Author: Thorsten

This will be an unsual posting – until we find some more time for an update… As we – hopefully – will leave for Easter Island and some more islands tomorrow morning and the internet connection will at least be a “bit” slower there we decided to already upload/post the selected photos

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Edit: Being on the islands now – to be more exact: on Rapa Nui / Easter Island – we have been busy the last couple of days exploring the island and organizing our onward travels over a VERY slow sattelite connection (which even breaks at times, when it’s raining). We decided to call this our posting for the Salar de Uyuni trip…so read the picture descriptions – and/or invite us for dinner and drinks sometime in January 2010 – to get more infos

Stay tuned for the outstanding postings about San Pedro de Atacama and the Valle de la luna, Santiago and Valparaiso and – last but not least for now – Easter Island!

Uyuni (City)

Continue reading Salar de Uyuni – and beyond…

Being currently in the writing mood – and under a little pressure from my travel partner to finish some blog entries before we hopefully (flight confirmation outstanding ) take off to the islands here come some details of our visit to Potosi in Bolvia.

Once it was one of the richest towns in the world – and one of the largest ones (close second after London at that time) as well *smiley surprised*

Main reason for their wealth being the tremendous silver resources under nearby Cerro Rico – a hill that back in that times was obviously about 300 to 400m higher than it is today…yes, that difference might have mainly to do with the amount of silver extracted from it *smiley surprised*

Another example to illustrate their – once – increddible wealth is the more than 80 *smiley exclamation mark* churches that serve around 150.000 inhabitants of Potosi…and I am not talking about small churches here *smiley winking*

Sightseeing these days is a little tricky…

…as to see the real attraction of Potosi, you need to go underground!

Continue reading A little closer to hell…in Potosi (Bolivia)

Was gibt es über Sucre zusagen? Gemeinhin wird es gerne auch als “die weiße Stadt” bezeichnet…Ihr werdet bei den Fotos sehen, warum Was weniger bekannt ist – und da tue ich jetzt mal was für Eure Allgemeinbildung – es ist auch die konstitutionelle Hauptstadt von Bolivien und Sitz des obersten Gerichtshofs des Landes.

Und was kann man in einer Hauptstadt am besten tun? Richtig: Ausspannen, von den Strapazen der “anderen” Hauptstadt Bolivienes, die wir gerade erst hinter und gelassen hatten – und die uns ja nicht soooooo gut gefallen hat.

Und dafür ist die Stadt wirklich schööööööön Man fühlt sich so ein bisschen wie in Spanien – alles relaxt und entspannend

Continue reading Sucre (Bolivien)

Being already 2 countries further (Bolivia and Chile), we finally found some time to catch up with some blog entries… *smiley winking*

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03:45 in the morning: Did we really agree putting the alarm clock on this time for our visit to Machu Picchu? *smiley surprised* Yes, we did, because we wanted to get 2 of the only 400 tickets a day, that allow you to climb Wayna Picchu (a mountain opposite Machu Picchu).

After only very basic morning hygene we found ourselves in rushed search for the bus terminal – thanks to Lonely Planet we did not check the evening before… and of course its not anymore where Lonely Planet described it. All this just to discover how many other travellers were obviously following the same plan – arriving at the bus terminal arround 04:15 am, we lined up approximately 50m from the beginning of the line. *smiley surprised*

Luckily some street vendors and one shop saw the opportunity for some early morning business and we got some coffee and sandwiches that filled the waiting time until the first busses around 05:30 am. By that time the line up of people had reached easily the 500m mark and first discussions about people trying to squeeze into the line up had begun. (6)

Finally we went into the 4th bus that day leaving only shortly after 05:30 am, just to find us lined up (or this time better bulked up) in another waiting line on top of the mountain waiting for the opening of the gates…

As there must have been quite a number of people climbing up the mountain by foot in the dark, the crowds eagerly waiting to get tickets for Wayna Picchu had increased dramatically by the time the guards opened the gates…

Time for morning sports in the dawn – sunset seemed still quite some time away: A run over the whole complex of Machu Picchu to the other end, where the ticket box for Wayna Picchu is located. How to imagine that (as we have no pictures)? Have you ever seen the start of a marathon…just like that, except, that you and most others have no clue which way to go…

Continue reading Machu Picchu

Was kommt Menschen zu erst in den Sinn, wenn es um Peru geht…richtig: Die sagenumwobene “verlorene Stadt” der Inkas – Machu Picchu! Und dementsprechend auch eines der Highlights unserer Reise

Cuzco

Startpunkt für alle Exkursionen zur verlorenen Stadt – und in das Heilige Tal – ist Cuzco, wo wir nach einer endlos langen Fahrt im Nachtbus von Arequipa ankamen und den Tag erst mal mit einem Gourmetfrühstück in einer Bäckerei / Tapasbar / Restaurant begonnen haben…

Der Hauptplatz von Cuzco – Plaza Armas – ist sehr schön, allein dieser Platz hat 4 *smiley exclamation mark* Kirchen, die Spanier haben dort für unseren Geschmack etwas zu fleissig gebaut (und viele Inka Mauern und Gebäude dafür abgerissen). Auch die atemberaubenden Gold- und Silberschätze der Inkas wurden von den Spaniern eingeschmolzen und zu Heiligenfiguren umgegossen…

Ein Schock für uns nach Ecuador und dem Norden von Peru waren die Preise und Touristen: Die ganze Stadt ist touristisch massiv überlaufen, was dazu führt, dass man alle paar Meter was zum Kaufen angeboten bekommt (“My friend…restaurant”, “Hey Mister! Tour to Machu Picchu tomorrow!”, “Lady! Inka Massage”…auch Alpaca Ponchos, Laundry, Cocktails, Inka Art, Bus Tickets, “Real” Silver, Mountainbikes, Picutures with Llama und vieles mehr hätten wir erstehen können und von wie vielen Leuten wir plötzlich “Friends” und “Amigos” waren… *kopfschüttel*)

Continue reading Cuzco und das Heilige Tal

Long overdue – as we are already some 1000 km further south in Bolivia now – we finally managed to put together our experiences in Lima:

How can you characterize a city with over 7 mn inhabitants – right, you can’t, because it’s too different in itself. Through the days we spent there we only saw a snapshot of some of the city, e.g. the district of Miraflores where our hostal was and the city center.

Overall we liked Lima, especially for it’s nice cafes in Miraflores and the especially good food in one of Perus most famous restaurants (Iris might write a special about dining in the most expensive places available… ), but that said, it’s more a place we can imagine to live rather than something for sightseeing/travel as the city is BIG and the sights are well spread across…

Special thanks of this edition goes to Alejandro, who was giving us really good tips for THE locations (and restaurants) to go in Lima *smiley smiling*

Old city – Sightseeing

Lima still contains some really nice collonial houses, especially around the Plaza de Armas (nearly all cities in Latin America have a place called like that, comparable to the German “Hauptstrasse” in every town).

Continue reading Lima

Where is Nazca? And why “stranded”?

Well, first of all Nazca is in the desert – miles and miles of sand, nothing else around!

Second reason, there was no seats in the bus available the day we wanted to continue…and as taking the night bus was not recommended, we decided to stay one day longer in Nazca.

So we ended up in a desert city having a lot more time than planned…

Nazca lines – huge messages from the past

Well, first of all Iris discovered, that Nazca is famous for something else, than the ancient lines in the dessert…guess what?

And after a nice brunch in the sun, we catched our flight over the famous Nazca lines. Some small history lesson: Well, it’s not really known who produced the line and why…just imagine a ancient civilization producing pictures in the sand, they could not even see themselves, unless they knew how to fly – which is more unlikely. However they produced various surprisingly perfect pictures, symbols and lines in the sand, so lets just see their masterpieces…

Continue reading Stranded in Nazca