NeXXyZ - No Life Without Music

Alright…so the days in Ecuador have been hard on me internet-wise, since all hotels so far, except this one, charged a lot for internet access, and I did not want to have everybody waiting for me when at an internet cafe…

So here are the records of the last week, that is, the last days in Peru and the days in Ecuador up to here, Guayaquil.

The next day after I stayed in bed, we went to Pisac, to see even more Inca ruins. But nothing that beat the Machu Picchu, so I won’t go into much detail here.

But we went to a llama resort first…

My sister feeding one of the beasts

A loooong-haired alpaca

Indigenous women weaving

The walk up to the Pisac ruins were kind of hard, especially since I was not feeling too well…but the view was nice enough to compensate!

The view of the Pisac ruins

The city of Pisaq itself was also nice, the market was busy, and lots of bakerys were around.

Cuys roasting over an open fire at a bakery

We went to drink some corn chicha…which I did not try due to my illness, but I got a clear shot of their cuy stable..

Delicious little things

Next day, next station: Cusco airport…off to Lima, from there to Quito, ECUADOR!!!

No photos there, just one night, to get the car the next day, and to start the trip.

We were off to Latacunga then, where we saw a few interesting things, including the virgen saltada, but the church itself was locked, so no photos. We got ripped off at the market, though.

Next stop: Ambato. Nice main square, very modern cathedral. Not as nice and green as I had remembered it, though.

Ambato’s “plaza de armas”

In Ambato we also had the car’s antenna changed, which cost us about 4 hours total….crap!

Goodbye Ambato, hello Baños!!! On the way to one of my favourite places, we saw the volcano Tungurahua smoking, and lots of volcanic rock was around.

Smoking volcano

I just love Baños…it has gotten even more touristy, with quads all over the place and lots of chifa. The main church is not as cheesy though, they used to have a neon-crucifix…now it is just a “virgen de neon”.

Virgin Mary illuminated by neon lights

Also the church’s towers are illuminated in a cheesy blue, but my pics are not good enough to post, so I’ll get some from my parents once we’re back.

So, that meant: Quito-Latacunga-Ambato-Baños. Next day. Trip to the jungle.

Great waterfalls on the way out of Baños to Puyo

Tunnels on the way…yes, that is how the road looked inside the tunnel. No idea how Christian, the guide, drove the car.

First glimpse of the jungle

We visited a botanic garden of a Shuar family. They showed us some of the plants which we were to see to our “real” jungle trip afterwards.

Herbal medicine of the jungle

A plant called “monkey tail”

My sister holding a leaf with poisonous caterpillars

A scaaary spider

Inside a Shuar’s hut

The Shuar are a very proud jungle tribe, with strict rules and the polygamy that can go with that

A wasp hive

Then we went to a jungle refuge, but they did not have food. So we drove to another one. No food there either. So off to the jungle itself we went, in gumboots and with beautiful butterflies around.

Blue butterfly

Jungly jungle

A waterfall from afar

Myself, looking stupid, swimming in the waterfall’s pool in my boxer shorts

Any idea why we were wearing gumboots?

Great butterflies were always around

One time a big helicopter-like insect flew over our heads. Scaaaary!

Next activity: boat ride!!

Predatory bird hovering over the jungle

That evening we played poker and schnapsen. Fun stuff!

The next day meant goodbye to Baños, and after a brief visit to the doctor and some 100 pills later, we were in Riobamba.

We went to visit the house I lived in back in 1998/99, but it seemed abandoned at first.

The house

After a brief visit to the shop at the floor level though, where we met aunt Pilar and miss Tapia, we found out that the sticky tape was to protect the inside of the house in case of volcano alarm, and that it had saved them a lot of trouble when the military ammo-depot had blown up a few years back, breaking all the windows in town.

We went to visit monica at the hardware store.

Me and my “two mothers”

In the evening, we heard about the earthquake in Peru. Terrible, terrible event. We were lucky to have missed it by a few days. All the best to the whole of Peru to recover from that disaster!

Next day: trip to Chimborazo

It was a bit foggy

A glimpse of the point farthest away from the earth’s center

Wild vicuñas, a national project

At this point a strange guy charged us $10 per person for entering the national park. Could have been a fake, though…who knows.

The first refuge at 4800m altitude We got some Maggi champignon cream soup to warm up.

A view of better weather on the way down

The different layers of earth and volcanic stone they uncovered while constructing the road

In the evening, we went for dinner with Monica, her friend, aunt Pilar and uncle Antonio. It was nice to see them all again after such a long time and have a chat, and the restaurant was very nice.

The dinner

Yesterday, off to Alausi we were.

Probably the most stoic dog I’ve ever seen

In Alausi, we got some train tickets. Had to wait for the train to “la nariz del diablo” for 3 hours though, so we went around the city.

Right

Finally on the train, we had a great view.

From the inside of the train

From the roof of the train

As always, it derailed They got the train back on the tracks using stones, though. Cheap fix to keep the tourists interested and excited, I guess.

Just so you know, that’s a pretty big river…so it’s a looooong way down

So on we went, from Alausi to Cuenca. Fantastic Scenery, great light and shadow because we were between layers of clouds.

Scenery

More scenery and light

Even more…

In Cuenca, we stayed the night, had dinner at “El Maiz” which was…little. And I had a Godfather cocktail, causing me to sleep like a log.

Next day: Cuenca tour.

Girl in front of a fake house, weaving a Panama hat at the factory Panama hats are actually from Cuenca. The name is a misconception. Really! Go look it up!

We all got ourselves a hat there.

Cuenca’s always unfinished cathedral

This was once the house of a filthy-rich woman She traded chinine resources…she donated stuff like a fricking university to the city.

A view of Cuenca from a lookout point

And off we were again, to Guayaquil this time. Again, over a mountain, between layers of clouds.

Scenery reprise

A flock of scavenger birds near the coast

Finally, oxygen!!! No more than 100m above sea level.

First impressions of Guayaquil

Kids feeding a waran in a park in Guayaquil Yes, a park. In town. With a church and everything. Not a zoo..

Warans hanging from the tree…in that same park

A burger ad Try to identify all the ingredients!

So, that’s it.

Tomorrow, we’re off to Galapagos! Hope to have lots of new stuff to post when we’re back!

See you soon!

Alright, so off we were yesterday early morning to Machu Picchu…we decided to save some time by driving to the second station instead of getting on the train at the first station…and then off to the big miracle…

The train station

The train itself

Some mountains on the way

Nice…

Flowers and vista

Finally there….the obligatory landscape shot If you tilt the picture counterclockwise, you can see the face of an Inka formed by the mountain

Some Llamas

Family in front of the classical landscape

A trail we followed

My father on the trail

A bridge built by the Incas, removable in case of intruder alert

View of the “most beautiful” building in Machu Picchu

On the way back I almost slept…but then they started to play cheap Euro-trance and have a fashion show…add to that the !oiled! tracks which caused the train to jump a few times, and all hope of sleep is gone.

Today I was kind of sick. Took some pills and stayed in bed. Took a walk in the afternoon and tried Bembos…that was kind of nice.

The cathedral of Cusco No pictures can be taken on the inside, but it is a huge, decadent, silvery catherdral.

The famous twelve-angled stone in Cusco

The day before yesterday meant waking up early and visiting the Airport of Arequipa once more to fly to Juliaca. From there, with a few stops, we went to Puno which lies at the shores of lake Titicaca.

A nice man with a llama we met on the way

One more stop, at some Inca ruins This is actually a grave…kind of corpse lasagna

Chickenhawks, flying over the ruins

Picturesque, my sister and some Peruvian ladies, plus a baby vicuña

Once in Puno, we went to a nice restaurant with yet another dancing show. The next day took us by ferry first to the floating islands, which are made of reed and reed-roots. The people who live there originally came from the jungle to Puno, but no one wanted them there, so they built islands and live there. They have to anchor in order not to drift off to Bolivia, since they do not have passports. If a family is lazy, their part of the island is just cut off to form its own, small island.

A floating island

This is how these islands are built.

Then we went on to Taquile, a “real” island. People there speak Chechua and do not know a thing about music

Great view from Taquile

The view towards Bolivia, and a knitting man

On the way back, we noticed the reeds were burning…large parts of it, with the fire spreading rather rapidly.

Burning reeds

Today morning, we went on the “Inka Tour” bus from Puno to Cuzco, with five stops. The first was a rather unimpressive museum with statues in it. The second a nice viewpoint of the glacier, where my sister also got a “Nikolo” chocolate bar.

The glacier

Nikolo bar

After that, we stopped to get some food, which was rather dull. Then we stopped to see some llamas and their relatives. There was also a cuy farm (picture will be posted later).

The history of Peruvian transport

The next stop was a site full of Inka ruins, a temple-site dedicated to a god (forgot the name). The building style is interesting since it involves stones as well as bricks.

Temple ruins

After that, we went to see the “sixtine chapel” of the Andes…which turned out to be rather disappointing. We were also not allowed to take pictures, so I took one of the square, which had rather interesting trees around it.

Tree with parasites

During the rest of the trip, the landscape was really nice.

A mountain with some trees

Sadly, I lost my USB stick which had all the photos of the first batch. Now all that I am left with are the photos you see here, and the ones of the last three days. Ah, well.

The hotel here in Cuzco is nice so far. Tomorrow we’ll be going to Machu Picchu…looking forward to that!

After a rough night with little sleep (tooth, stomach full of camel, church bells ringing at 6am) we went to visit the local convent. It is pretty old and full of tourists. There are still 24 Dominican nuns living there, although they used to be 174 or something. It is a little town, with lots of small and big houses where rich nuns used to live. After the vatican decided they had to be poor, they had to let go of their many many private maids and learn to do stuff themselves. Even though there were some holidays on which only the nuns were allowed to cook…must have been horrible…the maids probably allowed them little practice.
They had things for making Jesus-waffles (hosts), laundry equipment, large rooms and interesting toilets. And a spectacular view, of course, of the three mountains (Picchu Picchu, Misti, Chinchani). The streets of the convent are named after Spanish cities (Sevilla, Toledo, Granada, etc.).

A small nun’s room Complete with a fake nun (at least I think she was fake?)

One of the many streets inside the convent

The view from a roof

After that, we went to a mill that is still actually working (it is about 186 years old). The view was nice, but even better was the vicuña that, with the aid of an alpaca, was chasing around every dog within sight. I wonder what it wanted to do with the dog? I also got some videos of that, but I can’t properly encode them at the moment. I might upload them later, though.

A waterfall near the mill

This cute little thing does not look aggressive at all!

After that, we went to an outlook with a breathtaking view of the mountains. There was a little church there as well, and a 30’s car bringing the Peruvian bride to her wedding with a German guy.

The view from the outlook

The car that took the bride to her inevitable fate

We went for some thermal springs, to take a sulfur bath, but the tubs were small and full of people…so we decided not to, and go for a walk instead. On the way we met some of the cutest lambs I have ever seen…although they made some strange noises. There was this beautiful, almost ghost-city like village with this strange church…completely plain but for the tower. We got onto the roof…nice!

Two little lambs

On the roof of the church

After getting back to Arequipa, we bought some fruit for about 1 Euro…8 granadillas, 5 small bananas, a pepino, a chirimoya…we calculated the Meinl price to be at around 50 Euro.

We went to look for a restaurant, and found a nice one. We had cebiche de camarones and corvina, Kentucky fried cuy, camarones saltados, corvina saltada and (mhh!) pato con salsa de maracuya. So that is: raw sea bass with shrimp, fried guinea pig, shrimp with fries, vegetables and sauce, sea bass with fries, vegetables and sauce, duck with maracuya sauce.

I can now pride myself to be able to make a perfect cut into a granadilla with my razor-sharp broken tooth!

Ouch. Stupid tooth…but more of that later.

First, let me tell you of the last few days.

The day before yesterday we took the bus to Ica. A nice town. Got some chicken at Roky, or Norky, or whatever, slept at the Hotel Austria after organizing the next day. The nice guy that owns the hotel, a guy from Carinthia who spent the last 30 years in Ica, but was in Cuba and Machu Picchu before that, helped us. On the way, two movies: Radio (sucked), the Conspiracy (kinda nice, gotta check the accuracy).

Well, the next day we went to Guacachina, the American oasis, as people here like to call it.

The oasis

The nymph that gave the oasis its name Somebody saw her naked so they both turned into palm trees. Go figure.

After that, the nice driver took us for a two-hour ride which was kind of scary, because we passed a crashed bus that was the main character in an accident that killed 15 people that night, as we later found out. We only knew of 7 dead people when we passed it. Lots of crosses and small shrines indicating where even more people had died on the road.

A nice desert landscape, nonetheless.

Desert road

Finally arriving at Nasca, we had to wait for our flight, so we went to change some Euros, which didn’t really turn out well because of the low rates. We also saw a parrot called “Lorenzo” sitting in a tree.

Lorenzo the parrot

Unfortunately, we went to get some lunch. Yes, unfortunately. Because the flight over the Nasca lines…let’s say, undid the lunch for at least my father, and caused me to be sick for about two hours after it ended. It was nice though, but very very turbulent, as even the pilot admitted. I got to sit in front. And he was flying eights all over the place…*burp*

Starting…

The astronaut on the left

The spider on the lower left

The colibri on the lower left

We went back…got to see “In her shoes” and “Lyrics by”, and were tortured by andinian versions of hits like “Chiquitita”, “My heart will go on” and “El condor pasa”. Ouch.

Well, back in Lima we went to “Brisas del Titicaca” with Beto, Blanca, Victor, Sonia and two of their friends. The show was great, even though we all were tired, we all danced quite a lot. We got to bed at about 4, and had to get up at 8.

Dancing show

The Marinera, a famous dance imitating a (chicken?) romance

Today we said goodbye to the family, and took the flight to Arequipa. We saw nice, snowy mountains.

Snowy mountain, not Misti, though

We were picked up by our guide, went to the hotel and took our dirty clothes to the laundry. Then we went to see a museum with some Oetzi girl called “Juanita”, a 14 year old girl they found when a volcano melted a glacier. She had been sacrificed by the Incas to calm an active volcano. Sadly, they would not let us take pictures.

We also went to the cathedral and saw gargoyles and saint Barbie…

A wooden gargolye

A virgin Mary resembling a very well known doll

We are in luck: fiestas patrias in Lima, and the local saint fiestas here in Arequipa

We bought some more alpaca wool and went to get some food…alpaca ribs, leg, cebiche, rocoto relleno, beer, pisco sour. We also got to go to the roof of the restaurant.

The view from the roof of the restaurant

The problem, however, was, that while eating alpaca ribs, the animal took its inevitable revenge: The plastic tooth cover that I had since I was 14 (they said it would last about 2 years) finally got loose. I will spare you the picture. However, I can tell you that this is very annoying since I won’t be able to fix it until I’m back in Austria, and it will cost a small fortune.

Maybe I will get it as a Christmas present. We’ll see.

We’re all very tired, so we’ll go to buy some water and then go catch some Zs.

We finally got to see the center of Lima. The plaza de armas, with the cathedral, the headquarters of the catholic church (the cardinal, to be exact), the president and the mayor of Lima. Lima’s trinity in all things political, even though the non-catholic christians are present in the parliament at the time.

La plaza de armas

The cathedral The center part is still from the original building, which collapsed after an earthquake due to Spanish architecture in the 1600s.

Then we went inside the cathedral, which has a small museum attached to it. All the dark wood inside was imported from Paraguay, because the Spanish had not yet explored the forests and preferred to use sources they knew were safe.

The remains of Francisco Pizarro, the great conquistador are here

A cross with a shrine to John the baptist

A virgin Mary The triangular shape was used to get the indigenous people to believe in Christianity, since their gods were the mountains. They also put crosses on the real mountains, so that every time they would pray to the mountain, they would pray to the cross as well.

The crypt at the center The last person to be interred in this crypt was a cardinal, in 2000, I think. There won’t be any more. This was a cemetery for the rich.

The coffins of children of rich people

A display showing various scenes from the bible that was used to convert the locals

Santa Rosa, the patron of Lima, who is a saint because she liked to imitate the passion of Christ

After the cathedral, we went to see a gold museum, which is located inside the building where the national bank used to be.

Yes, it is in a big safe

The interior

They (the Incas) used to cut people’s hearts out with this. It is called a tumi.

A gold funeral mask They painted the masks red to give an illusion of life.

They (the Incas) used to cut people’s hearts out with this.

One of the great heroes of the country (exact name and deeds will follow, I think he was an Inca)

The church that is attached to the convent of San Francisco. We were not allowed to take pictures on the inside, but it is a nice convent with some catacombs below. The whole complex seems rather unstable.

In the evening my parents finally arrived. Their luggage, however, did not. Yesterday we went on pretty much the same tour with them, but first visited the museum de la nacion.

Proof that the indigenous people used to worship my mother.

A cross in the same space, which also features a pool with lots of fishes that followed me I’ve got an army!!! Oh wait, they can’t leave the pool. Darn!

More crosses showing the mix of local and Christian culture in the course of time. This is contemporary.

Traditional clothing that is still worn every day by indigenous people

This is the guy who takes kids who don’t behave. No, seriously!

Cultural life of the old days

Mummified heads

A Guglhupf bowl, it seems

Flasks, in the shape of animals

That baby must have been tired!

A grave of a great leader, el Señor de Sipan. They buried pets, warriors and family with them, just to make sure. They also had gladiator fights…kind of a Catch 22, because they sacrificed the winner.

A golden mask, in a completely black and dark room.

Then we went for lunch.

That soup was good! We also ate some Rocotos, which were too hot for everyone but my mother and me (and Beto, of course!).

The president of Bolivia was around for lunch, so there was quite a bit of police activity.

Then we did the tour of the center, as before, with a city bus tour called “Lima by night”. For this, we bought a poncho for my mother. It was rather dark and wet (the tour, not the poncho), but very nice. I didn’t take photos, but my father did. I might post them later.

Today we’re going to a market to buy some more Alpaca, and then it’s off to Ica, to see the Nasca lines!

Yesterday we went shopping, and bought the tickets to Ica (which were quite expensive, but Blanca recommended buying from the best and most secure enterprise) and for a city tour tomorrow. We also bought some jeans for Tessi (1 pair was at 30 Sol, or about 3,90 Euros). One of the pairs we had to take to the tailor to adjust the length, which cost 2 Sol (50 Euro cent). Then a belt, for 10 Sol…do the math

possibly spoiler:
While going back to the car, we heard a man scream “Harry muere!”, but we don’t know if he’s right. But I don’t really care, either.
/possibly spoiler

We went to a park and to a crafts-center, where we bought the fur off a few alpacas, then we went to another center to search for even more. After trying about 20 ponchos, we finally decided on one.

For the late lunch we had delicious crab soup (which we bought Saturday and froze) and fried bonito with avocado salad and rice.

In the evening the family took us down to the beach, to see the sea and the fish market.

The view of the sear from the edge of Miraflores

Tessi and Karen at the beach

A bunch of pelicans at night at the edge of the fish market (sorry, didn’t have a tripod and some sea men were looking at me and my camera in a funny and not quite unfriendly way…and the pelicans were moving, anyway)

She sells sea shells down by the sea shore

Today afternoon our parents will arrive, and we have organized a small fleet of cars to pick them up (2 cars, actually). Tomorrow we will rest and do some sightseeing, but from Thursday on, the true voyage begins, and it won’t stop until we’re back from Galapagos on the 23rd of August! I hope I will still be able to post pictures from time to time, but don’t count on it!

Ah what a nice party! About 20 members of the family went to the “Vivaldi” for a “cena bailable” (”danceable dinner”) for Karen’s 15th birthday…giant cake, lots of dancing and good food. Usually there is a big, formal party, similar to the US’s “sweet sixteen”, but the family decided they wanted to travel to Argentina and have a small dinner instead.

Karen and her small cake

Daniel, his grandmother and his cousin

That’s how people dance here! (video)

Yesterday we went to the family’s chacra, either a small farm or a big garden, depending on your point of view. On the way there we passed some of the poor areas and came pretty close to the beach.

A hill with its very own Jesus

Big ship on the sea

People here jump onto the street to sell you chicharron (grilled, then fried pork)

The chacra itself if full of plants, mainly bananas and avocados, but there’s lots of other stuff there, too.

An avocado hanging from the tree

Banana plant with dried flower

Rose

Big ship on the sea

Me harvesting an avocado (video)

For lunch we had duck and cuy (guinea pig, or Meerschweinchen in German).

My very own half cuy

On the way back we met some adorable Alpacas very, very soft!!!

Aren’t you cute, yes, yes, you are! Aww!

Yesterday night the whole family came back. They are very nice and took us out to Molina for breakfast…Cicharron con Mote…that is, fire-grilled, fried pork with cooked, peeled (yes, peeled!) corn.

They also had a lot of plants and herbs there, too bad I forgot to bring the camera…well, actually I thought we would just go to a small shop and eat some simple breakfast…I was wrong.

Hills of Lima

Then we went to the fruit market to pick out the stuff we never heard of before, and of course bought exactly that. After that we went to a smaller market, to buy crabs, bonito fish and meat for lunch.

The fruit market

A small mixed market

Tessi sorted out the photos she took in China she sent the family while I went for a walk with the father of the family, to a big shopping center.

Fruit and flowers

My sister and her host parents

We just had lunch with the traditional Lomo Saltado and the Imperial Cake we brought from Vienna.

Since it is Karen’s 15th birthday party tonight (starting at 10) I guess we won’t be in bed very early, we still haven’t overcome the jet-lag, though.

Ha! So I do get to write a little blog entry.

We arrived in Lima on time on Wednesday, got our luggage and went to my sister’s host family. The flight was nice, they have entertainment centers for all seats in the big KLM machines now, and we were both in luck, being served cheese-only sandwiches twice during the flight. We do not like cheese. Period.

Tessi’s host aunt and her mother picked us up, both very nice ladies. We arrived to a nice big house, and the smell of hand-washed soap-soaked clothes reminds us both of our days in South America. We get our hands on some fruits, and fall into our beds.

It is winter in Peru now, meaning that the sky is always covered with clouds, and the temperature is between 10 and 18 degrees celsius, with a very humid atmosphere, causing everything to be not-quite-dry through and through.

Thursday we wait for Tessi’s host aunt, she is, of course, being a South American, a bit late We drive to the beach, and then go hunting for a hotel, but not before waiting an hour to get a SIM for Tessi’s phone and finding out it is SIM-locked. Ah well…

The Beach of Lima

In the evening, we visit “Las Brisas del Titicaca” and watch some Peruvian dances. We are in luck, since we arrived in the “Month of Peru”, so to speak, and everyone is very much in tune with local culture these days.

Peruvian dancers

I will put up more photos as they are taken and the time allows, for now we have to go buy some bus tickets…