LIMA

We landed in Peru’s capital Lima which convinced us right away by its amazing location. Right by the Pacific Ocean on top of cliffs, the capital stretches far along the coast and has with it’s 10 mio inhabitance quite a scale.

We got an Airbnb in the heart of Miraflores which is basically the only neighbourhood, next to Barranco, people recommend to stay in. Soon we realised how many Chinese restaurants there are in town, so called Chifas. Back in the day Peru had Chinese guest workers, that couldn’t afford to go back to their country after their contract finished and so they opened restaurants all over Peru. It’s another beautiful fusion of worlds, so far apart yet globalisation entangled them brutally.

We woke up every morning to go for a run in the well kept parks along the cliff. There we also had the best sunset of our whole trip. Dramatic orangey and breathtaking. Another really interesting fact is how the capital has next to the colonial buildings in the old town, ancient ruins right in the middle of the city. There the Inca empire did greet us for the first time.

PARACAS

It’s easy to get around in the country, at least if you’re staying on the tourist route. With Cruz del Sur we made our way down to Paracas, a quiet unimpressive beach town where you can either drive a squat through the sandy landscapes of nothingness or book a boats tour to see some sea life on an island in front of the coast. We did secondly, even though driving a squat would’ve been nice but we miss calculated it coz we thought we could do it at our next destination. Some dolphins and a penguin made our boat tour worth it though!

HUACACHINA

Already expecting the worst tourist town ever in between sand dunes, we very majorly surprised of our hostel there (Wild Olives), which was an oasis of quietness in an oasis of hustle and bustle. Despite the masses of people visiting this (fake) oasis on the outskirts of a huge dessert, for us it was mind-blowing to be on top of huge sand dunes looking over nothing but sand dunes to one side, and an illegal settlement of thousands and thousands of houses on the other. Of course we did the buggy tour through the desert there, which felt for me like a roller coaster in a fun park called dessert together with hundreds of other sand buggies and people.

NAZCA

Since I can remember one of the reasons of going to Peru were these incredible huge lines carved in the sandy ground by unknown forces that can be only fully visible from above and are symbols of animals like a spider or colibri. We did decide to book a flight with a tiny aircraft to see some of them. The flight was breathtaking in all ways. It was quite rough and impressive at the same time. We left with more questions than answers and started watching documentaries.

AREQUIPA

After a long bus ride at night, we left sea level and went for the first time up towards the Anden mountains. With the first sun rays in the morning, I could see how we slowly drove from stony barren landscapes to a green high plane with seven impressive volcanos. Misti, Chachani and Pichu Pichu are visible from almost any place in town. We had the best time there. From good food, over good coffee, to friendly locals and nice encounters… we spend four nights here but could’ve stayed longer. Our hostel (Sociatel) had a great Yoga deck so we kept our well-being program going.

COLCA CANYON

Since we heard that hiking in the canyon can be done without a tour, we took a bus to Cabanaconde by ourselves. The town is the starting point of many hiking routes down into the canyon. We stayed for one night at Pacha Mama, which seems to be the only decent place to stay and eat in town. Since I decided to spent some time by myself, my friend Max went hiking alone for two days and made some incredible treks inside the canyon, hiking from one village to another. He stayed in lodges with hot water springs after covering quite some altitude. Judging by his face the morning we met again, I should’ve definitely joined!

Pampa Cañahuas

The ride to Puno was an adventure and probably the first time I felt off the beaten treck. The lady selling us the bus tickets was very optimistic for us to get to Puno from Cabanaconde, but forgot the impact of Semana Santa on the Peruvian roads. After we got off the bus in the middle of nowhere, literally a Pampa we had no other option other than hitchhiking after talking with locals who where trying for hours to get a bus to Puno from there. And since we were under the influence of some damn good stars, we quickly got a ride all the way to Juliaca, a town close to Puno. The ride was long due to high traffic and strangely quiet from the couple who picked us up. The landscapes breathtaking though. The journey turned out to be long but we made it the same night to our hostel in Puno.

PUNO

Who would recommend to visit Puno?! We really didn’t like our stay there. If you want to visit lake Titicaca then do it on the Bolivian side in Cococabana. The access to the lake from Puno is only the enclave of the lake and doesn’t show the wideness and size of whole Titicaca. It’s so touristic because of the floating islands which are honestly not worth the hype in my opinion. People don’t smile there and the city is dirty and not inviting.

CUSCO

After this downer the ride to Cusco by bus was truly an upper. The landscapes between 3 – 6000 m high mountains are insanely beautiful. I was very moved by seeing how people live there. Close to nature, in small communities with nothing but agriculture to survive on. It seems to me that the Andes have been shelter and battle at the same time for centuries.

They say Cusco is the navel of the world. It’s where civilisation was born, in mountain caves close by. If you look at how the city is located it does seem like a navel, since high mountains are picturesquely surrounding the city. The old town invites you to roam around in narrow streets with cute and colourful shops, and streets ending in staircases going up steep hills. Since we acclimated to the altitude from our stops before, we arrived in our Airbnb ready to start exploring. It took as a few days to organise our endeavours. The first few days we were exploring the city but then we were ready to start our Salkantay trekking trip for 5 days.

SALKANTAY HIKE to Machu Pichu

There are different types of travellers. But mainly you can distinguish between people who like to plan ahead and people who go with the flow. Max and I are definitely the second ones. When it comes to getting into Manchu Pichu, people scared us by saying we should’ve booked our tickets way in advance. But they couldn’t be more wrong. But first to our five day hike up a 4600m pass and down into jungle valleys. We thought it’s gonna be us and a group of 20 people who are going the rather exhausting unconventional way to Machu Pichu.

But that’s far away from the truth. Every day hundreds of people are walking these trails, or getting on horses. So the romantic idea of you alone in the wild is erased quite quickly. But than you have other things to worry about: how to hike up steep mountains without losing your breath. Or if you really want to have a cold shower in freezing temperatures. But that’s all part of the adventure. We got food poisoned before the hike and were both really grateful to be okay compared to others who fought food poisoning while hiking plus fighting with the altitude.

Day one ended with hiking up to a crystal clear blue lagoon, which was a great reward. The second day was tough with 22km to complete by walking over the Salkantay pass. Day three we started in a jungle valley with warmer temperatures and no hard climbs. We had a free afternoon, that most people spent in hot springs. We on the other hand, spent it looking for coffee (hiking up another mountain) and got eventually served by an old friendly lady with whom we shared some giggles with. Day four was tough too since we started with a muddy climb, had the most amazing view, and then went downhill for a very long time only to have a quick lunch break before heading as fast as possible to Aguas Calientes, the town on the feet of Manchu Pichu, in order to get our tickets.

AGUAS CALIENTES

Day four was reallyyyy tough. Exhausted from the previous days, and a never ending hike, made us extremely tired. We arrived in Aguas Calientes only to rush to the ticket office of Machu Pichu, that gives out a 1000 tickets for the next day. Well, first we got a number to queue hours later. The town is the highest manifestation of a tourist town ever on this planet. Massage centres, restaurants and souvenir shops compete for your attention. We were dying to sleep. And managed to get tickets for the next day!

After another short night, we left at 5:30am for the bus that took us up to Machu Pichu. In hindsight, it was great to be one of the first ones entering the ancient ruins on top of this incredible beautiful hill. Over 4000 people are visiting the sight daily. We had a ticket that allowed us only a certain route inside the ruin and so we took our time to follow the track and enjoy the views and ancient constructions. After that we made our way down and walked a rail track back to get to the place where a van would take us all the way back to Cusco. The bus ride was 7 hours long and was very adventures since land slides are making the road to a daily overcoming of obstacles. My own kinda death road of Peru.

PISAC

The last two weeks in Peru I spent in a small town close to Cusco. With a collectivo you can drive over those breathtaking mountains and arrive 40 minutes later in a warm and insanely beautiful valley. Houses there are mainly build with natural materials and blend harmoniously into the landscape. You’ll find a Chakana (Inca cross) almost in any house structure. Either in window frames, on balconies or on house gates.

After one Wachuma ceremony with my friend I decided to book an Ayahuasca retreat a few days later. I heard the calling from the plant medicine for a long time and it came just in the right moment into my life. I’m beyond grateful to have made this decision and hope I can nourish from the impact of this experience for a long time. I did it with Sacred Valley Tribe which is a community of friends that have been working with the medicine for a long time. The retreat included three Ayahuasca ceremonies and one Wachuma ceremony in the end.

I don’t want to share my personal experience with the medicine in detail since it is such an individual experience every single time. But I can say that I understand now why people here call it medicine. It truly heals the heart-mind relationship. It helps you zoom out of your ego driven mind perspective in life and makes you realise what truly matters. Regarding Wachuma I can say that it’s also called San Pedro like “Saint Peter from the heavens”. It makes you feel high. In local terms it’s called Wachuma which means to chop the head. As you can imagine, it helps you stop thinking and connects you to your heart intelligence. We were walking in nature the whole day, making prayers along the way. It was a nice way to integrate the insights from the retreat.

And a truly amazing end to my trip in Peru. Beyond grateful. See you soon Valle Sagrado!