:: reinventing myself ::

ok, it was time for a change.
a little hair cut did the trick.
up till now its a good joke. i just hope i dun start missing the hair after the laughs have died. nways.



iomonk más monje que nunka, jaja

funny story, u know how u say u can watch movies and they don't have any influence? well. last thing i remember was falling asleep watching "Primavera, Verano, Otoño, Invierno y... Primavera". a korean movie about an orphan being raised as a monk by some venerable old master in a floating sort of island/house. the kid rejects the teachings and goes on his own. after commiting a murder he comes back to seek peace. angry at himself he grabs a knife and shaves his own head. he then serves his sentence but returns after it. to find the master dead. and take his place...

nways, what do you know. today i wake up and with no explanation i suddenly feel like getting my head shaven. jajajaja i had totally forgoten about the movie. at least on the conscious level jajaja. i just now made the possible connection with the movie.

well as always i have the photographic records.

THE REST OF THE TRIP

I still have to finish recording the rest of this trip but for now i'll post u this link with the rest of the trips pics in chronological order.

i'll soon be filling in the posts for the rest of august

restOdTrip

last day in cusco

we visited the q'orikancha (however u spell that). its name means something like golden yard. because it was one of the main inca temples. and it was supposedly filled with gold. nways. when the spanish came. they destroyed it and built a "christian" temple on top of it. in an effort to convert the incas. they just got some terrible sincretism going on, jaja.


we also visited many other local museums, walked around had some lunch. and then in the evening went to have some "coffee" (actually desserts, and juice) to el café de mama oli. i totally recomend it. 5 stars people. hmm not sure the name of the plazuela or street. but u can ask around. people will tell u how to get there.


after that they were celebrating some arequipa holiday outside and there was a band playing, and they had built something like a small fireworks show. we waited around to see it. they gave us some stuff to drink and offered us soup. but they took forever to light the thing so we left. we had already bought the bus tickets for puno and left that night at 10pm (i believe, or something like that)

machu picchu

ok, we wanted to climb the huaynapicchu. thing is only 400 people a day can go up.
so we have to go pretty early.
we woke up at 5am, and headed to the bus stop (the buses that take u from the town to the machu picchu citadel).


we got to machu picchu before sunrise, and went to make the line in order to climb el huaynapicchu. we saw the sunrise from there, and after that started to climb.


it is a very "jungly" landscape. yep here some pictures from the top. its machu picchu as seen from the huayna picchu. and also me at the top of the huayna picchu. to see the rest of the team and pictures click on the link at the bottom of the post.



on the way down we reached a cave. that was used as a santuary, and people are still doing they're "pago a la tierra" (offering for the god mountain) and u can see the coca leafs.


then we continued i like the view. like the jungle, the plants and so on. and mixed with stone buildings and stairs in middle of the mountain its just great


after the climb we visited machu picchu. here a picture of us from the typical angle.


and the full album

AGO13

ollantaytambo

we woke up, went to the market for breakfast and then took a "colectivo" to ollantaytambo.
this place is very similar to pisac. lots of terraces for agriculture. but... some enooormously huuuuuuuge rocks. amazing to think how did they move them around.



to be honest with u by today we were a liiitle tired of stones. so this album is short. i didn't take too many pictures (of course much more than what is uploaded, jeje but dun wanna tire u with it)

after ollantaytambo we went to the train station and took our train to machupicchu, well to be exact to el pueblo de Aguas Calientes.
our train delayed and we couldn't find the person who was going to be waiting for us and had reservations for us in there, so... we just had to look for a place to stay on our own. we were kinda worried we wouldn't find one since it was high season (turist season) and most places are booked full. (i thnk they get 1500 or was it 2500 nways a toooon of turists per day).

for more pics check there is the link for the full album for today

AGO12

:: el valle sagrado ::

woke up early. mixed up the time and got out of the house an hour earlier than what i should. since i didnt have the key i was basically locked out for an hour. so i decided to walk around. got to cafe de mama oli, but it was too early for it to be open. so i turned around and walked back.

after breakfast a new friend of us came pick us up to go to the valle sagrado.
since we had wanted to visit q'enko the day before we passed by before going to the valley.


this was a worship place. a certain stone is said to produce the shadow of a puma during some solstice. and u could find the huuuge rocks, carved with steps, and sitting places.

after q'enko we went to puca pukara. according to our guide it was a place for young nobles, kinda like a boarding school where they would learn the skills needed to govern the empire.


there are mooore pictures in the album, click the link at the bottom of the entry.
nways after visiting this site, which the guide also claimed, is full of energy and high vibrations; we left for tambomachay.

here in tambomachay we can find a fountain. some call it the fountain of eternal youth, cause the water has lots of iron and leaves your skin very soft


nways it was an important place where the inca would fast and meditate, there are little niches in the wall behind where it is thought they put their ancestors.
they used to think the ancestors who had died had gone to the lower world and rised up with messages and knowledge through the waters bringing messages and instructions to the ruler. nways that's the story we heard.

after that we went to pisac. its the most extense archeological site around there (i think its even bigger as in extension than machu picchu. of course its not as dense)


it has laaaaarge extensions of terraces all around for specialized agriculture.


and also had some fountains with some rocks like seats in the middle. pretty cool




for more pictures check out the album for this day

AGO11

ridding in the outskirts

after a nigth's rest, we wake early and decide to have a walk around cusco. (or cuzco, its spelled both ways as far as i know of)
supposedly sacsayhuaman is at a walking distance. so we walk towards it. we arrive at a stable. the guy there convinces us (i have no clue in what tense im writting this blog, jaja so f it, i'll just keep going in whatever tense i was)
nways the guy convinced us to rent horses so here we are... ridding around cusco towards sacsayhuaman.


we got there but didn't stop. we went ahead to some x zone. a place with many tunels through the rocks and openings and little caverns. interesting. we went through some. and then i tried going through another but... the end was too deep and i had no clue where it went.


nways from there we went to the temple of the moon. there's not much left or much to see as in other places. but its nice. there is a very deep cut between a rock/mountain. and little worship places in between.
from there on it was getting late so we rode back to sacsayhuaman.

At sacsayhuaman we were required tickets to enter the place. 2 of our companions decided to sneak themselves in. the other 2 of us bought the tickets (we were still gonna need them anyways, for the other sites in cusco)


After buying the tickets we got a guide and visited the place. sacsayhuaman is supossed to be a bigger temple, built after the koricancha became too small for the inca people. they used to say it was a fortress but it wasn't. it was used as one when the inca's defended themselves against the spanish but that was not its intention. it also has a zig zag shape, something to do with the lightning. and from the top u can look down towards cusco


on the other side there is a quarry from where i guess most of the rocks came from. and there is a curious rock with the shape of a slide, and very very polished. click on the link at the bottom to view the entire photo album and see pics of us slidding down the rock


The guide told us that this was sort of an artificial lake made by the incas. well it kinda makes sense looks like it somehow. i still dun know where the water came from




it was getting late, with some nice shadows so we decided to start our way back. no more horses. in cusco we passed by El Café de Mama Oli, a veeeeeee e e e e ry nice place. very kind lady. and good stuff in there.



if u wanna see the album for today

AGO10

we're in cusco

6 more hours to cusco, but we're far enough from lima to enjoy the countryside and the landscapes. the sky is blue again and there are clouds, something u cant distinguish in lima.


as we get closer and higher, the landscape gets dryer. the last bit of the trip was very windy, curvy twisty and many passengers get sick, the bathroom starts to smell bad. and one of our companions is starting to get nauseous. luckily he made it.


we settled in San Blass the 'cool' turisty neighborhood in cusco; in La Casa de La Gringa. very nice place. rustic, with personality, but clean and proper. 10 bucks per head (u can get some rooms a little bit cheaper or a little more expensive, depending what u're looking for. or check another hostel. this one seemed nice. they also offered san pedro guided trips.

after settling, and leaving the bags. we went for a walk. check out the place, take some pics


we also went to the train station to buy our tickets to machu picchu. its one of the first things u gotta do (at least during turist season) cause there are soooo many people visiting, that usually u cant get a train seat, u have to buy one for a couple of days away. the train is also a rip off. some sort of monopoly, nways i hear its gonna change, that they're gonna bid for it again. so maybe a different company gets it this time and lets hope they dun exploit turists that much. u can also walk along the train tracks. it takes about 8 hours from Ollantaytambo to Aguas Calientes (machu picchu town) where u can stay the night to leave the next day eaaaaarly in the morning to visit the citadel.


nways. after that some more walking around and some food

there are more pics of the day in the album

AGO09

on our way to cusco

Not much to say.
stayed home most of the day. packed the bags. discussed the plan. and then left to have lunch. we had ceviche de pescado, tacu tacu, and ceviche de conchas negras. nways, we left lima at 4pm on cruz del sur to cusco. very excellent service (compared to most other bus companies). but no, really very nice bus, and good service. evening dinner, and bingo on board. if u've got a laptop u can enjoy internet on board wherever there is cell phone signal wich is basically the whole country so... five stars.

centro de lima

woke up late. we visited the historical center in lima. the Plaza de Armas, Palacio de Justicia, Av. Wilson with all the CDs and printing places. Then we visited the Museo de la Inquisición. Yep we had spanish inquisition here in peru. after the museum. we had an abundant lunch in Norky's.



For the night we went to Barranco. visited around took some pictures.
Had the tipical anticuchos and picarones and a taste of pisco sour.



to see more of the pics from lima

AGO06_08

:: they're finally here ::

at midday the bus arrives, 2 hours ahead of schedule.
we met in plaza san martin.




After getting home, leaving the bags, we go back out searching for a place to eat. End up at Bembos.

We later made a visit to Gamarra, Ripley and Saga in search for clothes for the trip.

arriving 2 lima

the bus arrives at midday. a couple of hours earlier than expected.


we meet in plaza san martin. change some money, and head for home.
after unpacking. we head for something to eat.
I wanted them to try the peruvian ceviche so we go to Punto Azul. Punto azul doesn't open on mondays. so... no ceviche.
We end up eating in Bembos, good peruvian flavored hamburgers. with good peruvian ají. after that a shopping spree in Gamarra, then Rippley and Saga for some warm clothes.

stained::glass::windows

some stainned glass windows from a church in Camino Real, Lima.
lighting wasnt thaaaat great. but the windows are awesome.