops, and on the right hand side we had the "Cordillera Negra" the black mountainchain with its impressive dark tops looking through the clouds. SPECTACULAR!!!

We have now rested a bit, slept a night in a nice and cozy bed and tried the local remedy for altitude sickness; "Te de Coca". We also had some juice with ginger (supposedly a good Ecuadorian remedy against altitude sickness). Tomorrow we will take it easy, and possibly do a small excursion or something, to prepare ourselves for the big adventure that we have booked for the day after tomorrow.
We are doing a three day expedition to climb the peak of the mountain Pisco (5751m)!!!

More info comming shortly!!!

Love,

Fredrik and Sabrina

The countdown is running, we have only 3 weeks left before flying back to Europe, first to Spain to stay two nights in Barcelona and then going to Sweden. Before that we have (we want) to see a whole country, Peru. Yesterday we arrived at Máncora, a small coastal village at the northern Pacific coast of Peru. It is quite a contrast to the Andean highlands of Ecuador (Cuenca) where we were just yesterday in the morning. The ride down the mountains towards the coast was stunning with enormous changes in vegetation and climate. Also the passage from the Ecuadorian/Peruvian border south to Móncora was beautiful. For about 2 hours we could see the Pacific Ocean to the right and sand covered hills with some low bushes to the left. The landscape is quite different to what we have seen so far on our 5 months of travelling.

Since we are running out of time, the visit to Máncora will only be a short one. Today we have spent some time at the beach, walking around and then reading. In the afternoon we will carry on our journey to Chimbote which is further south, right at the coast and about 13 hours from here. From there we will take another bus to Huaraz (10 hours), at 3091 m altitude, where we pretend to do some “serious” mountain hiking in the Cordillera Blanca.

We will let you know in a few days how we are doing.

Lots of love,

Sabrina and Fredrik

Hallo Leute,

wir sind heute in Cuenca angekommen, der drittgrössten Stadt Ecuadors, doch eigentlich sind wir nur auf der Durchreise, denn morgen geht es schon weiter in Richtung Peru.

Wir haben uns aber doch etwas Zeit genommen und uns die Stadt ein wenig angeguckt. Sicherlich nicht unerwartet, Cuenca ist eine Stadt mit vielen Kirchen, schönen Kolonialbauten, hübschen Marktplätzen, netten Cafes und Restaurants, vielen Einkaufsmöglichkeiten, besonders Handwerk und interessantes Leuten, eine Mischung aus Mestizen und Urbevölkerung. Ceunca ist schlichtweg ein nettes Pflaster!!!!

In der Nähe (2 Stunden von hier) gibt es auch Ecuadors besterhaltensten Inca-Ruinen, Ingapirca, die wir uns allerdings aus Mangel an Zeit nicht anschauen. Die Umgebung soll auch super zum Wandern sein, z. B. der Nationalpark Cajas wird empfohlen, aber auch das müssen wir uns entgehen lassen.

Wir haben jetzt nur noch 3 Wochen und ein paar Tage bis wir zurück Richtung Europa fliegen und das muss ausreichen, um ganz Peru zu sehen. Mal schauen, ob es uns gelingt.

Ihr hört mehr von uns in Kürze aus Peru.

Liebe Grüsse,

Sabrina und Fredrik