The good. The bad. The ugly.

We were stuck in Cartagena for a couple of days and mostly stayed inside the air conditioned room so there is little to say about it. It doesn't matter though, because we were not going to bore you with another post about all the amazing things we did and saw anyways. Instead we wanted to take the opportunity to for once tell you a bit about the other side of the medal. So we did. It's a one time thing, so enjoy it while it lasts before we'll go back to good old boring stories about our awesome, perfect experiences...:)

The good.
We have been traveling for quite some time now and we have taken you on our journey so you know it: we are having a great time, meeting awesome people, seeing incredible things, trying out new activities and diving into fascinating different cultures. We are definitely living our dream and would never want to change any of it!

The bad.
Traveling is not easy. It's not sleeping in, staying out late, eating fantastic food and forgetting about all your worries in the meantime. It is actually hard work. Not knowing where you'll get your food from, where you will sleep and where you'll be tomorrow can be exhausting over such a long period of time and there are days when we could fall asleep instantly at any given minute.
Having a routine at home might sound boring for most of you but for us it sounds pretty good because it actually means not having to make decisions about every little detail of your daily life. While traveling you don't have a routine so not only the question of what to buy but also the ones of when and where to buy it need answers. Finding a place to stay, deciding for a restaurant and choosing a dish from a menu are no brainers – but having to make hundreds of these little choices every day make them add up to become quite the toughies. Add to that the immense mass of new impressions that constantly cram your brain and you understand why we are tired after almost 10 months on the road.
Unfortunately you don't get to sleep that tiredness off in your own bed. Instead you end up in too soft or too hard beds in too hot or too cold rooms that you mostly share with everything from 4 to 20 people, half of which usually go to bed at unnatural times while the other half snores louder than a helicopter.
Privacy is a complete luxury – especially when it comes to bathrooms. Imagine not taking a shower without your flip-flops for 12 months, always having to hold your thumbs for hot water (or any water at all...) and sharing your toilet with tons of people of which a couple always have travelers diarrhea and you get an idea of a typical bathroom-situation. Speaking of diarrhea – no, we won't get into details here, but lets just say you get what you give, and we have eaten pretty 'interesting' stuff from time to time...
Regarding food – it's fun and most often delicious to try out new stuff, but sometimes a good piece of bread or some comfort soup from mom or just anything you know would be nice for a change. You can't imagine how much a person can crave Quark, certain cakes and a good cold Hefeweizen in the sun...

The ugly.
It is one thing to travel in Australia, New Zealand and the like. It is a whole different thing to go to countries like Cambodia or Bolivia. You see things you never thought being possible – what people do in order not to starve (children working, women selling themselves, men on drugs to not get hungry and animals eating each other are the least horrible of many options) and the way they have to live without house, water, bed, power, nutritious food and mostly any affection is unbearable at times. It challenges our emotions more than we would have thought possible, especially having to realize again and again that there is nothing we can do to help these people. The massive inequality of rich and poor in this world is something that we witness all the time and the guilt of being so rich in relation to the people we meet and still being so helpless when it comes to changing something about their situation is our most loyal travel companion. It's a beautiful world we live in, but not a fair one.

There are many more annoying things (the feeling of having seen this before, getting stuck with your transportation, running out of money with no banks anywhere close, making plans that just never come together, all the bugs in food, beds and clothes,...) that are part of traveling and make the whole difference between what we do and going on vacation for two weeks.
Don't get us wrong – most of the time we just enjoy. The shared bathrooms are clean, the changing beds are good enough for sound sleeping and the rowdy people in the dorms are also the ones that we like best. We eat great food, fight off the few bugs that attack us with a whiff of deet and try to support poorer communities in responsible ways through eating at their restaurants, buying their crafts and the like. Annoyances are just some hick-ups that we expected to happen so they don't bother us so much and actually make us laugh most of the time. Still this is surely not for everyone. So, to sum it all up: We absolutely love what we are doing but there is also no reason for you to be jealous! And whenever you get bored by any of our good time stories just remember that we probably had to fight off a huge old spider that was crawling up the laptop while writing it down – maybe the thought of the look on our faces doing that makes you laugh as well :)

Sail away...if you can!

First things first: The Delfin Solo is home to a great crew – Rengin, Tahsin and their cat Gatito. They are wonderful hosts and so much fun to hang out with. Most important, they make you feel as comfortable as possible in all situations. We all had a bit of bad luck during the last couple of days – if it hadn't been for that, we are very sure that we would have had an awesome time on their boat with them! We love them and want you to know it, even though the following truthful account of our sailing adventure with them might sound different at times...

Sunday afternoon
It's a beautiful day in Cartagena. We just got back from the beach, took a last refreshing shower and are ready to board the Delfin Solo, the sailboat that is going to take us on a cruise to and through the fairytale islands of San Blas, Panama tomorrow.

Sunday evening
The boat is great – not sure how we can (comfortably) fit 8 passengers plus the crew on the beauty but for now it is heaven. We sit in the harbor, enjoy the best pizza in town and marvel at the sunset over the high rising skyline of Bocagrande. The rum keeps coming and the slow waves against the boat give us a nice little swing. It's gonna be a good night after this and we'll be ready to go tomorrow!

Sunday night
Ough, no chance of closing even one eye in this steaming hot cabin. On deck it is bright as day from the cargo harbor and the mosquitos sting, in here we might soon be swimming away in our own sweat. It's gonna be a long and sleepless night...
 

Monday morning
A hard night lays behind – it is soon forgotten at the prospect of soon sailing towards San Blas. Lets get back on land for some last minute shopping, then meet the rest of the passengers and be off as quick as possible!

Monday afternoon
Everyone is on board but the crew is missing. We kill time reading books and talking. The captain appears to bring us some lunch before he is off again to somewhere to do something. We are stuck on the boat with no information. Shouldn't we have started sailing hours ago? At least the food is good...

Monday evening
Crew is on board and we are ready to go – the Colombians won't let us, though. Some problems with visas that can't be solved before the next morning (unless, of course, we are willing to pay the small amount of 4000USD). We will wait. To keep us calm and quite we are fed a great dinner – yummy.

Monday night
Another sleepless night in the sauna-cabin. The boat is crowded now, there is no way to spread out. This is going to be interesting. Oh well, it is only going to be two days at sea before we have tons of space and land to hang out on in San Blas – can't wait for it!

Tuesday morning
The crew did an extra early start and got all the paperwork done. We are ready to leave! Sails are set, engine is running – we are slowly leaving Cartagena and South America behind. Everyone is thrilled and ready to enjoy.

Tuesday afternoon
We have very little wind but who cares, the motor gets us somewhere. Tiny skyscrapers are all that is left of Cartagena on the horizon, before us is only the dark blue Caribbean Sea. Some passengers still enjoy while others got seasick after lunch. We talk or just lie in the burning sun and wait for time to pass. It is great to be bored for once.

Tuesday evening
The greatness of being bored starts to diminish. We have very tasty dinner, more people get seasick and there is still very little sailing going on. The motor brings us closer to San Blas with every minute, though. Everyone just goes to bed after nightfall. That is 7pm.

Tuesday night
The compass light is burning into the cabin and the motor underneath the bed is incredibly loud – but it is the best nights sleep on the boat so far: we are moving so there is a tiny bid of air coming through the windows and steering night shifts keep Jens out of bed so there is more space. An unexpected and very welcome luxury!
 

Wednesday morning
Its pouring outside but there is still no wind. How is that even possible? Nothing can get any passenger out there – only Jens is standing the miserable weather to work his shifts. He is all smiles and happy. The boat starts leaking everywhere and most beds turn into little oceans themselves. Everyone is lying somewhere to keep the seasickness to a minimum, there is no talking. Boredom is on board. At least we are getting closer to San Blas and should be there this evening.

Wednesday afternoon
The crew broke the bad news to us: no wind and a strong current in the opposite direction kept us slow and we didn't even make half of the way yet – they don't expect us to get to San Blas before sometime tomorrow afternoon. Then they cooked a great Turkish lunch for us. We are starting to see the pattern, it's called appeasement. Seasickness amongst passengers reaches unknown heights. At least the rain stopped for a while so a sniff of fresh air is a possibility again.

Wednesday evening
Dinner and then to bed. The last anti motion sickness pills are distributed among the passengers. Please let us get to San Blas quickly now.

Wednesday night
The captain runs around the boat like crazy and the motor is being turned on and off all the time. Something must be wrong. No air is coming through the windows this night so there must be very little movement. Sleepless in the middle of the sea.

Thursday morning
It's hot today. And quiet. Something is different. Right. Sometime very early this morning the motor broke down. No engine means only sailing. But there is no wind. Everyone is waiting now. The main sail is down and the Delfin Solo is as unstable as it gets. We are rocking from left to right and back to front like on a ride in Disney Land. No medicine can safe anyone from seasickness now. The boat seems to get smaller and smaller.

Thursday afternoon
There is still no wind. We didn't move a bit at will. The current is slowly pushing us away from San Blas but we try to ignore it. The appeasement-lunch was probably great again but with this kind of rocking no one feels like eating. The movements of the boat make reading, writing, playing or even talking an impossibility. We lay next to each other and silently pray for some wind. A catamaran crosses our way (its engine is working just fine...) and we sing 'Happy birthday' for one of its passengers. That's all the excitement we get today.
 

Thursday evening
No changes yet. We got some other captains on the radio that told us there should be wind tomorrow, maybe. Maybe is not good but it is all we have. It keeps us hoping. Passengers start being really edgy, the crew continues its great appeasement strategy with food and good mood. Time seems to stand still out here.

Thursday night
Yet another sleepless night, and after all the laying down during the last couple of days the whole body aches anyway. The noises of the rocking boat are deafening, even louder than the motor before. Who would have thought that a calm can be louder than a storm...

Friday morning
We are back on the radio. There is still no movement of the air. Big weather systems pass by and there are thunderstorms in the distant, we can even see the lightnings – but no wind reaches our sails. The weatherman gives us bad news: there won't be any wind from where we are all the way down to Panama for at least 5 days. Wow – that's got to be an incredible breakfast right there...but no, maybe not, our stomachs just don't agree. We have to face it: we are stuck in a really bad situation. The crew proposes to go back to Cartagena: the current pushes us slowly back there and maybe there are some trade winds somewhere in the north. 5 days more out here on this tiny boat with the whole crowd of us, feeling like being on a constant roller coaster ride (minus the excitement of that), melting away in the heat and not being able to wash ourselves or take a swim (we did see sharks at one point...) and apparently no hope of finding some sleep at all – that's not very appealing. Our hearts cry out for San Blas but there is just no way - all passengers agree and vote for going back to Cartagena.
 

Friday afternoon
The incredible has happened! No, there is still no wind and we are just going towards Cartagena with the speed of the current which is almost nothing at this point. But we met another backpacker boat on its way to San Blas. It still had a functioning engine. It was still moving. And the ship's captain was willing to take four of us to Panama! 8 passengers on the Delfin Solo: 1 has to catch a flight from Panama to Mexico tomorrow, 2 are teenager princesses that cried the whole trip about everything, 1 is a tough business woman that always gets what she wants and 4 are some laid back friends of whom 2 are really laying back since they are so seasick that they can't talk and argue at all and the other 2 are sailors themselves and keep everything running whenever the crew is occupied. You guess which 4 passengers made it on the boat to Panama... Well, now that there is more space and we actually know where we are going it is much more enjoyable to be stuck out here on the open water. We get out the sunsail, some rum and start having the best time we can possibly have out here right now.

Friday evening
The best dinner of the trip and some great talks keep us out on the deck until late – a first on this trip. The seasickness is still bad, though, and it gets really hard to not just jump off the boat and wait for some sharks to do their work. Of course just when we think about that option a big school of dolphins comes up to the boat to play and keeps us company – they would scare off every shark, of course, so there is no point of jumping into the water. Water sounds really good, though, after 5 days without a shower... Please, please, please let us have some wind to get back to Cartagena! Please!

Friday night
No sleep, like always. At least there is more space now and we can all have our own beds. Late at night the rocking stops and we hear a soft sound from the deck – wind in our sails! Finally we can close our eyes for a little break.

Saturday morning
The Cartagenean skyscrapers are back on the horizon and there is wind in our sails! We are moving! It is not rocking anymore. The sun is shining. It is the best day in what feels like ages!
 

Saturday afternoon
The wind died down when we were 4 miles away from the harbor. The crew called a boat that towed us back in. It took ages. We anchored, drank some rum and then got on and off the dingy as fast as we could. We made it. We survived. We are back on land. We are back in Cartagena. Our brains don't work, our bodies shot down and we are nowhere close to where we wanted to be – but we are off that boat!

Saturday evening
The moving stopped and the sickness is gone. We all drank gallons of water and took hour-long showers. We enjoyed dinner at 6pm and are now ready to go sleep. In an air conditioned room with big single beds for everyone. And maybe tomorrow we can start getting back to normal.

Saturday night
Sleeping. Like a baby.

Caribbean Dreaming

Tropical Cartagena welcomed us hot and steamy - finally we are back in swim-wear-weather.
We got to the city in the late afternoon, picked up some food and were ready to go to bed really early that night - when we suddenly spotted some familiar faces in the room next door. Wibke and Renä, our friends from Buenos Aires, had just gotten here themselves and we had a happy reunion - the world gets smaller the further you go. 

We spent two great days walking around the old, walled part of Cartagena. Beautiful small alleyways lined with whitewashed little houses with flowery balconies, treeshaded plazas, grand colonial churches and palaces and the old wall with great views over the turqoise caribbean sea are enchanting enough - add the laid back carribean vibe that makes for very relaxed and welcoming people and you understand why most travellers get stuck here for quite some time. The Getsemani-quarter next to the old town is full of expats, backpackers and busy locals and makes a colorful and bustling place to wander around after nightfall and to get into the seaside-mood, you can choose from a large range of harbors and little beaches to explore and dig into all the seafood you can imagine. And the best thing about the hot weather: you can spent the lunchtime hours with a guilt-free siesta in an airconditioned cafe with an icecold bananashake and a good book. How much better does it get?

After two days in the city, we were ready to feel some sand between our toes and took a boat to the Playa Blanca. On a tour around the gorgeous Rosario Islands we went on a nice if short snorkeling trip and enjoyed beautiful fish, corals and crystal clear waters before landing on the beach. The stretch of white sand along a calm, turquoise sea is lined with little huts that offer food, drink and hammocks - we quickly found a place to stay for the next two nights. What followed was a seemingly endless string of swimming, sitting in the shade of a cocopalm-hut, taking a nap in the hammock, drinking the icy happy-hour-cocktails and enjoying simple but tasty candlelit dinners before all lights and music (and power in general) was turned off at 9pm. When it turned 5pm on the second day of our stay it also turned midnight in Germany at the same time - and we started celebrating Renä's birthday with the best and juiciest crumble-cake we ever had. The next morning, on his actual birthday, we left the beach very early, caught a moto-ferry-bus-combination and were back in Cartagena for an amazing breakfast at a German-owned cafe with great self-made bread and everything we longed for.
And now we are waiting for our next adventure: we will shortly embark on the 'Dolfin Solo', the sailboat that will take us to the San Blas Islands of Panama.

Our time in Colombia was short but very intense, and we enjoyed every bit of it a lot. The country's reputation is lightyears away from what we experienced and we can just highly recommend traveling in this amazingly diverse place - we promise that you'll enjoy it!

El Loco Desnudo

 

We took a 20 minutes flight from Bogota to Medellin which saved us about 9.5 hours on a bus through the mountains and were, for the first time in quite a while – awaited at the airport: my beautiful host sister Maria and her wonderful parents Olga and Jorge were there to pick us up and take us to their home, where they took amazing care of us for over a week! Together with Maria's awesome sister Natalia and her charming brother Santiago (and their aunts, grandmas and friends) they truly made us feel at home away from home and let us rest from what had become quite a stressful travel for a while.

Our plane landed around 12pm, so the natural stop on our way from the airport to the house (a 45 minutes drive as the airport is not in Medellin but in a neighboring valley) was at a restaurant where we tried our first typical Colombian breakfast: Yummy Arepas with cheese and scrambled eggs and different sorts of sausages and fried pork skin. After a curvy ride up and down a mountain, the valley opened up in front of us, and we caught our first glimpse of the big city of Medellin that, together with its smaller neighbors, fills what looks like a huge pan. Beautiful surrounding mountains and large green patches of tropical trees throughout the skyscraper-dotted city made it a picture-perfect sight – if it hadn't been for the towering dark clouds that turned the sky dark. A second later a tropical storm broke out (funny enough we had icy hail on our first day in the hot city) that we sat out in the country club next to 'our' house: great food, jacuzzis, pools, tons of sport facilities and a spa for the massage after the workout: what a great place to laze away a stormy Saturday afternoon. Of course we came back several times throughout the week...

When we woke up after the most comfortable sleep in ages (we got to sleep in Maria's and Natalia's comfy beds) the sun was shining again and we did a family trip to the antique city of Santa Fe de Antioquia. The typical colonial streets of the little town boast flower-filled patios, whitewashed houses and tree shaded plazas with an astonishing number of beautiful small churches; Street vendors sell juicy, sweet local fruits that, in some cases, we had never heard of before (and of course had to try); and the Puente de Occidente, one of the first suspension bridges in the Americas, invites for an unusual crossing of the Cauca River. We enjoyed brilliant food, great views and lots of fun with the family. As
 beautiful as Santa Fe presented itself, the greatest memory of the day will remain the way back home to Medellin; We took the most lonesome road there was to find that lead us right through the jungle for the longest time. In the thickest bush, a crazy naked guy suddenly jumped on the street in front of us, screamed like a siren and tried to get into the car. When we were sure that there was in fact nothing wrong with him and he didn't need our help, we baptized him 'El Loco Desnudo' and he became our mascot for the week (as we attracted a few more locos whenever we explored the city ourselves...). The rest of the way back went quite smooth, except of the minor inconvinience when 4 stone avalanches blocked the road and we had to wait around for 4 hours before we could continue our way. Quite an adventure.

During the week, we explored Medellin on our own and with our hosts. We took a tour bus to get an overview over the touristic sights of the city and ended up having a great time with our personal guide (between him not speaking the greatest English and us not being the best Spanish speakers the world has ever known we ended up having quite some fun discussing about everything and nothing!). We followed Natalia around the city center, the sports complex with the impressive stadium and watched her work in her design class in the university. We enjoyed stunning vistas from the Metrocable on our way to the Parque Arvil nature reserve where we went for a beautiful hike. We got our culture fix with Maria's lovely aunt Estrela when she took us to see the large Botero-collection in the Museo de Antioquia and followed that up with a visit to the small but very cool Museo de Arte Moderno. We enjoyed an informative, educating and extremly entertaining visit to the interactive Parque Explorer with Maria who enjoyed nothing more than the moving dinosaur statues. And we reached for the clouds when we flew over
the city in a breathtaking parapente-experience. The nights were spent enjoying great coffee in luxurious shopping malls, meeting all the friends at obnoxiously funny Star Wars parties, being introduced to the greater family and best friends at incredibly delicious BBQs, walking around the blinky 'Goldmile' and enjoying homely dinners with the whole family gathered around the inviting kitchen table.

For mothers' day weekend we left the noisy city to go to the finca at El Peñol. A 90 minute car ride took us to this completely different world. The truly beautiful landhouse (not at least due to the incredible woodwork that Jorge did himself) sits in a huge garden with direct access to the massive artificial lake that became our playground for the weekend. Waterskiing, kayaking, donouting, fishing and just driving around on the lake kept us busy whenever we were not eating or relaxing in a hammock on one of the many porches with great views over the surroundings. A must-do on this trip was climbing the vast El Peñol, a giant monolith that looms over the lake. 740 steep stairs lead up to its highest top that offered grand vistas and highly welcomed snack shops that sell the tastiest water ever. Close to the stone is Guatape that we visited to see its famous zocalos, colorful base-relief scenes that decorate each and every house in the tiny village. Steep cobbled streets, a small plaza and lots of colorful flowers make it very cute and quite worthwhile to wander around in.

After 10 memorable days in Medellin we sadly had to say goodbye to Maria, Olga, Natalia, Jorge and Santiago. They took such good care of us, spoiled us as no one has done since we left our mothers last year, offered the most comfortable beds since we left home and showed us their welcoming and beautiful city in a way that we couldn't have imagined possible - it was really hard to leave them. We will surely miss their warm welcome, beautiful smiles and fun company and won't ever forget their amazing hospitality. We hope that we can come back some day!

Mystical Lines and Capital Cities

We left Arequipa on a nightbus to the north and woke up early the next morning in dusty Nazca. The tiny town in the middle of the desert is home to the mysterious Nazca Lines – lines that were scratched in the sandy ground by the Nazca civilization long before the Inca empire spread there. From the ground, the lines don't make much sense – but get up above them and you'll find they form a network of giant geometric figures and drawings of animals, plants

and human beings. Why did the Nazcans create these giant earth-graffitis? The beauty of them can only be seen from above but they didn't know how to fly. How did they create the perfect geometric pictures without losing the overview of what they were doing? What tools did they use to scratch the ground on such a massive scale? Everything is not certain when it comes to the Nazca lines. Scientists have long wondered about these questions and some of their possible answers certainly seem more plausible than others (though it is still fun to fly above the lines and think of them as alien-airports). For whatever they were used in the time they were created – today they are a World Heritage Site that draws in the tourists by their hundreds every day. We took an unforgettable flight over the sight in a little Cessna plane that made our stomachs quite uneasy from time to time (or better: from turn to turn). In a little more than half an hour we overflew an astounding array of figures, saw monkeys, dogs, whales and the astonishing astronaut, got our head twisted by giant hands, spiders and octopus and tried to catch all the trapezoids, arrows and lines that zigzagged below us. It was a great sight – and one that will have us wonder for quite a while.

After the flight we got on a bus to Ica where we changed to another bus to the capital, Lima. We got there at night after a tiring drive through the steaming hot desert in a non-aircon bus and went straight to bed. The next day, we explored Central Lima where you'll find plazas, colonial architecture, the government buildings and lots of street life. It is said not to be the safest place to wander around – but as we stuck to the daylight hours we never felt uncomfortable and actually enjoyed ourselves quite a bit as Lima happened to be a beautiful city. We saw churches and visited monasteries, enjoyed ice cream in the sun on the beautiful Plaza de Armas that is surrounded by grand, colorful architecture, we strolled along the chaotic pedestrian streets and enjoyed sunset at an ultramodern park over the river, we watched a great game of soccer with an unbearable last 5 minutes in a German beer house (where we still appeared to be the only supporters of the German team) and we spent a great night out with good music at the Hard Rock Cafe.

On our last day in Peru we visited ultramodern, tidy Miraflores – a quarter of Lima that is blessed with dramatic coastline, beautiful parks and safe streets to wander. We spent hours walking atop the cliffs, watching the surfers beneath us riding the surf of the great pacific, joining the joggers in their efforts at the small gym-stations in the park, enjoying the sight of the many paragliders that disappeared over the cliffs just to rise up behind them after a second and sit on benches to lazily enjoy some sun on our faces. At last hunger lead us to a big mall with a fantastic setting – it is built straight into the cliff. The view was amazing, the food not so much.

After a very short night, we had to get up at 1am to get to the airport in time to catch our flight to Bogota in Colombia. This meant goodbye to Stephan, whom we traveled with for almost a month. On our own again, we crossed the equator on the way to Bogota via Panama – we are back on 'our' side of the world now... We landed in Bogota in the early afternoon and it took quite some time to get to the city center. The ride took us along wide, green boulevards and tidy parks into the narrow, noisy heart of the city where we found a great hostel – and just went to bed for the rest of the day.

The next morning dawned and we got up quite refreshed and ready to explore the town. We spent hours in the historic center of La Candelaria with its charming colonial architecture, cafes and restaurants and noisy street vendors. Even though the main Plaza de Bolivar was quite a disappointment after the many beautiful squares we have seen during the last couple of weeks, the surrounding architecture was not: the national government has their impressive palaces here and the main cathedral majestically overlooks the whole place. When it started raining in the
afternoon (a very common happening in the city that by the way also is quite chilly – we thought Colombia would be steaming hot after the Andean countries) we went to visit the absolutely astonishing Museo del Oro. In over 3 hours we saw thousands of exquisite works of gold from all the major pre-Hispanic cultures in Colombia and learned (in a curiously interesting manner) all about the tools and techniques that were used, the cultural background that accompanied the masterful pieces, Colombian history and much more. The museum is definitely one of the not-to-be-missed sights in Bogota. While we spent time in the museum it had stopped raining and the 'Septimazo' had started: the main street that leads towards the Plaza de Bolivar is closed down for cars on Friday evenings and a sort of nightmarket sets up along it. Next to the vendors, tons of eccentric street performers fill the street that all gather groups of spectators around them – dancers, mimics, storytellers, gamblers,...we rarely found a more surreal crowd of people, and we rarely enjoyed ourselves so much! We walked up and down the whole length of the street twice before it got too much for us – and we left for a quite dinner and the movies in yet another glitzy mall along the way.

A lesson in humility

We ventured back south from Cuzco to the picturesque colonial town of Arequipa. Peru's second largest city was baptized 'the white city" (yes, there is a couple of 'white cities' in South America - and they are all beautiful) and most people think it is because of its many grand colonial buildings made from light volcanic stone that dazzles in the sun. The name is really just a sign of where the city came from though- the Spaniards, white people. No huge historical and archeological significance means less tourists - and that generally means more authenticity.

We spend days wandering the cobblestoned streets, sitting on the main square and enjoy the picture perfect view of majestic volcano Misti rising behind the cathedral. We enjoyed big city amneties in ultra modern shopping malls, hip bars and great eateries. We watched the fans of Spanish football suffer and celebrated with the few that found some black and yellow to wear at the sports bar. We lost ourselves in the alleys of the many local markets, all just geared towards one special need. We walked along the riverfront, climbed viewpoints and tried more peruvian food in picanterias (with varying results...). We spend hours talking to and laughing with the great owner of our hostel who quickly became a friend. We couldn't help staring at the raged Chachani volcano that dramatically rises up to 6080 meters and dreaming about climbing up to those unseen hights. And finally we decided to stop dreaming - and JUST DO IT.

The Chachani

We found a good and reliable operator for our first real mountaineering experience and set out one glorious morning with a small group of 5 people (all newbies to high mountains) to climb the Chachani. After a bumpy three hour 4x4 ride we reached the foot of the mountain, shouldered our equipment and set out for the basecamp at 5200m. We got there shortly before sunset, put up our tents, had some simple dinner and went 'to bed' at 6pm. The sun had gone, it was already -10 degrees and we had to get up early anyways - no need to stay up and outside. The night came, and so did

the altitude sickness. The lack of oxygen made lying down unbearable for some, strong headaches and icy temperatures prevented others from finding sleep and yet some other brave first-time mountaineers found themselves being sick all night. When the guide called us out of our tents for breakfast at 1am, none but one of us ate anything at all - and when we set out for our attempt to reach the summit a few minutes later, one of us 5 had to stay at the basecamp without being able to try at all. 40 minutes later, the second one had to go back to the camp due to a loss of orientation and coordination. The guide took him back down while the three that were left kept slowly climbing up the rocky path. The moon enlightened the night so headlights were almost unnecessary, stars dotted the black sky and an unreal silence lay over the ice
cold scene. After 90 more minutes, the guide reached us again and the walk picked up some speed - too much for the third one, who trembled from exhaustion and cold and needed to go back down quickly. When the next breaking point was reached at 5800m it was finally also over for the 4th one - a lack of oxygen made walking so hard that the speed of the guide and 'the last surviver' became too great for her. Beaten by the mighty heights of the Chachani, 4 disappointed want-to-be-mountaineers had to wait for the sun to come out at the basecamp - and would have celebrated

and congratulated the return of the only one who actually made it (a Spanish guy with an immense willpower) hugly if they (and he) had only felt a little better. As it was, the whole group just took down their tents and trembled more than walked down the way from the basecamp to the end of the road where they were picked up in silence. Back in Arequipa everyone went straight to bed and slept for 13 hours. When we woke up, the 24 hours at the mountain seemed like a very distant memory.
So, no, we didn't make it to the top of our first 6000m peak. Because, no, we cannot JUST DO everything we fancy doing. Sometimes, things are just too big for just doing and they need preperation, time and, maybe most of all, respect. But that's a lesson worth learning - especially in the dramatic setting of the Chachani.

Indie feat. Lara – What would the Tourists do?

After a great time in the thick jungle of Cambodia, Indie and Lara meat again to learn more about ancient civilizations, their treasures and history. This time they travel to the old capital of the legendary Inca-empire, Cuzco. Budget restrictions force them to travel disguised as normal tourists – two in a million that are channeled through the ruins, museums and traditional dancing shows every day in the most touristic town Indi and Lara have ever seen in their lives. An itinerary.

Day One – City Tour Cuzco
Start at the cathedral on the central Plaza de Armas – note the abundance of Inca-symbolism in the church's decorations, e.g. the 'Last Supper' with a juicy guinea pig as the main dish and conquistador Pizarro's head on the body of Judas. That can't be a coincidence. Leave the Plaza along old inca streets to reach Qorikancha, the richest temple of the Incan empire as it was lite
rally covered with gold. Learn about how the Inca used their knowledge of the stars for their agriculture and witness how earthquakes that easily crumbled the colonial churches left the masterful precise Inca walls with not even a single crack. Next, jump on a bus and get into line with a million more buses to get to the Inca fortress Saqsaywaman that impressively towers on the mountaintop over the city. Once you get there, take in the hurried explanation by your guide and then rush to the top to get a view before running to the bus – 5 minutes must be enough to see this sight. You'll see two more temples like this, the ceremonial bath Tambomachay where you should take a sip of the spring water just to prove the tour guide wrong who says that gringos cannot drink it without getting sick, and the small Pukapukara. On your way back to town, you'll get lots of time for the last stop – a super expensive Alpaca clothing store. What a great tour. To finish off a first tourist day, you'll catch the traditional dancing show, that lightens your mood and saves the day with its fun local music, colorful dresses and happy dances.

 Day Two – Museums of Cuzco

Go visit the museums of contemporary and modern art – just to find that they are really not worth the time. Spend all the more time at the history museum that displays a great array of pre-hispanic artifacts and tells the history of Cuzco throughout the centuries in a very
enjoyable and informative way. Take your afternoon tea at the bar of the sweet little chocolate museum before spending the night in the best museum in town – the Coca Museum. Take in a private session with a Shaman who can tell you more about your past, present and future by reading your Coca-leaves (try not to laugh during the session, a straight face helps enormously to not been thrown out after just a couple of seconds). In between the museums hang out at the Plaza de Armas and witness a great carnevalesque parade with lots of folklore, dancing and music. Great fun.

Day Three – Sacred Valley of the Incas Tour

Take this tour even though you (rightly so) suspect that it might not be worth all the money you have to spend for it – it's after all still the most informative and enjoyable way to get to Aguas Calientes. Spend hours on a bus with annoying travelers that always come late or get lost so that the whole tour is absolutely off schedule and you might just miss your 100 USD train to Aguas Calientes. Marvel at the great sight of the inca citadell of Pisac and the steep cliff behind it that is honeycombed with thousands of tombs. Be trafficked to the modern heart of Pisac and spent tons of time at the touristic market – hold up your defenses or you'll have to buy tons of stuff nobody needs. Next, stop at an upscale buffet-lunch restaurant that is not included in your tour-ticket but far away from every other eating option. Starve just a little and wait for hours until all the other members of your tour (whose tickets miraculously include the buffet-lunch) are done eating. Rush to amazing Ollantaytambo, the eldest city in the valley, and loose your breath running up the stairs to the huge inca fort and temples that tower above the village. Get a 5minute in-depth explanation of what you see before performing a sprint to the train station to catch your train in the last second. Enjoy your train ride on the Inca express and try to understand what happened on your Sacred Valley tour.

Day Four – Amazing Machu Picchu

Get up at 4:30am to catch one of the first buses from Aguas Calientes up the mountain to the inca city Machu Picchu. Get into the vast complex right when they open and make your way straight through to the Principle Temple – be awestruck at the sight. Stay there and watch the sunrise over the surrounding mountains, pet the llamas and enjoy the silence as long as it lasts. When the first other tourists arrive, make your way back to the entrance and wait for your guide. Take a three-hour guided tour of the whole complex, learn about the architecture, inca culture and history and all the mysteries that surround the enchanting ruins. Take a short rest before climbing up a million stairs to the peak of the Machu Picchu mountain where you'll enjoy a great picnic lunch in the sun, watching down on the picture perfect scenery. Spend the afternoon to stroll through the ruins and explore every corner, find hidden treasures and take an unbelievable amount of pictures. When the complex closes, go back to town, take in a couple of Pisco Sours and catch your train-bus-combination to go back to Cusco.

Day 5 – Temple Tour around Cuzco 

You have 12 more hours to spend in Cuzco before you have to catch your next nightbus. Spend some more money for another tour to see more inca ruins in Cuzco's surroundings with a bad guide and hordes of picture-taking tourists – and be surprised to have a real good time, especially at the astonishing water temple of Tipon. Wander along the canals, tunnels and aqueducts and enjoy the view from the highest temple while enjoying the warm sun. When you get back to Cuzco, it is time to finally try out some special local specialty: Cuy. Taste your first guinea pig at the best local picanteria, surrounded by tons of Peruvians celebrating birthdays, weddings and office parties – and for the first time in 5 days no other tourists! Wash down the tasty meat with a good Chicha – the maize-drink of choice, flavored with fruit to add some color. Enjoy these last hours more than all the hasty others you spent in Cuzco and finally take time to reflect about everything you saw during the last days – and realize how amazing it really was!