Diarios del gringo Joris

Isla del Sol - Bolivia (Day 19-20)

2007-09-25T12:01:00.000-07:00

After crossing the Peruvian-Bolivian border we stayed one night in Copacabana, the next morning we took the first boat to Isla del Sol, a small island in Lake Titicaca... Soo peaceful & beautiful... paradise!

Pic 1: Breakfast with a view.

Pic 2: Tea time in the mountains.

Pic 3: Sunrise

Pic 4: Sunrise II

Pic 5: Isla del Sol

Pic 6: Isla del Sol

Pic 7: A local family fishing / Isla del Sol

Pic 8: Isla del Sol

Pic 9: Ruines / Isla del Sol

Pic 10: A nice cactus / Isla del Sol

Pic 11: Isla del Sol

Pic 12: Isla del Sol

Pic 13: Isla del Sol

Puno (Day 17-18)

2007-09-25T11:09:00.000-07:00

After the Salkantay Trek I, Itay and Cynthia decided to travel together to Isla del Sol in Bolivia. Our first stop on the way is the city of Puno bordering Lake Titicaca. I really do not find the time to write much so here just some pics...

Pic 1: Arrival in Puno

Pic 2: Cynthia and our Australian friend we met on the bus... sorry mate, forgot your name...

Pic 3: The cook on duty, very proud to pose.

Pic 4: Floating reed islands on Lake Titicaca. Amazing how these constructions keep floating! The Uros people, who live on these islands only come on land to trade fish for goods or burry the dead.

Pic 5: Reed boat

Pic 6: Itay, Cynthia and our Australian friend.

Pic 7: Breakfast time!!!

Pic 8: The bus to Copacabana

Salkantay Trek V (Day 15)

2007-09-23T09:42:00.001-07:00

After a great night in Aguas Calientes (sleeping in a bed!) we started climbing to Machu Picchu at about 5.00AM. Wow! What a view! What a city!

Pic 1: Machu Picchu in the early morning...

Pic 2: Machu Picchu after the morning clouds had gone...

Pic 3: "Railway station" of Aguas Calientes

Pic 4: Me & Cynthia in the train to Cuzco.

Salkantay Trek IV (Day 14)

2007-09-23T09:30:00.000-07:00

Day 4 of the trek. Hiking from Santa Teresa to Aguas Calientes through the Peruvian jungle.

Pic 1: Cynthia buying our breakfast...

Pic 2: Crossing the river by cable car.

Pic 3: A small settlement in the jungle.

Pic 4: Train arriving in "Hydroelectrico"

Pic 5: Nico & Itay...

Salkantay Trek III (Day 13)

2007-09-23T08:53:00.000-07:00

Day 3 of the trek. A 6 hour walk early in the morning and a chill-out afternoon at the hot springs of Santa Teresa...

Pic 1: Early morning river-crossing...

Pic 2: The horses crossing a river...

Pic 3: Very nice tropical fruit, forgot the name...

Pic 4: Picture & lunch time!

Pic 5: Our cook playing mandolina

Pic 6: A big family on the way to the hot springs...

Pic 7: Our third campsite in Santa Teresa.

Pic 8: Dinner from a higher perspective...

Pic 9: After a relaxing day... some beers at the campfire...

Salkantay Trek II (Day 12)

2007-09-19T18:25:00.000-07:00

On the second day of the Salkantay Trek we woke up very early at the bottom of the Salkantay mountain. A very hard day passing at an altitude of 4600m. The pics...

Pic 1: Early in the morning, the horses are ready for another hard day...

Pic 2: Cute dog on the way...

Pic 3: Me & Cynthia, la Française "poco loco" during the climb.

Pic 4: Me, near to the top of the Salkantay mountain...

Pic 5: Over the top, descending towards our second campsite...

Pic 6: Soup with French Fries! We deserved it! ;-)

Salkantay Trek I (Day 11)

2007-09-19T17:52:00.000-07:00

Woooow! I am just back from a 5 day trekking in the Andean mountains! What a unique experience! Don’t have really much time to tell the whole story, so just some pictures with comment this time!

Here the pictures of the first day! Enjoy!

Pic 1: Luggage and food for 5 days...

Pic 2: Me, two Israeli guys, two Spanish guys, two Brazilians, a Norwegian, a girl from Argentina, et une Francaise... super quoi?!

Pic 3: The night is falling but the base camp nearby...

Pic 4: Base camp at the foot of the Salkantay mountain...

Pic 5: Dinner at 4.000m... Extreme temperatures, thin air but a great spirit!

Chill Out @ Cuzco (Day 9-10, Cuzco)

2007-09-19T17:23:00.000-07:00

After a very hectic first week, I "took two days off". Just relaxing in the garden, preparing my trekking trip, writing some emails, watching the Peru-Bolivia soccer game,...

Pic1: City centre of Cuzco

Pic 2: Dinner with some Australian guys in the backpackers hostel

More pics day 6-8

2007-09-13T18:33:00.000-07:00

Pic 1: Guinea pig, the national dish...

Pic 2: Thermal baths in Chivay

Pic 3: Dine-and-dance with our tour group...

Pic 4: Local farmers on their land

Pic 5: Colca Canyon

Pic 6: Taxis in Arequipa

Pic 7: A girl with a cat (obviously...)

Pic 8: A small settlement somewhere between Chivay and Arequipa

Pic 9: Sunset seen from the bus between Nazca and Arequipa

Pic 11: Arequipa

Pic 12: Arequipa

Pic 13: Arequipa.

A welcome party, some coca-leaves and a night in Cape Town... (Day 6-8, Arequipa)

2007-09-13T15:56:00.000-07:00

Because my hostels in Lima and Nazca were rather quite places I decided to book a hostel in Arequipa described as “Party hostel”. I supposed this meant there would be a bar where people would gather to go out in town afterwards… Not quite the truth, it was more like a disco with sleep-over possibility… Anyway, arriving from Nazca I immediately had my big welcome party!

The next day was more of a recovery day, having a relaxed two hour-lasting brunch in the backpacker’s hostel. In the afternoon I visited downtown Arequipa. The next two days I joined a tour into the Colca Canyon. Great fun, especially because of our crazy guide Maria Eugenia!

As we would be spending most of our time above 4000m we were advised to chew coca-leaves and drink coca-tea. This is the way local people try to cope with altitude sickness. A bit disappointing but after about 30 leaves and 2 cups of tea I still don’t feel any effect…

So what did we do apart from coca-chewing and lama-watching? Well, we went to the Chivay hot water thumbs (wow, soo relaxing!). We had a nice dine-and-dance night at a local village. (What a shame, will have to work on my Peruvian dancing skills…) and we hiked in the Colca Canyon.

After the tour I and Cristian, a South-African guy I met in Arequipa, took the overnight bus to Cuzco. We talked about rugby, cricket, surf spots and Cape Town nightlife… I just felt South-African again!

More pics sandboarding

2007-09-13T15:23:00.001-07:00

Pic 1: Sun is rising, the top of the Cerdo Blanco at the horizon.

Pic 2: Almost there...

Pic 3: Boarding down

More pics day 3-5

2007-09-13T14:51:00.001-07:00

Pic 1: Fresh juice and chicken sandwiches! Life is good!

Pic 2: Nazca graves

Pic 3: Me in the plane above the Nazca Lines

Pic 4: A monkey (Nazca Lines)

Pic 5: Creature in rock (Nazca Lines)

Pic 6: Strange building in Nazca

Pic 7: Nazca town square

A lazy afternoon, a small plane and loads of sand... (Day 3-5, Nazca)

2007-09-13T14:10:00.000-07:00

After an early bustrip from Lima, I spend my first day in Nazca being lazy at the swimming pool. Just relaxing in the sun, reading a bit, having a beer... the good life!

The second day I made a flight over the famous Nazca lines, huge figures in the desert sand made by the early Nazca cultures to communicate with their gods. There are figures of a bird, a monkey, a whale… As they are only visible from high altitude, the early Nazca people have never seen them their selves! Quite impressive! In the afternoon I visited some grave tombs (less impressive!) and did some shopping Nazca town.

On my third day I sandboarded the Cerdo Blanco dune, with 2000m the highest dune in the world. Although sandboarding is a kind of a slow sport (compared with snowboarding or surfing) the hike towards the top of the Cerdo Blanco was more than worth the trip! We got dropped at the bottom of the dune at about 4.00AM and hiked the first 2 hours under the moonlight. When we reached the top of the dune at about 10.30AM, the sun was already burning so we didn’t waist too much time there and boarded down. After having recovered from the early morning adventure, I took the 3PM bus to Arequipa.

Ever "boarded" a Peruvian bus?

2007-09-12T16:53:00.000-07:00

Imagine a South-American bus ride… one would certainly think about giant delays, uncomfortable seats, cattle on the bus… not on Peruvian buses! Or better, at least not on the buses of “Cruz del Sur”. Everyone travelling with “Cruz del Sur” is supposed to check in his or her luggage minimum 30 minutes before departure. After an extensive ID-control, passing the metal detector, a bag search, a body search and being filmed, one can take his spacey place in the bus.

Before departure the bus attendants check if you have fastened your seatbelts and also give a safety demonstration pointing out the emergency exits. Just after leaving one of the drivers (in Spanish ironically called “pilotos”) takes the word and gives some information on the route and the expected weather conditions on arrival. The attendants also serve meals and drinks and… organize an on-board prize Bingo… can you believe it!

More pics day 1-2

2007-09-12T16:39:00.000-07:00

Pic 1: Miraflores by day

Pic 2: Miraflores by night

Cabin crew, please take your seats for landing... (Day 1-2, Lima)

2007-09-12T16:11:00.000-07:00

After a more than tiring 20 hours of travelling, I finally hear the pilot’s magic words "cabin crew please take your seats for landing". All of a sudden the plane breaks through the ever-present clouds of the Lima area and a few minutes later we are taxing towards the Lima International Airport Terminal. Yipie! I am in South-America! Can’t believe it!

Lima is still asleep when Jorge, a very religious taxi driver, drops me of at my backpacker’s hostel in Miraflores. The next two days I will be discovering this giant city (8 million inhabitants). In a few words: Lima is humid and cold city, in winter times always cloudy. The inner city is always filled with horning taxi- and minibus drivers who are making a big attempt to speed up global warming.

The highlights of my stay in Lima were for sure the visit to the old monasterio (including Rubens paintings... did I had to come to Peru for this!?) and a nice dinner with Fernando, a fellow traveller from Bilboa, at the Baranco seaside. Although you certainly could spend a few weeks in Lima, I decided escape the clouds/pollution and go for some sun and fresh air in Nazca...

Back on the fast track!

2007-09-01T16:53:00.000-07:00

Hi everybody! Welcome on my small blogsite!

After some five months of working in Belgium, it 's time to spread my wings again... This time I won't pack a 100kg boardbag, just a 15kg backpack... so no rip-trip in search for wind and waves but a trekking journey in the Andes Mountains... Totally different but just as exiting!!!

I created this blog to keep family and friends a bit up-to-date... I have the bad habit of totally forgetting about home while abroad but... will try to keep this site up-to-date...

So, what up?!

Well, on Monday the 3rd of September I will fly to Lima, Peru. Made a small mistake to book a flight with a stopover in London Heathrow... so… with or without luggage, I will then travel through the Andean Mountains. At the end of September, I fly back from La Paz (Bolivia) ... I did not plan too much of my trip in before, just will take it as it comes and avoid any stressing or rushing.... Peru is an Hispanic country, isn't it?! ;+)

Waw! Adventure is coming up... I am back on the fast track!