Weronika On Aventura

I was a bit tired of constantly moving around when I got to Cuenca so I decided to make my pitstop there a little longer. Spent about 5 nights in this quaint colonial town - with a newly built tram service opening up! I went on a walking tour and to a Spanish/English conversation class in the local language school. I also went to the nearby Cajas National Park and that was amazing. It's and incredibly rainy area with very unique climate and many endemic plants. I stalked a group with a guide for a bit, then I walked around on my own and I panicked about getting lost but it was all fine :) On my way back I met a few other people at the mini bus stop and it was a fun drive back and walk back to city center with them. Walk into some random art gallery on our way.

Aguas Calientes is the nearest town to Machu Picchu.  The hostel I stayed at had a receptionist that was a big fan of Michal Szpak and Edyta Gorniak... what?! :-P I rememeber sitting in a cafe with a view and decent WIFI and chatting to Agata on the phone :) On the way back (right at closing time!) I wanted to go down on foot but I was scared on my own since it was gonna get dark. Found a Bolivian family of parents with 2 children to join for the way and we had a lovely chat! I liked even the kids! :)

On my way back from Aguas Calientes and Machu Picchu I stopped over in Ollantaytambo. The town dates back to the 15th century - it used to be a royal estate and has some of the longest continuously occupied dwellings in South America. Being there felt like travelling back in time. An Incan aquaduct system still runs through he town and is still very much in use. The water rushing through it creates a nice background sound for strolling around the cobbled streets.  The red flag on a stick means that in this house they make and sell local alcoholic drink made of corn - chicha. Many inhabitants still wear traditional clothing - some for the tourists, but not all. Women wear skirts, hats and their long hair braided in two strands, which looks a little funny to me - makes them looks like very old school girls :) This particular lady asked if I wanted to take a picture of her - for a fee, of course. Of course I did, she looked amazing in her read outfit. I was very amused to see one of t...

My second destination in Peru after Lima was Huacachina - the oasis town. It looks really cool in the pics, in reality it's not that amazing. The water in the lake is pretty gross and there isn't much around. But what you come for to Huacachina is some SAND SURFING and sand buggy rides and I did just that.  To get to Huacachina I took a coach from Lima, which in itself was quite a stressful event for me. Firstly, most South American countries are notorious for terrible road safety statistics. Secondly, bus hijacking were not unheard of in Peru, especially on popular tourist routes. Luckily everything went well and I could see they were putting a lot of effort into trying to maintain high standards of safety. Before we departed, they walked around the coach taking camera recordings of all passengers (to discourage hijackings), and also videotaped the driver taking the alcohol test. Pretty intense! I arrived at Ica, a town nearby Huacachina, late in the evening, and took a cab to...

Before visiting Peru, I had never spent any considerable time at a high altitude, so I was really curious how I would react to it. I was prepared for one or two days of feeling tired and headachy, but I was hoping after that I would get back to feeling normal. Oh how wrong I was. Altitude sickness starts occurring at 2400m above the sea level. Cuzco lies at 3399 meters, and Lima at 150-400 meters above the sea level. For some reason I thought it was a good idea to start my first high altitude experience by flying from Lima straight to Cuzco, thus racking up the altitude by 3385 meters in 1,5 hours. Straight off the plane I felt lightheaded and tired, and the expected headache set in very shortly after. At the hostel, I proceeded promptly to having multiple coca leaf teas and chewing the dried leaves themselves, but this proved to provide no visible relief. Instead of getting better, my symptoms worsened the next day and I spent most of my time in Cuzco in bed, feeling absolutely mise...

Looking back from a finished trip's perspective, I can safely say that Peru was the only country I visited that offered really tasty cuisine. Even though I don't eat raw meat/fish and so couldn't gorge on Peru's most famous national dish - ceviche - I couldn't complain. I fell in love with "causa a la lime ñ a", aji de gallina and anything topped with huancaina sauce. My Peru adventure started in Lima, where I spent my first two nights in what turned out to be part of a hostel chain called Pariwana. I actually really enjoyed my stay there and booked from the same hostel family in Cusco. It was a little more expensive than other hostels, but in return provided some welcome "luxuries", like tons of bathrooms and toilets than were constantly being cleaned, with bins large enough to not overfill after an hour of being in use! In most places in South America you bin toilet paper instead of flushing it, but in spite of that many toilets come with bins...