Rolo on Tour

What was missing in my discovery of Peru were two places, which many may consider its highlights: The ruins of Machu Picchu and Lake Titicaca. But first things first:

From Arequipa I went to Cuzco on another night bus. Unfortunately they had to repair it all night long (oh yeah) and so I arrived with quite a delay. Bad luck continued when there was no water in the hostel, so I had to walk 100 metres to another hostel to take a shower. Time to move places, but afterwards it was all fine. Cuzco has some nice places and nice bar areas for the night and its central square is kind of interesting, as you will be approached all the time by people trying to sell you massages, alpaca sweaters or paintings.

To get to Machu Picchu I took the budget version: A series of bus and taxi rides (involving travelling in the trunk for a while, which was not too bad actually, as we had to look backwards -> „Wow, did we just pass that turn??“) followed by a 2-hour-walk along the railway took us to the village below the ruins, Aguas Calientes. From there we walked up in the morning in heavy rain to the ruins. But it was all worth it as it is just a marvellous place up there. Walking around all day including climbing the Huayna Picchu (the mountain, which you usually see on the background of the typical Machu Picchu photo) we were lazy enough to take the bus down and the train (first train ride on this trip) back to Cuzco.

Travelling in the trunk: We had not as much space as it looks like here!

The rainy season affects many roads

Never forget Breakfast!

It’s not always sunny in Machu Picchu

On top of Huayna Picchu, the ruins being in the background

The city of Puno, which is situated next to Lage Titicaca on 3800 metres of altitude, was the last destination in Peru. From there I took part on some island trip. First we passed some floating islands, which are still inhabited by some indigenous people called the Uros:

What a nice lookout point

From there the boat took us to the islands of Amantani and Taquile, where you could have beautiful views of the Lake. All those islands get kind of touristy, but who can blame that as it is the only way for the people living there to make any money.

How do you build that?

Testing some functions on my camera

Someone wants to have a look, if there is a treasure hidden at that point in the lake?

You are beautiful

Having returned it was time to approach the border. Before I discovered that when I was entering Peru, the officials had only given me 30 days of visa. I was surprised by that as I have a right up to 183 days. Well I could not extend it and as I had stayed 41 days in Peru, I had to pay 1$/extra day and spend 1 extra hour at the border. Could have been worse, so all OK.

One last thing I want to share: On the way to the border, we passed a truck which had crashed. There were already lots of people surrounding it to watch the scene (not to help). But to my surprise the driver of my bus wanted to have a look as well, stopped the car and said „Ok guys, let’s all go watch the accident.“ Besides one guy who had to watch his little kid I was the only one who refused to take part in that activity. Voyeurs!

——————————————————————————————————————————-