Walking with Llamas

Christmas in Bad Aussee, Austria

2008-12-23T15:55:00.003-05:00

To wrap up our small expedition: The 4 months or travelling have been fantastic. Poeple we met were always friendly, and we did not experience a single serious situation during our trip. Some parts have been exhausting, but travelling as we did has enabled us to meet people, not just museums. We have also experienced what the countries have to offer today, not just what they had 500 years ago. Following the gringo trail in the north part of Ecuador opened our eyes to what normal tourists see, and we are incledible happy for what we have done. Last of all, not all people have the opportunity to shoot off to another continent for 4 months, or any time at all. Thanks to everybody that have helped us accomplish this. Another thanks goes to our loyal (and also disloyal) blog readers. It is fun to write when people read.

At Heatrow airport, London / Miami Airport

We arrived the Meier residence in Bad Aussee after 32 hours (16 of them waiting), 2 ice creams, 3 films, some naps and a couple of sore behinds. The bicycle decided to catch another flight, and will be with us after christmas. Erhard came all the way to Vienna to pick us up (3 hrs each way). Thank you Erhard. Most of today was spent with the kids (Johannes, Flora and Miriam) and the rest of the family at Lydia and Koens place.

MERRY CHRISTMAS to all of you!

The very last travel album for now: http://picasaweb.google.com/eirik.sunde/QuitoDecember2008#

Leaving Ecuador

2008-12-20T18:22:00.004-05:00

The days in Quito have not been as eventful as we might have desired, but we have carried out some important tasks. We sold Anitas bike for 220 USD (New price: 385 USD). Eiriks bike is now totally dismounted and packed into something American Airlines might accept without charging us 250 USD (as they have threatened us to do). Eirik is very pleased to have a bike in the Styrian paradise Bad Aussee.

Eiriks bike packed

Anita gave some clothes she does not need anymore to a very nice woman, who gave us some yummy pastry in return. We are taking farewell with good and cheap vegetarian food, fruit juice stands and pollerias (grilled chicken). Bonus for our last day: We finally found a internet place selling coffee (even most of them are called names such as coffenet etc). Yesterday, we dropped into a large mall, and are very happy to avoid the christmas chaos you all are exposed to at the moment.

The tourist project of the day: Basilica del Voto Nacional, built in the 1900 century

Our plane departs Quito at 10:20 tomorrow, flying over Miami and London. But hey, Austria here we come!

Tick-tacking the time left

Quito

2008-12-19T10:45:00.005-05:00

The trip is coming to and end, and we had a moment of useful statistics on the bus yesterday:

Time spent on bus: 52 hours (north Peru / Ecuador)
Time spent with backpack: 280 hours (mid peru)
Time spent on bicycle: 102 hours (Bolivia / South Peru)
Time spent together: 2934 hours
Time spent away from each other: 15 hours!!!

My (Eiriks) greatest worry, prior to leaving Europa, was the intensity of each others company. During a span of 123 days, we have just spent a bit more than a half a day away from each other (that almost includes bathroom visits). It proved to be no problem at all, maybe because the time walking/cycling behind each other feels like time spent alone.

Leaving Baños was a bit sad, because it was an excellent place to relax. We had heard several things about Quito, and most of it was things we did not want to hear such as muggings, scams, and worst of all: rain! As we arrived the bus terminal, the rain started and did not end before we had found a nice hostel in the Quito Old Town. We checked in, went out to eat what they called a Caesar salad (any salad with chicken is a Ceasar salad here), and headed sleepily home to bed. After turning and tossing the whole night Eirik was, according to Anita, annoyingly awake at 0630, and could no longer tolerate that Anita was soundly asleep.

The higly recommended breakfast place did not open as early as we desired, and we therefore walked up into the New Town and the Mariscal Sucre aka. Gringolandia. Quito has proved itself worthy for a visit so far, with street entertinment at night and a good street atmosphere. Adding a talk with a bicycle company and a short trim of Eiriks beard, we are left here at this internet cafe.

Relaxing in Baños

2008-12-18T10:02:00.003-05:00

After two days of reading, hammock swinging and bathing we yesterday decided to get active again. We rented two quad-runners and drove up closer to the vulcano. We were surprised by how much it actually smokes. Quoting Eirik: "If the vulcano had been a powerplant, then Greenpeace had been there with their posters long time ago."

In the afternoon we biked 18 km of the "Waterfall-Street" to Pailon del Diabolo (the devil's cauldron), a very impressive waterfall where you can crawl through a long tunnel-like stone niche until you stand behind the waterfall and get splashing wet.

The perfect ending of the day was spending the whole evening in the hot and cold pools of "La Piscina de la Virgen". Now we're ready for Quito.

P.S. The parade on December 16th was very fun to watch. All the towns institutions participated, including two geriatric homes. The act of electing a beauty queen must be deeply rooted in Ecuador, as also the geriatric delegations had a (approximately 80 years old) beauty queen walking in front. I found that quite cool. Who says that beauty has to be linked to youth?

Baños

2008-12-15T19:48:00.003-05:00

After a long day (5 hours on the train, 4 hours in the bus) we arrived yesterday evening in Baños. Eirik tried bravely to comfort tired and therefore grumpy Anita. We had just slept 4 hours the night before due to packing late and getting up early. But here we are in Baños ("baths"), the perfect place to relax. The water is warmed by the active Vulcano Tungurahua and is rich in minerals.

We woke up to marching music at 8 o'clock and were sure it was some kind of military parade. It was therefore quite surprising to see small school children beating drums, playing xylophone, dancing and marching in formation. They were practicing for tomorrows city fiesta and it was impressive how good they were.

The hot baths are situated right next to a high waterfall. The hottest pool has over 40C and after 2 minutes it gets too warm. Luckily there are big pipes with cold water directed from the waterfall under which one can stand afterwards. Very nice!

Nariz del Diablo - Riobamba

2008-12-14T14:21:00.007-05:00

After returning from Chimborazo, we slept for a whole day. The volcano Chimborazo is in fact as far away from the center of the earth as you can get (with the feet still planted on the ground) due to the equatorial bulge. We have therefore been higher up than mount Everest, which is kind of cool.

Another thrilling experience was waiting for us this morning, the infamous Nariz del Diablo train route from Riobamba to, yes, the Nariz del Diablo. We woke up at 05:20 sharp (and even left the bed), ate breakfast, showered and headed to the train station where we found loads of already waiting and expectant tourists. Our train was packed with an organized tour group, who had given out lollipops to the participants. After filling in the last available seats on the roof of the train, and paying 1 USD for a comfy pillow, the train slowly departed Riobamba. At first, it felt a bit like a zoo with white tourists throwing food to the people we passed along the road. In the end of the day, it was quite nice. Kids came running towards the train when they say it coming, knowing that there might be something for them. Farmers walking along the train tracks smiled and waved at the train. The scenic was breathtaking, and in such an easy way. We did not even have to walk or bike!

At 12:00, we arrived at Alausi, and had to go back to Riobamba by bus. We entered a bus that departed right away, which in Ecuador is like seeing pigs flying. Then, in the middle of the trip, the bus collectively drew their breath. Outside the side window, a pig was flying next to the bus. The poor creature had fallen down from the roof where it was packed with the other goods. It still hang in its rope, trying to climb up the ladder again. The bus stopped at last and the pig could finally come up into safeness again.

Flying pig rescue operation

At the moment, we are trying to finalize a deal for our bicycles. If our potential buyers do not want to pay our price, we bring the bikes home. The bikes are pretty good. After the deal is closed, we head towards Baños where we will relax for some days. And for all concerned parents: We will go to Quito (3,5 hrs away) within two days of our departure.

Tracks going down on the cliff

Our train

The conductor fixing the brake wire

More pictures here: http://picasaweb.google.com/eirik.sunde/NarizDelDiabloDecember2008#

Climbing Chimborazo

2008-12-12T10:44:00.007-05:00

Juhuu, we did it!! Tonight we climbed the top of Volcano Chimborazo (6310m).

We were nervous if we`d make it, as we were neither sure about our acclimatization nor our fitness but in the end everything worked out fine. Our guide Ivo picked us up from Casa del Condor at noon yesterday and we drove to the lower refugee on Chimborazo (4800m), were he cooked a delicious all-vegetarian lunch for us. The street to the lower refugee was crowded with children-loaded buses, bringing them to a day trip on the Volcano. Or, as a matter of fact, the buses were rather empty because the children were running around outside throwing snowballs at each other. In Ecuador you have to go high up to see snow. After lunch we walked to the upper refugee (5000m) were we repacked the backpacks, drank tea, looked curiously at the other climbers and had dinner before hitting the bed at 6 pm The alarm was set for 1030 pm but we didn't sleep much, our heads spinning with thoughts.

The Refugio at 5000m

When the alarm rang we were nevertheless sleep-drunken and didn`t manage to eat much of a breakfast. At 1130 we stepped out into a near cloudless sky, the but-one-day full moon shining brightly and Chimborazo throning high. We were excited! Slowly we set in motion, on foot by the other, and that shouldn't change much the next 5 3/4 hours. The ascent was steep, very very steep, varying from 35 to 55 degrees. Soon we put on the crampons and used the icepick to manage in the snow. The tiredness came soon but we managed astonishingly well. Still, the higher we got, the more difficult it became and in the end we had to stop every second minute, our bodies being so exhausted.

Ivo (our guide) and Anita during a short break

At 0510 am the steepness finally declined and a dance floor of snow broadened out in front of us. Five minutes later all three of us started dancing on top of the Volcano, out of happiness and to chase away the cold (-12 degrees celcius). The moon was still shining but on the other side of the horizon gold, yellow and pink colours predicted the suns arrival. We watched admiring but the cold and wind chased us away before the sun itself rose.

Eirik and Anita on the dance floor at sunrise

It took us over 2 hours to reach the refugee again and the descent was quite painful to our exhausted and tired bodies. The only bonus was that we could watch the valleys awake from their sleep. Now, the only thing we want to do, is sleep ourself.

The shadow of the Vulcan Chimborazo stretching out into the horizon

Anita at our short walk on the resting day to Piedra Negra (black stone)

Cooking at Casa del Condor

On top of Piedra Negra, overlooking Chimborazo

Waiting for Ivo, Eirik whistled and played the guitar while two kids helped out with the strumming.

The beginning of the sunrise at Chimborazo

The route tracked by our GPS

More pictures here: http://picasaweb.google.com/eirik.sunde/ChimborazoDecember2008#

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2008-12-10T18:34:00.001-05:00

We have managed to nothing for a whole day! Lovely and lazy day.

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2008-12-09T21:06:00.001-05:00

Acclimatizing at Casa del Condor in the stunning village San Pablo. The vulcano Chimborazo is majastetic.

Riobamba

2008-12-08T20:09:00.001-05:00

After a terrible long ride uphill yesterday, we camped well hidden from the Panamericana highway. As the pasta gently spread lovely smell around the tent, the fog tightened around us and it was time to eat and sleep (after 6 more chapters in the very exciting books....). The water filter proved its efficiency, turning diaper marinated water into lovely drinking water.

We were brutally awoken by a squeaking duck (a dog toy) and a group of locals around our tent. They were fascinated by our presence, while we were tired and annoyed. They left us awake, and a new day had started. The cycles brought us down to Cañar where we had lunch, and then Tambos where we realized that we were tired of bicycling. We took the first bus to Riobamba, and here we are!

Tomorrow, we will check what possibilities Riobamba can offer, and also check out trips to Baños and Chimborazo. There will also be a possibility of new pictures on the blog. The place we are now has asked us nicely not to upload any pictures with a large poster right in front of us.

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2008-12-07T19:21:00.001-05:00

Tenting after wine for breakfast and an exhausting bicycle day. Surrounded by pedestrian crossing sounding birds.

Cuenca - Azogues

2008-12-06T19:45:00.003-05:00

We planned to leave Cuenca early today but had to delay the departure after staying up until 2 in the night yesterday (probably our record on this trip). The reason was a very nice Austrian/Bolivian couple we met in our hostel and with whom we cooked, ate, drank and chated the whole evening away. We even got a "Krampussackerl" from them (thank you!) and lit our adventcandle.
Nevertheless, at 1430 we said good bye to wonderful Cuenca and started biking the Panamerica up north. Describing the surrounding just needs one word: green. Green gras, bushes and trees everywhere. The Panamerica in Ecuador is far bigger than the one in Peru (at least as the part we biked), having two or even three lanes on each side and more traffick as well. Even though we just biked for two and a half hours we reached Azogues, 35 km away. Hip hip hurray for asphalt!
In Azogues we found a hostel right at the main plaza, which we can overview from our own balcony.

A walk in the park

2008-12-05T17:32:00.003-05:00

We have finally used our feet and backpacks again after some long stretches with bicycle and bus. It was wonderful. The bus dropped us off at a 4000m altitude after a short hour, and we followed an unmarked path southwards into the park. At 1300 we stumbeled upon one of the nicest camp spots we have seen so far, and could not leave it unused. We rolled out the carry mats and sleeping bags outside in the sun, and read/slept until it darkened. We were a couple of hours behind schedule, and had to catch up the lost time the two next days.

Several orchids and several rare flowers are growing at this altitude, along with trees growing in cloud forests. The foggy and cloudy climate ensures enough humidity, and the soil would give any gardener wet dreams. The flowers really look happy with their life.

We passed two passed at mere 4100 meters the second day, and crossed the landscape from one path to another. The highland landscape reminds us a bit of Norway (around Lysefjorden), and the lowlands could be taken right out from Austria. The second tent spot was near a large lake, and we woke up with fresh footprints outside the tent, probably from a fox (not the 200kg spectacle bear we wanted). The park is absolutely stunningly beautiful. However, walking on a schedule stresses us a bit, compared to the walks we had in the south of Peru without any sense of time at all.

The third, and last, day of our treks was also the hardest, climbing down 1000m. We had to pass a difficult stretch of cloud forest. We were ducking under stems and climbing over roots, all in a muddy paradise. After decending to 3200 meters, we met the first people, greeting us with "Berg heil". Who else than a group of Austrians? As the thunder rolled behind us, we managed to get dry and still smiling to the road where we took the bus back to Cuenca.

This is where we walked down

Eirik had a haircut at the most old fasioned and dodgy looking barber we could find. After placing Eirik in one of the old fashion barber chairs (that are made for people <170cm) he presented us a poster of 20 different haircuts to find our how the cut should be. The poster was from the late 80´s, and Eirik (trying not to laugh) tried to make up a half decent combination of MacGyver, Rocky and Samantha Fox.

Eirik getting a haircut, and is VERY sceptical

We will cook with a very nice Austian couple we met at our hostal today (why do they suddenly appear now??), and head north with our bicycles tomorrow morning.

Some more photos:

Our beloved llama (still nameless) has gotten her own Panama hat (Cuenca is famous for making them)

The result.

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2008-12-04T07:52:00.003-05:00

Beautiful area for hiking and camping. We are keeping our eyes open for spectacle bears and rare flowers. Feeling the hight agai

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2008-12-04T07:52:00.001-05:00

Beautiful area for hiking and camping. We are keeping our eyes open for spectacle bears and rare flowers. Feeling the hight agai

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2008-12-02T13:15:00.000-05:00

Started trek in caja national park. Excited about walking. Perfect tent spot 3800m. Afternoon sleepingbagnap under Quenua trees.

Cuenca

2008-12-01T13:20:00.001-05:00

Our last blog praised the luxury of our new host country, but we soon realised that all good things have a price. It will be pretty hard to get used to saturday/sunday closed shops again, and to accept a doubling of the price of beer from 1 USD to 2 USD. After seeking, and finally finding our bookstore, we realised that it would not open before Monday. The choice was easy, and we contiued with bus to Cuenca, a larger city further north.

Cuenca, Ecuador

Cuenca is a great city, and starting point for our normal ways of transportation. Our feet are longing for the rocky ground, and our backs just ache to carry the backpacks again. We will therefore do a three day walk in the nearby national park Caja while leaving our bicycles at our hostal. Hostal Perla Cuencana is a charming hostal in the centre of town with a great staff. It tends to be a good idea to avoid hostals that are in the lonely planet, because they try much harder for a lower price. The recently obtained Lonely Planet will be thoroughly read in a Dutch ice cream parlor today (who knew that the Dutch were famous for their ice-cream, except maby Koen?).

Eirik enjoying the great tasting Dutch ice-cream

We are now out of the desert and in the higlands of Ecuador. The temperature is still a stabile 20C, but with a daily shower of rain. With a bit of planning, it does not bother us at all. With reservations to what might be written in the Lonely Planet, we will return to Cuanca after the trek, and continue up north with bikes.

Anita asked for 10cm, and got a bit more. But she is looking great!

It did not taste as good as it looks...

Anita at the Peru/Equador border crossing, smuggling 2kg of water melon

P.S. Peru

2008-12-01T12:54:00.005-05:00

Some things we still want to mention about Northern Peru:

1) Big trucks love small bicycles. On both lanes the drivers couldn`t get enough of enthusiastically waving and honking at us and giving us thumbs up.

2) The contents of the graves found in the area around Chiclayo were really really amazing. It was a shame (at least for Anita :-) that we had so little time in the museum displaying the wonderful items. The way their gods looked, I would be afraid of them as well.
(pictures from http://www.go2peru.com/cix_foto1.htm)

First day in Equador

2008-11-29T10:21:00.013-05:00

We have arrived Loja in Equador, can already really tell the difference from Peru to our new destination country. People are more westernised dressed here, and the shops are more equal to what we could expect at home (they even have flat screen monitor in the internet place!). We did a good choice going northwards (as opposed to southwards): Every 100km north, we are delighted to find an new luxury item around (like drinkable water, butter, strawberries and mangoes), the latest being an almost full corn bread (as opposed to the white buns they normally eat). Going south would be an continuous misery as every day would cost us a new sacrifice. Peru was a great place, and we will always look back at the place with wonderful memories.

We will look for a place to buy an English travel guide today. Peru did not offer many book stores, and the once they had stocked few English books, and no travel books. It would be practical to have a guide in the first place, because it is hard to find a good English stocked book store without a travel guide (if they even have one).

Loja is situated at approximately 2100 meters and is surrounded by mountains. The road north is asphalted, but is long and windy. As we have only a few weeks left now, we might skip a ride to the next town north. Once we are there, the landscape will be flat at approximately 3000 meters. We both have a dream of climbing the mnt Cotopaxi, an active volcano at 5897 meters. We still have to check whether this can be done within our level of experience and equipment. Once we get our travel guide, the plans will probably materialize.

For the observant reader, we can explain why we did not choose to do canoe down the river Maranon. The Austrian consul in Peru impressed us with a very detailed description of the area, including the speed of the river. There are illegal drug and wood trafficking in the river area, and some of the river stretch is classified as a class 5 rapid (ca 7 meters waterfall). It is probably not a clever idea to do this with an open canoe.....

Maria, Erik's half Peruvian flatmate from Edinburgh also passed on a warning from her father: "He is Peruvian and when he went after uni with 5 of his friends he was the only one who did not die (three of them were shot)". This is some years ago, but still to be taken seriously. Our conclusion was to skip the whole river idea and head north to Ecuador, a country we have heard many good things about.

At last, we have attached a picture of all our blog visitors. Thanks to our faithful readers, and thanks to our travelling friends giving us a lot of exciting countries!

Goodbye Peru!

2008-11-27T14:59:00.003-05:00

After three wonderful months we are saying goodbye to Peru today. The plan is to take a bus to Piura (3h up north), from where there are busses going to Ecuador (8h). We chose to cross the inland border at La Tina, continuing on to Loja, instead of staying on the coast.
Thank you for all the amazing and exciting experiences, Peru!

P.S. To Sissel: Eirik has been a good son and trimmed his beard. He didn`t shave it completely to spare Anita the feeling of dating all of a sudden a teenager.
Nevertheless Anita is in a small state of sorrow. She wanted to have her hair cut 10 cm but the hairdresser took 30 instead!

A cultural day in chiclayo

2008-11-26T21:21:00.002-05:00

We had an amazing day exploring old lumps of mud. The pyramids of the once great Moche culture have now (after 1300 years) been turned into a large playground. The archaeologists are not so privileged as to use caterpillars and tractors. They are blessed with their holy toothbrush, a bucket, and a 40km2 of sand.

The graves we visited today were some of the few graves not robbed and molested by eager Spaniards and peasants just as eager to make big money. They were 7m under the ground as opposed to the normal 1.5m, and consequently even more amazing. The museum Lord of Sipan were in international standard very impressive, and managed to keep even the short lasting Eirik awake for the whole period of time (Eirik likes museums with comfortable chairs).

We have taken advantage of the large city, and have done some shopping. Anita had bought a brown shirt to match her new skirt, and Eirik got a couple of new t-shirts. Probably totally uninteresting for you guys, but we mention it anyway.

We need to plan the way ahead tomorrow, and probably stop by a barber to trim my beard as well. If you do not understand Norwegian comments, let me explain: My own mother asked if there were no hairdressers in Peru, because it could get no worse anymore. I take the hint, mum.....

We looooooove jumping pictures

We forgot to mention something in the blog yesterday: We passed a Chili plantation as we biked northwards, and seriously.....there were chillies as far as our eyes could see, and probably enough to kill the merry population of both Austria and Norway. Is there a chemical warfare prepared in Peru? Bush and them: Be careful for the weapons of mass indigestion.

PS: The rest of the pics are here http://picasaweb.google.com/eirik.sunde/HuanchacoChiclayoNovember2008#

In Chiclayo

2008-11-25T16:56:00.003-05:00

We have pushed the distance the last days, but were quite unfortunate going back to the surfing town Puerto Chicama. The road described on the map along the coast was not there, but lucky for us under planning. I hope they think a lot about that planning, because it cost us 30km more.

After completing 95km from a wonderful beach town Pacasmayo, we arrived Chiclayo in the dusk (6:30). We expected another 30min in darkness before we arrived the centre, and decided to stop at a bungalow hostal we passed. The place looked good, and it even had an own garage for our bicycles in the basement. Then we realised what it really was. There was a radio only playing on full volume, plastic sheet on the bed, a multicolored disco ball, leather covered furniture, a biiiig jacuzzi, some strange shaped furniture for nocturnal excersise and a full size mirror in front of the bed. Hmmmmm.... What happens here normally????

We woke up at 03:45 by a construction machine in the next building/inside our wall, and the merry go dround contiuned until the early morning. We have lodged in to a nice little hostal and looked around town. Eirik has been taking it easy while Anita vistited a museum. We head off with a guided tour to see Sican and some other pre-columbian sites tomorrow, before we head up towards Equador before the end of the week.

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2008-11-24T22:20:00.000-05:00

Biked 95km today, and are now staying at a bordell just south of Chiclayo

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2008-11-22T21:55:00.001-05:00

At puerto Chicama again, this time biking. Have a room with balcony facing the sea and jaccuzi. Biking up the coast tomorrow.

Last days in paradise

2008-11-20T18:37:00.005-05:00

We extended our beach stay with three days, and went on a one day trip to a beach with one of the longest surfing waves in the world. The surfing school promised food, lovely sandy beach (in contrast to the sharp stones at Huanchaco). We were in heaven, crashing into the sea with the greatest delight, and walking on the silky beach until David (a fellow surfer in the picture below) told us that there were stingrays (the fish that killed Steve Irwin, the famous crocodile hunter) around and that we should shuffle our feet instead of walking. Suddenly, we had a snake in our paradise. But hey, come on: We had the greatest kick on a beautiful beach, surfing from early morning and into the sunset at the tail end of the day. Lets face it: Surfing is hard, but we are both capable of catching a wave and ride it (until our arms feels like cabbage at least).

Peter, Sabrina, David, Eirik, Anita, Sabrina and Adrian

Eirik caught in one of the good moments

Surfers pose (we actually do not prented to be pro's, because we are all quite crap)

We have moved from spanish animal names, numbers and colours to more advanced consepts like verbs and stuff. The progress we have done in one weeks is quite remarkable, and it would have been a good idea to have done this at the very beginning istead. Though: Better late then never, and much more fun with friend in our own living room (with loads of candy and coffee)

Peter at the white board in our spanish lesson (Manuel, our tacher in the background)

We finally managed to visit chan-chan today, the largest Pre-Columbian city in South America, covering an area of approximately 20 km². The massive size of us was impressive, but how well a mud wall can stay intact for over 900 years. But then, it almost does not rain here at all.

Anita, Sabrina, Birgit and Eirik at chan chan

We will stay in a hostel in Huanchaco tomorrow night, and continue in on bike in the morning. It will be interesting to see how the coast differs from the Andes. Our feeling is probably that people are more friendly in the mountain villages, but let them prove us otherwise.

Thanks for all the comments, we love you all! And Lydia: We are really bad at doing nothing....

PS: More pictures here: http://picasaweb.google.com/eirik.sunde/HuanchacoNovember2008#

Days in Huanchaco

2008-11-16T12:00:00.002-05:00

Life is good! We are enjoying the life in the sun, a place where it never rains. The temperature is a stable 21 degrees, but can sometime creep down to 20. Our lovely villa is taking good care of us, and we consider stayinghere for a couple more days. Surfing is pretty hard work.... Au... Our muscles is a big lump of pain, and we blow out like candles at night.

Our days look something like this:
0830: Waking up and make breakfast (some get up earlier, some hardly at all)
0915: Breakfast
1000: Manuel, our spanish teacher comes and grills us for three hours (but we manage with gummi sweets and coffee)
1300: Corn flakes and fruit
1400: Surfing lessons
1630: Returning home, shower and relax a bit
1730: Cooking
1900: Dinner
2100: The social hour
2300: ZZZZzzzzz......

The four amigos surprised us with a late engagement party with a special made cake, sect, a big barbeque feast and a very romantic atmosphere. We suspected nothing (even though the Anita + Eirik cake was on show at the neighbour bakery the whole day). Thank you very much!!!!

Anita and Sabring at sunset "kung fu fighting"

Huanchaco

2008-11-14T12:10:00.003-05:00

It is wonderful wonderful wonderful here!! We have managed to get into and out of the wetsuits (which is the most difficult thing), the surfing itself seems quite easy compared to that. Big waves and mouthfulls of saltwater can't disturb us, neither our sore muscles. The delicious cuisine we six create in our kitchen gives us enough energy for surfing and learning spanish.

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2008-11-13T23:03:00.001-05:00

Sun, sand, surfing, soccer, spanish lessons, superb food, splendid company and a great villa at the beach!

A week at the beach!

2008-11-11T09:25:00.001-05:00

We have rented a wonderful beach house (check the link) for a week together with Birgit, Peter, Sabrina and Adrian in Huanchaco close to Trujillo. Our plan is to relax, learn spanish and do a beginners surf course. We all know (deep inside) that we will speak into the small hours in the night, and sleep long into the morning.

Eirik is feeling much better, which is the result of a strict ice-cream diet (preferably strawberry ice cream with fresh strawberries). You can also thank some good portions of chicken and gummi sweets (that are so hard to get hold of in the Andes).

A day in Lima

2008-11-09T18:20:00.002-05:00

We have spent today doing a security check up of Eirik in a clinic. All the tests were negativ and we are happy about that. He is feeling better as well but has nevertheless started a special diet, just to be sure (three times ice cream per day).
The climate in Lima is very different from what we are used to but a change feels pleasant now. After the Andes all the luxury in Lima is puzzling (good pasta, doughnuts, salad, nice beds, hot showers!).
It is wonderful to be together with Birgit and Peter. We will take the overnight bus to Trojillo, meeting Sabrina and Adrian there as well. Beach holiday and recovery time with friends!

Going to Lima

2008-11-07T20:41:00.002-05:00

We have survived the night bus ride to Huancayo and even slept a lot. My deepest respect to the drivers, it must take hundred percent concentration to drive that road with all its curves and cliffs in the dark. Having arrived at five in the morning it was a challenge to find an open hospedaje. We had breakfast at 7 am in a wonderful cafe and that alone made the trip already worth it. The sound of the cashier computer being turned on and the smell of fresh coffee made Eirik miss his work.
Tomorrow morning we will take the bus to Lima where we´ll meet Birgit and Peter. Juhuuu!

Going to Huancayo

2008-11-06T14:18:00.001-05:00

We are taking the night bus to Huancayo at 2100 this evening in order to circle in the scattered parties of friends currently in Peru (Birgit&Peter + Sabrina&Adrian). The last months hardship has left it marks on our bodies (specially Eirik going down 8kg), and we need a small holiday in the holiday (serious business taking time off school/work). The bus ride is descibed by the Lonely Planet as not for the faint of heart.

We have also updated our Travelmap with actual data from our GPS. The updated map shows our tenting spot to a 4m accuracy, and we have also included pictures of the actual place.

A long bumpy journey

2008-11-05T10:33:00.008-05:00

A straight line is not what it seems like if it is written with a blunt pencil. There are loads of small pumps, and do not excpect a steady hand either. The picture underneath is a close up of some of our road.

The region we have been travelling through is described in the lonely planet as the least visited area of Peru, and the distances we bicycled were not even mentioned in the book. People have not seen tourists before (except some gringos in a random bus rushing past), and we notice it. The distance from Cusco to Ayacucho is estimated to 22 hours with bus.We did it in 16 days including a couple of days off. We start at around 0900 when our tent is dry, and all is packed and end the day between 1600 and 1800, depending on the weather and our condition. At 1810, someone switches the light off.

Andahuaylas is at 2926m. The first part of our trip was through one of the areas the Austrian government have registered as a no-go area for tourists due to terrorism. It occurred to us 10km before we arrived there, but we have actually not been many places with nicer people. We climbed to 3700m before heading down a valley of 1800m. The great advantage is all the fruit they sell down there, but we could not wait to climb up to an altitude with no mosquitoes again. We wisely lingered outside a house with a mango tree, and were invited by the owners to sit down for a couple of our favourite fruits. They had a kitten, a couple of dogs and a parrot that said "thank you" in Norwegian.

After a steady climb, and a fantastic tent spot on a cliff with good wind we arrived Ocros. Ocros is a small village where all the kids in town gathered around the lovely señorita Anita, while Eirik was perceived as the scary guy checking out the hospices in the meantime. We have given up buying chocolates one by one. We get them in boxes of 30ea instead. It is the only way of keeping the energy high enough.

We left Ocros at 0600, with the plan to skip a ride up to the altiplano. A small truck delivering wood passed us, and took us and our bicycles the 1 hour ride up to 4200 meters, a straight line distance of 3.8km. We like this idea - take the lift up, and enjoy the trip down (it is just like skiing)

The ride on the altiplano was fantastic. We had been warned that we would freeze to death, and that the climate was really dangerous. We tried to tell them that the climate was like a mild Norwegian summer up there, and that we had spent over a month at >4000m in the south of Peru. Like all our good conversations, we had no idea how much they actually understood...

As it got close to 1500 the day before we arrived in Ayacucho, and way past lunch time we stopped to have a long desired meal. Suddenly, out of nowhere two French guys (Francois and Yann) came bicycling towards us (bicycles brought from home). Neither we or them had met anyone else doing the same before, and were excitedly exchanging information until the time was due for camping. We happened to be next to the most perfect tenting spot, and camped the night together. It was great to finally meet someone doing the same, and we wish them all the best for the rest of their journey. The only small disadvantage is our exclusivity: we are not exotic any more as people have seen people like us before.

Francois, Yann, Eirik and Anita

The ride to Ayacucho was 50km downhill, and much appreciated by two very tired bodies. We arrived Ayacucho yesterday, and we are now relaxing and eating as much as possible.

You will of course find more pictures here if you are interested: http://picasaweb.google.com/eirik.sunde/AbancayAyacuchoOctober2008

Arrived in Ayacucho

2008-11-04T18:12:00.002-05:00

We have arrived well in Ayacucho in the early afternoon. It seems to be a very nice city (but we love every place with a hot shower and lots of food). More information will follow tomorrow.

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2008-11-03T18:52:00.001-05:00

Camping with two nice french guys: Yann and Francois. The sky is a beautiful firework. 3500m altitude.

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2008-11-02T19:20:00.001-05:00

In Ocros at a small hospejade with a private courtyard. All saints day today, and tradidions carried out along the road.

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2008-11-01T20:38:00.001-05:00

Wonderful day! Had breaks with icecream, mangos, eggs, norwegian speaking parrot and kitten. Wind blows mosquitos away. Washed.

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2008-10-31T18:46:00.000-05:00

Resting day. Both overtrained and Eirik is feeling weak. Projects were more relaxing. Food in 5min!

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2008-10-30T18:07:00.001-05:00

Day with good roads and friendly people. Called turistas and not gringos. Got hold of broccoli!!! S13,31.964 W73,37.969

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2008-10-29T16:52:00.001-05:00

Slow start with good breakfast and a looong shower. Camping on a deserted football field with horses. All is good!

Happy birthday!

2008-10-28T11:23:00.001-05:00

I woke up 0413 this morning by Anita singing "happy birthday" in her almost sleep, smiled and went back to bed again. I woke up again at 0700 when Anita came into the room carrying a mango with a candle in it. Wonderful breakfast! Anita is complaining that I am getting too thin, and it is true. I am thinner than before, and I do everything in my power to fatten myself up. Believe it or not, but it is NOT easy.

Yesterday was a day full of accomplishments. We found a very nice hotel with a small birthday suite for 16 USD/night, fixed our stinking laundry, delivered our muddy bikes for maintenance and ate chocolate and mangos the rest of the day. I guess we could wash and adjust our bikes ourselves, but we would rather support the local communities by using their services, than to give the money to people who beg.

The last weeks have been wonderful. They have been demanding, but what else can make us appreciate the flat and sunny days? We have not lacked a single thing. Shops are scattered along the streets, and they even stock butter! There has been enough water, and we have eaten what we wanted to eat. There has been a lot of up and downs, but that also means an astonishing view.

We will take the bus to a beautiful touristy lake today. Our legs need some days of rest. They have rowing boats and fishing possibilities there. We will continue biking road #3 towards Ayacucho tomorrow (10hrs with bus), and we cross all fingers for nice roads and rain free days.

But lets not waste this day in front of a computer. So long folks, and thanks for all the congratulations!

PS: This internet place is no good. Cannot upload pictures or call. Will do that later.
PPS: One book recommendation is the Swedish book "Menn som hater kvinner". Anita read it first, and could not put it away. Now I am hooked.

Bike trip Abancay - Andahuaylas

2008-10-27T18:26:00.006-05:00

The last days have been rough and demanding, with many ups and downs (in more than one way). Especially yesterday was immensly difficult and I had the feeling I would drop dead if there was another hill/mountain after the one I was struggling with. There was another one. And another one. And another one. Surprisingly I`m still alive. Conclusion: There is always more you can take.

We biked yesterday from 0930 until 1800. From our (wonderful) camp spot we saw the road going down into a valley, along the valley and then zigzagging up the mountain opposite. Shouldn`t be a big problem; we thought. Going down would be fast, the valley easy to bike, the zigzag a small challenge. Andahuaylas we`re coming, get the ice cream ready.

Alone biking down took us over an hour, the road was the worst so far and demanded strong concentration. The valley took us by surprise: It was steeper up than expected and the stones on the road were so lose that we hardly moved forward, merely slid around. The sun was burning down on us and some kids from the village biked luckily behind us, watching us. That`s when you feel weak. Conclusion two: Things can look very different from further away.

At 1500 we finally reached the top of the mountain and measured the airline to our previous camp spot. 3,6 kilometers!! That is nothing.

But we were over the mountain, Andahuaylas wouldn`t be far away, I expected it around every curve. We biked down 15 minutes, then stretched out in the sun to savour our tomatoes, peanuts and oreo cookies. Conclusion three: Don`t be happy too soon.

We biked on, still downwards (the road was no better yet) when we noticed dark clouds coming up, accompanied by loud growling. A storm getting closer, out of nowhere. We biked faster, got to a small village, up the hill, people looking, children shouting "gringo", out of the village, next village, up the hill, people looking, children shouting "gringo", out of the village, next village, up the hill, people looking, children shouting "gringo"... Never ending story? That`s how it was, that`s how it felt (but I got a hug from a woman while pushing my bike up a very steep part, that was nice). In the end it started raining and we had to give up reaching Andahuaylas because it was getting dark. We crawled up a field (3 cm of dirt stuck to our shoes and tyres) and set up our tent for the first time without light.

Does that all sound terrible? It is not (even if it may seem so at that point). I will never forget that day, the struggling, the emotions. And can you imagine how wonderful it was to reach Andahuaylas today after 40 more minutes of biking, the joy of a hot bath and food?
Simple things appear much more valueable.

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2008-10-27T06:08:00.001-05:00

Long hard extra day to come back to the main road. Much hills and loose stones in road. Drove through a fire. Found mangos.

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2008-10-25T21:52:00.001-05:00

Much up and downs, tired legs. Almost out of chocolate. Prolonged lunch due to rain. Finaly a good tent spot again.

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2008-10-25T21:47:00.000-05:00

Yesterday: Flock of parrots, 200 ants eating our peanuts. Got help and guidance from local bicycle hero. Slept in Huancarma.

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2008-10-23T23:51:00.000-05:00

On our way to Andahualasy. Left the comfort of asphalt and welcome wet gravel and sore behinds. Reading all evening.

Bike trip Cuzco - Abancay

2008-10-22T12:27:00.008-05:00

After four days of hard but amazing biking we have yesterday reached Abancay, a noisy and non-touristy city of about 100 000 inhabitants. The Lonely Planet writes that the county of Abancay was quite closed off until the 1990s because of guerilla activity. Although we have been greeted by nearly all the bus and taxi drivers along the road and met very nice people (among those the family on which ground we camped last and the man saving our camera) we have the feeling that we are less welcome and have to watch our stuff much better than other places we`ve visited. We got more cheeky "gringo!" yells and some children were even running after Eirik to pull at the bands of his backpack while he was biking uphill. To make it clear, this does not account for the majority. I am wondering if our bikes play a role because they can give cause to jealousness. On the other hand we have seen lots of other nice bikes here as well, much nicer ones than in the south and quite equal to ours.

The camera-incident was shocking for us. After biking uphill for four hours we had finally reached a middle-sized town and drained of energy we headed for a place to eat. We chose a table next to the overdimensional windows so we could see our bikes standing right outside. I had a bad feeling because of two boys that were sitting near the bikes and gave them certain looks. Only after a man came pointing in after one minute did we discover that there was a dead angle to one of the bikepockets and a boy had managed to nestle the camera out of it. He had already run away with it when the man caught him.

Enough of the negative parts, the positive ones are much more mentionable. Biking here is a own world for itself. It was interesting seeing the first part of the trip which we had traveled before by bus on our way to Mollepata. In no way had it been possible to see the beauty and changes of the landscape from the bus. Going down from 3600 m into a valley of 1800 m, feeling the air getting warmer, smelling suddenly the scent of flowers and trees (and noticing the small biting flies again). It was more difficult again to find a campingspot, so we took advantage of a hostel we passed. There were no other guest (who stays usually in places like that?) but the hostel had a small pool with riverwater and a roof terrace.

It got a little bit spooky after dawn as there was no electricity (they didn`t tell us but we found out soon). When we went to have some dinner the lack of electricity was used as an explanation that it was not possible to order anything vegetarian (vegetables, pasta, potatoes...? Please!!) but Eirik could order some chicken. (Fried with a stick over fire? We were speculating.) I hope you understand my frustration when 10 minutes later Eirik got a huge plate not only with chicken but with rice, home-made french fries and salad while Anita was stuck with bread and butter from lunch (after a day of biking!). Why don`t you understand? Vegetarian! I felt like being from outerspace. We ended up cooking some vegetable soup for me on our stove on the roof terrace. Maybe that`s why they turned off the water in our room the next morning.

We didn`t mind that there was no breakfast available after finding out that fresh mangos were being sold right up the street. They were delicious!! And they were just the start of our day in mango-heaven. We savoured pure mange, mango ice cream and mango juice. Mmmmh!!

The lack of more mangos was the only thing we regreted when climbing up to 4000 m again.

P.S. Current injuries:
Eirik suffers from a sunburn with blisters on both his shinbones which was so bad that he had to but a bandage on.
Anita cut herself into her tongue being eager to safe all the mango juice through licking off the knife. It wasn`t a big cut though.

P.P.S. Bicycle problems so far:
Anitas rack fell off the first day.
Eiriks front tire was flat.
And worst of all: The tent was pressed down on the wheel, and four layers of tent canvas has been burned through. We can hopefully ductape it.

NB: More pictures at: http://picasaweb.google.com/eirik.sunde/CuzcoAbancayOct2008#

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2008-10-20T20:49:00.000-05:00

Spent the day going up 1200m. Had 10 freshly picked mangos tasting wonderful. Camera nearly stolen, but rescued by a local.

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2008-10-19T20:33:00.001-05:00

Sitting on a roofterrace under a cloudless sky of stars. 50km/1800m/4h downhill. Very warm, swam im pool.

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2008-10-18T21:35:00.001-05:00

On wheels and happy. Bikes and bags are good. 33km straight line today, direction Abancay. Love the tent and self made food. Hug

Ready to leave Cuzco

2008-10-17T11:08:00.001-05:00

We lost the papers with the number to Ruben and the address to the tailor, and had to ask around for directions based on a picture we took with our camera. The taxi driver was stopped by the police, and the police joined us for the hunt. The 5th police officer knew where it was, and we were saved.

The bags were not finished yesterday by 1700, as it was the birthday of the master tailor (Romario). We were instead invited to his birthday fiesta. We explained that we had an appointment with the four badehasen, and all six were suddenly invited. We found the best baker in town, and got him a huge cake. The food was excellent, and neither of us managed to eat all the food on our plate (no other guests either for that sake) Our bags were not finished last night, and when we came by this morning they were still working on them (even making rain covers for them). We will check out by 1300, bring our backpacks to Romarios, and repack there.

We will now head up north towards Abancay and keep at a high altitude where possible. There will probably be loads of up and downs (1500m-4500m), but we will hopefully be quicker now. The excact route is not planned, but we will find out as we go.

Birthday party in Cuzco. The birthday boy (28) is the one in the back with red jumper.

Bags half finished

Shopping is tiring (Tessi, Nanni, Eirik and Anita)

Last morning in Loki Hostal (Anita, Nanni, Tessi, Lisa and Ulli)

Bikes are ready, bags to go!

2008-10-15T18:38:00.001-05:00

Another eventful day. Our bikes are completed, and we have now placed them at the tailor Romario for them to create two pairs of bicycle bags from scratch. We did manage to get the trays for the back in the end, and the 18 meters of 1/2'' alloy pipes will remain unused (we are a bit disappointed regarding this). We chose the materials for the packs, and listed all important factors like: straps to keep them down, support in the back (so they do not go into the wheels), handles for transportation and 100% waterproofness. We believe they are in very good hands. We would not have managed this without Ruben, and we hope that he can take a patent on our packs and make a fortune selling them in the future.

Yesterday at the bike shop, going through every single part of the bike. Ruben in the middle, and David to the right.

The day after (today), and our bikes are finished. Going through the last details.

The tailor for all kinds of pirate copied stuff. They are experts at creating stuff, and they will make our bicycle bags based on a rough sketch made by Eirik.

Eirik, Anita and David waiting for Ruben yesterday.

More pictures to be seen at: http://picasaweb.google.com/eirik.sunde/BikeHuntCuzcoOct2008
Have you also seen these: http://picasaweb.google.com/eirik.sunde/MollapataMachuPicchuOct2008

Getting bikes

2008-10-15T09:16:00.005-05:00

Things are getting exciting! First of all it is wonderful to be here in Cuzco with Tessi, Lisa, Ulli and Nanni. Second our "building-a trekking bike" project is getting shape. We've spent all day yesterday hunting for the things we need and were lucky to get a lot of help. By accident we bumped into David, an American we met on the train from Machu Picchu, on our way to the bicycle shop. He offered his help as translator as he speaks fluently Spanish. Our group grew to four in the shop when Rubin, a local who's bike was being fixed, joined along to show us specialized places he knew. What followed was a 6 hour race across the city with about 10 taxi rides and easily 20 shops (or more) visited. We were in a shop specialized on sewing bags, several metal-selling places to find the right metal pieces for our baggage tray, melding-places and countless bike and bike-equipment shops. In between we stopped at Rubins work to bribe his boss with an ice cream so he could skip work and had lunch together in a food stall. There was hardly a corner in town we didn't go to. It was really fun to go to all these places although also somewhat stressful.

The result of yesterday is that we bought two bikes which we can pick up at 2pm today, have one tray already and hope to get the rest in the next hours as well. Thank you David, thank you Rubin!

2008-10-13T08:13:00.003-05:00

In an hour we will board a train back to Cuzco which we are looking forward to. Aguas Caliente is truely a rip off town so it is good to get away again. Additional costs we´ve found on our bills so far and which we refused to pay (we´re no beginners anymore) : 5 soles "tax" and 4 soles more than agreed on for the menu in a restaurant, 4 soles extra for "service" in another restaurant, 4 soles for internet in a coffee place with free internet ("only the first half hour internet is free"). At Machu Picchu there was also a luggage storage for 5 soles which we used only to find a free luggage storage after walking 10 meters on through the entrance gate. It is not a huge amount of money but we are used to get two meals for 5 soles.

The positive side is that we found a place that sells immensly good empanadas (filled pastries)!

Machu Picchu

2008-10-12T16:42:00.010-05:00

We woke up at our own ruin of Llactapata yesterday morning, and walked down camino 122 towards the hydroelectric powerplant at Urubamba river. The 600 meter descent took the most out of our legs, but to our great delightment, there just happened to be a banana planation at the very bottom of the hill. Since we are such nice and polite persons, we found the owner and bought 6 freshly picked bananas. Conclusion: Dirty bananas taste better than clean bananas. We enjoyed the bananas with a Twix, and Anita had a refreshing bath in the river. After jumping train tracks for 11 km, we finally came to Aguas Calientes, which is the entry town to Machu Picchu. The accomodation price range spanned from 20 USD to 1200 USD, where a 3 star hotel would cost us 250 USD. We found the cheapest place in town, bargined hard, and got the price down to a decent 11 USD. The lovely place was situated next to the railway tracks, and the building shook every time a train hurried past us.

We woke up at 0500 this morning, fully determined to beat the crowd up to Machu Picchu. Only the first 400 are admitted to visit Huayna Picchu. It was raining heavily outside, and the determination sank dramatically. There is no point going up on a mountain peak in soaking rain, when everything is foggy. We therefore slept to 0700, and set of a bit later. The clouds were lightening and the future looked much brighter. Machu Picchu has been our main goal for almost two months now, and it was a bit strange to finally be here. Our expectations were sky high.

Machu Picchu was not a diappointment. It is a fantastic site that must be visited. There are over 2000 visitors to the site every single day, and the masses of people were handled in an impressive manner. Machu Picchu has what a tourist wants: Extravagant constructions, exciting history, nature interaction, mysteries, and not at least loads of green areas where you can sit down and be impressed. We are heading out of Aguas Calientes with a backpacker train tomorrow morning through the town of Ollantaytambo. There will be buses taking us on to Cusco from there.

We are now faced with the greatest challenge so far. Machu Picchu was the only set goal we had for our tripbefore leaving Europe, and we have now achieved the goal. We are planing to buy two bicycles in Cusco, and head north on wheels. Unfortunately, the largest bicycle shop in Cusco sold neither trays or luggage bags. They do not do that stuff here. Maybe someone can make it for us?

At least some very good news: We just found out that Theresa, Lisa, Ulli and Nanni are in Cusco, and we are very much looking forward to meet them there tomorrow.

Pictures to be found here: http://picasaweb.google.com/eirik.sunde/MollapataMachuPicchuOct2008

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2008-10-10T20:49:00.001-05:00

On top of jungle mountain, next to inca ruins. Totally exhausted after 24km walk today. Long live Twix. Aguas caliente next.

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2008-10-09T19:35:00.001-05:00

Spent 2hrs in hot sping and are camping 50m away. Cool blinking insects outside. Full and relaxed.

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2008-10-08T19:25:00.001-05:00

RAIN, RAIN, RAIN. Could not see Salkantay because of clouds. Climbed 800m to a 4639 pass and are now down at 3800m again.

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2008-10-08T07:32:00.001-05:00

Started the trek in rain and rainbows. Climbed 1200m. More tropical with strange insects. Slept near Amparay.

Leaving Cuzco for Mollapata

2008-10-06T11:58:00.003-05:00

First of all, a big thank you to all the birthday greetings! They made me very happy. And I would have loved to give everyone a piece of that wonderful chocolate cake!

We are now ready to leave Cuzco, and start our walk towards Machu Picchu. There were no available room for us on the normal trek before November, and they are apparently not allowed to fill in cancellations. We have shipped of some Christmas presents, and are now reloaded with all the goodies stuff we generally miss when walking (gummi bears, good chocolate, peanut butter and normal butter). We even got a proper map this time.

The bus is leaving at 1400, and we will probably have to skip a ride with another bus tomorrow morning to bring us up to our starting point, Mollapata. The start elevation will be at 2800 meters, and we will climb up to a pass of 4600 meters within a couple of days. Please remember that the hike to Kjerag starts at ca 500 meters..... Our planned route is marked on this map.

Eirik shaved in Cuzco, and is looking like a dork tourist in his hat, and not like Indiana Jones jr anymore.. Hmmfff... The picture below is during the process.

Shaving

Overlooking Cuzco

Jumping at Sacsayhuaman

Cake leftovers heavily guarded

These pictures are from here: http://picasaweb.google.com/eirik.sunde/CuzcoOct2008#

Archological visits

2008-10-03T22:02:00.003-05:00

We are sorry to disappoint you all, but our llama is just stretching ca. 5 cm from the cloves to the top of the head. Anita is sure that it is a female llama, in lack of male evidence. We are still having a heated name discussion, which does not look promising for potential naming discussions some years ahead. We would appreciate some name suggestions for our new mascot, and will then add a poll to the blog to see what the most popular name is. A Spanish sounding name is a good start.

Today gave us time for exploration of the archological sites Sacsayhuaman, Q'enqo, Tambomachay (hidden behind a cloud) and Puca Pucara. We engaged some local guides (including a local healer) to tell us more about historical facts and exciting stories. We will head off to Pisaq tomorrow. Pictures will follow tomorrow (hopefully).

Llama business

2008-10-02T21:33:00.001-05:00

We have bought a llama!!!

Birthday

2008-10-02T09:22:00.002-05:00

Wonderful chocolate cake for breakfast! :-) Mmmmmhhh!!!!!!!

Sick in the city

2008-10-01T10:11:00.002-05:00

It is kind of strange. We`ve drunken mud-tasting water from the tiniest streams and ponds, milk directly from a farmers home, chicha (saliva-fermented corn beer) out of a dirty plastic mug and fruit juices from the street. We`ve eaten plenty of foods sold from small cartwheels and tables on the street and washed our own cooking pan in average every tree days (in case somebody is wondering, one doesn`t really taste the soup or stew remains from dinner in the porridge the next morning and visa versa). Some days we didn`t manage to wash our hands at all (after shaking many hands) and I am not sure how well the desinfectant gel works once you start wondering if the darkened skin colour on your hands comes from the sun or from all the dirt... And washing those luckily purchased tomatoes if there is only one liter of drinking water left? At some point you start setting priorities, and ours were definetely the tomatoes.
But did we get sick? NO!!!!
Then we come to a big city, hungry for all the restaurants and food we read about in the travel book and what happens: Anita gets sick after the first meal (3 hours after arriving in Cuzco) and ends up knocked out for over a day. So yesterday was mainly spent in bed sipping camomile tea and watching tv while Eirik did some research in town and worked on the blog.
But the good news is I`m much better today again and could enjoy the wonderful breakfast buffet in the morning. (Can you imagine how terrible that was yesterday? Fresh cut melon, papaya and banana, muesli, eggs, crisp bread and butter, fruit juices, tea and hot chocolate... and you are sick???)
Today we will go to the Inka museum and maybe visit some other sights as well, still taking it easy.

Note: There are some pictures posted below.

Explanations for the last weeks messages

2008-10-01T09:59:00.003-05:00

"Walked through 4 villages. People are building houses when everywhere. 2km south of Omacha. Good weather at day, rain at night."

Saturday and sunday after rain is housebuilding days. They can finally make their building stones. These guys gave us chicha (saliva fermented corn beer).

Eirik got sick at night, mainly due to dehydration and did not feel good at all. This is 15 min before taking the bus to Cuzco.

"Farmer brought us potatos&cheese for breakfast. Amazing canyons, but 1km straight is 3km real. Now heavy rain. Had lamb in tent."

Zorro, our loyal friend guarded our tent the whole night in exchange for 7 pieces of pasta. He also saved us the next day by eating all of the long bad tasting potatoes the neighbour farmer gave us. Please note that we really, really enjoyed the rest of the potatoes and cheese.

The landscape changed dramatically in a few days, and it took a long time to walk around all these valleys. We felt like Indiana Jones and Jane.

In the evening, a local family stopped by our tent, and their lamb did not want to leave us.

"In the land of riding Indians. No cars and few spanish speaking. Following the path to Omache. S14"14.677' W071"42.421' "

A local showed us a shortcut down to Livitaca, and also invited us to his home. These inca remains is a family treasure for them, and were really beautiful. They are for candles.

We were crossing the mountains based on directions from passing farmers. Some were riding, others walking. There were people sitting with a sole sewing machine in the middle of nowhere, but most were carrying something somewhere.

"We walked and we walked, and we walked and we walked. Passed mountain on path. No cars, many horses. 5km S of Livitaca."

The walk over the moutains was maybe the best walk we had had. The path was good, the people friendly and we had a good supply of food and water. Amazing!

"Passed a mountain pass sitting on bags of food with 14 other people on the back of a lorry. 16km SW of Livitaca. On top of mine"

We took a flatbed truck with 12 other passengers over the mountain, and were convinced to join the people to a place not on our gps. It proved to be a village for the gold mines nearby. We passed a security gate, and "Anthony", the very nice guy on the right side of the picture gave us a hand drawn sketch of how to cross the mountain towards Livitaca.

"5.15: Woken up to give an interview. 6.15: Breakfast. 6.45: Farmers bring us warm milk. 7.15: 8 people in front of the tent."

The three very nice farmers on the left brought us warm milk in the morning, which we repaid with our best chocholate. The guy on the right woke us up with a camera and tape recorder at 05:15, but later invited us for a second breakfast with potato soup

We donated a whistle to a school football team we passed. We thought it would be a good idea to give it to the teacher, but we now expect she will use it herself to discipline her children.

"Barefoot river crossing under a squadron of pink flamimgos. 13km NW of Yauri. Glad to be back in the tent. "

The picture can never be as amazing as the experience, but here is the proof!

This girl was inviting us to her home for dinner and a sleepover. We were both dreaming of our own tomato pasta and tent, and gently refused the offer (No entiendo, perdon)

And there are of course more pictures for you to see here: http://picasaweb.google.com/eirik.sunde/EspinarCuscoSept2008

In Cuzco

2008-09-29T20:52:00.000-05:00

Eirik felt sick tonight, and kept Anita awake most of the night. We were short of water, and dehydrated. At last we woke up at 0630, packed the tent and were ready to go at 0715. We still had 18 km straight line to walk to the road intersection where we planned to hitch a ride into Cuzco. We then heard the sound of a flatbed truck heading for Cuzco, and seized the chance. The ride took 7,5 hrs, covering a distance of 70 km straight line (10 km per hour....). We stopped for food in Acomaya, and stopped by the police in Poruro. We are now staying at a nice place in Cuzco, and will tell you more about it tomorrow.

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2008-09-28T19:58:00.001-05:00

Walked through 4 villages. People are building houses when everywhere. 2km south of Omacha. Good weather at day, rain at night.

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2008-09-27T19:46:00.001-05:00

Farmer brought us potatos&cheese for breakfast. Amazing canyons, but 1km straight is 3km real. Now heavy rain. Had lamb in tent.

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2008-09-26T19:37:00.001-05:00

In the land of riding Indians. No cars and few spanish speaking. Following the path to Omache. S14"14.677' W071"42.421'

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2008-09-25T19:13:00.000-05:00

We walked and we walked, and we walked and we walked. Passed mountain on path. No cars, many horses. 5km S of Livitaca.

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2008-09-24T20:27:00.000-05:00

Passed a mountain pass sitting on bags of food with 14 other people on the back of a lorry. 16km SW of Livitaca. On top of mine

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2008-09-23T19:27:00.001-05:00

5.15:Woken up to give an interview. 6.15:Breakfast. 6.45:Farmers bring us warm milk. 7.15:8 people in front of the tent.

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2008-09-22T19:33:00.000-05:00

Barefoot river crossing under a squadron of pink flamimgos. 13km NW of Yauri. Glad to be back in the tent.

2008-09-21T10:14:00.003-05:00

We are currently in Yauri in the district Espinar/Cusco. The last two weeks have been quite adventurous for us with heavy walking but also beautiful landscapes and fascinating contact with the locals.
In the area we`ve been walking tourists are not seen at all and people want to take pictures of us instead of the other way around. The nights are chillier here, temperature drops easlily to minus 5 or 6. Cold!! I`m not sure if it is the low temperature at night, sleeping outside, the exercise or the high altitude or maybe everything together but we sleep at least 10 hours every night. 8 o`clock pm and our eyes start to close.
Yesterday afternoon we were offered a ride on a pick-up and rather than declining as usually we accepted. It turned out to be the car of the districts major. So we´ve been getting a very special treatment in Yauri. It`s really crazy! He showed us the stadium where a concert was to take place in the evening and invited us to join for a fiesta. The main elements of the fiesta were football (women playing enthusiastically in their multi-layered skirts and slipper shoes, the hair in long braids! a sight we will never forget), live music, beer (they nearly got us drunk) and food. There were many, many children, dogs and two lambs. Have you ever seen a small lamb on a football field? Again we experienced a very warm hospitality.
After organizing a hostel we went to the concert in the evening (although we felt it was bed time for us). People are very fond of their traditional-pop-mix music here. We had some difficulties hearing the difference between the songs but it was pretty to look at. And everybody is there: from the smallest baby to elderly people.

2008-09-21T09:56:00.009-05:00

The short messages from the telephone are not always self explanatory. Here is a short elaboration with pictures for the messages the last week:

"Passed Hector Tejada with a micro. Bunkered up with fruits, vegetables, grains, eggs & sweets. Resting day in the tent tomorrow."

At the market in Hector Tejada, loads of kids were gathering around Anita and the pictures in the Lonely Planet. It is fun to be interesting on other terms than your money. We then walked 8 km north west with too heavy backpacks, and planned for a good day off. It is fascinating how you never find the time to do the things you plan on your day off, such as playing cards and learning some more spanish.

"Staying at home with someone we met. Had a wonderful meal. In
Llialli."

As we walked towards Hectors Tejada, we met Luis and Ricardo who were on their
way to go fishing. They shared some of ther lunch with us, to our great
pleaseure, and invited us for dinner and a sleep-over later on. We
were determined to skip Lliallia, and go straight for Hectors Tejaa, but changed
our mind after closely listening to our muscles. The picture shows Luis cooking
their self caught trout, bread, potatoes and salad. Men can cook down here!

"Visited a rolling hospital. Not sick but curious. Excellent offer and great people. Thanks for talk, juice and cookies."

We stopped by the clinical bus on or way past Ocoviri. The conductor of the bus, Ricardo Gomez greeted us warmly, and showed us in to Dr Reiser (who was not busy at the moment). We got some oreo cookies, freshly made juice, and had some really good time together with the two and Juan Pablo, who is the Labratory man.

"Anita got turnus in Stavanger. Exciting! Close to Ocoviri. Sleeping on dung. Full moon?"

Anita was number 100 in the lottery, and could choose the practice she wanted. There were still 7 places left in Stavanger when she was up, at 1050 our time. The valley we called from was totally without reception, and we had some strange looks from some bypassers as Anita spoke in the phone.

The picture below shows where we slept. Alpaccas and Llamas are very social animals, and use to pile their dung uino one spot. The spot is typically the most flat and therefore the best place for the tent. The full moon was so bright, that we did not really need head lamps inside the tent.

"Crossed our first mountain pass of 4900m. Cooked dried potatoes (andean speciality). Tasted animal dung. Fewer people, more llamas"

The mountain pass was long and hard to reach. You notice 1000m up much more at this altitude than at sea level. There is in addition a very limited supply of purifyable water. We decented to 4300 meters, and tried the potatoes we have brought with us from Copacabana. Absoulutely disgustusting, it tasted Llamadung. We will avoid home dried food from now on.

"4320m. Passed Vilavila where everybody shook our hands. Bought food (fresh tomatoes). Full and satisfied."

The people of Vilavila greeted us and cheered when we climbed up the sloped of the city. Most locals have stopped walking, and take the bus instead. "Lechos, lechos" they say, and shake their head when we tell them where we are heading. We filled up on supplies and spoke with the people in the square. Most of them were reserved, but were flocking around us once we opened the map of south America. They rarely see maps at all.

"Found scale. Anita 19kg, Eirik 31kg backpack. Passed Lampa, following river to Vilavilla. Moonlight. Happy again. Hugs A&E"

The church in Lampa was built upon old inca ruins. The picture below shows a mosuleum erected by the spanish, where they used the old skeletons from the catacombs as decoration. Freaky....

More pictures at http://picasaweb.google.com/eirik.sunde/PeruSeptOct2008

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2008-09-20T20:36:00.001-05:00

In Yauri. Crazy. Will tell you more about it tomorrow.

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2008-09-18T18:57:00.000-05:00

Passed Hector Tejada with a micro. Bunkered up with fruits, vegetables, grains, eggs & sweets. Resting day in the tent tomorrow.

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2008-09-17T19:57:00.001-05:00

Staying at home with someone we met. Had a wonderful meal. In Llialli.

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2008-09-16T20:15:00.001-05:00

Visited a rolling hospital. Not sick but curious. Excellent offer and great people. Thanks for talk, juice and cookies.

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2008-09-15T19:52:00.000-05:00

Anita got turnus in Stavanger. Exiting! Close to Ocoviri. Sleeping on dung. Full moon?

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2008-09-14T19:44:00.001-05:00

Crossed our first mountain pass of 4900m. Cooked dried potatoes (andean speciality). Tasted animal dung. Fewer people, mr llamas

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2008-09-13T19:08:00.000-05:00

4320m. Passed Vilavila where everybody shook our hands. Bought food (fresh tomatoes). Full and satisfied.

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2008-09-12T19:09:00.001-05:00

Bright moonlight. Passed hundreds of llamas and alpacas today. Clean after washing in the river. People are friendly & courious.

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2008-09-11T19:06:00.001-05:00

Found scale. Anita 19kg, Eirik 31kg backpack. Passed Lampa, following river to Vilavilla. Moonlight. Happy again. Hugs A&E

A day in Juliaca

2008-09-10T15:52:00.004-05:00

We woke up this morning not knowing what to do, and where to go. You can see on one of our pictures below that we do not have any good maps for our trek. The Lonely planet trekking guide recommended us to find maps down here. We cannot disagree more. The disadvantage of only having a rough map is that you cannot choose the pictoresque small roads outside the main roads and cities, because we do not know where they are. We end up along the main roads and are therefore considering to go to Cusco where they have maps, and use Cusco as a base for several recommended trails in our trekking book. We have seen a lot of the countryside unavailable for the standard tourist, and will strive to still avoid the most beaten tracks (except Machu Picchu which is a must do).

As we started our walk towards Juliaca today, the scenery was the outskirt of a city (ugly houses) and the motivation kind of low. We had decided to take a ride with a mototaxi (riqshaw) when a pickup drove up to us and wanted to know if we needed a ride. The guy was a doctor, and drove us to the centre. He bought us 5 litres with a terrible flavoured liquid (should be good for us), 10 bananas and 6 apples. He then invited us to sleep over at his clinic, which is in good proximity of the city centre. We gratefully accepted, and are soon on our way home to the clinic. We have, as mentioned above, some decisions to do tonight.

On Isla del Sol, with our Dutch aquaintances Tom and Mariel

Llamabusiness

We were watching a military parade in Puno, and had to laugh so much when we saw the womans parade uniform: High heels and handbag. (Anita told me to express clearly that not all women were using handbags, only the officers school)

No to scare anyone: This is the best map we have seen, and it is only to be found on our camera.

Our room in Puno was cold, very cold.

Our first night our after Puno. A dog barked 1,5 hrs nonstop at our tent. We both fell to sleep while it was barking. Nice spot though.

Camping ground last night with our own little ruin. We collapsed on the sidewalk outside a small shop, tired from the walk. The shopkeeper felt so sorry for us that he gave us a gatorade to get the spitits up for free. We bought 6 piceces of bread, one chocolate and two bananas for 1,5 Sol = 36 euro cent.

We kind of mistook chili for pepper, and the tomato soup became a killer. This is a picture of Eirik trying to eat it. Oh yes, you can see tears.

NB: Eirik got a new hat, but not as nice as the old one.

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2008-09-09T20:10:00.001-05:00

17km with motivation difficulties.No map,lost our hats,backpacks too heavy& mistook chilli for pepper,dinner uneatable.Still :o)

Pictures from the trip

2008-09-08T09:45:00.003-05:00

First night in tent

Resting on the road

Waking up after a freeeeezing night

Looking andean is easy, as long as it is cold

The father and the kapt´n of the ship

The fishing boat returning after letting us off

Our tenting ground overlooking lake Titicaca

The border between Bolivia and Peru

Our tenting ground the night before arriving at Copacabana

In Copacabana

NB1: Anita has posted a new blog entry underneath.

NB2: More pictures at: http://picasaweb.google.com/eirik.sunde/BoliviaAugSep2009

Leaving Puno - start of 2nd trekk

2008-09-08T09:42:00.002-05:00

We are soon leaving Puno with Cusco as a goal. Everything inbetween is very unclear. There are no maps available at all. After running through the town we ended up in the library, a bigger room with reading tables full of pupils and some shelves with books behind a counter. It was a somewhat charming place. The middle-aged man in charge (wearing horn-rimmed glasses) started laughing with disbelieve after he heard the purpose of our visit. "Walking to Cusco???" He wasn`t fleering at us, it was just something that didn`t make sense to him. Still he was very helpful. He brought us two geography books (Deutsch eher Sachkundebuecher) meant for 2nd to 3rd graders. They showed each district of Peru with large pictures (products that are produced there, animals, vegetables), an overview map (e.g. map of Styria, Rogaland) with the cities and rivers and population dates. It might have helped us some but the page with the map of the Puno district was the only one torn out.
I feel quite helpless now and have this restless, uncertain feeling preceding a new, unknown task. The only thing that helps is to set sail (this is for all the Norwegians :-) and face it. We will be fine: We have a GPS, a compass and chocolate for at least two days. And I feel like eating it again!

First day in Puno, Peru

2008-09-07T14:53:00.008-05:00

The bus from Copacabana left yesterday at 1330. We stopped at the border where we had to stamp out of Bolivia, walk 300m and then stamp into Peru. The immigration was done in 15 minutes, and we now have a 90 days visa for Peru. This is not our first visit to Peru, but the first legal one. We are now 7 hours before Austria/Norway.

The difference struck as as soon as we walked through the streets of Puno. Peru is much more developed. Their shops are better stocked, but we feel a bit more unsafe on the other hand. We guard our pockets more here in Puno. Luckily other travellers tell us that Puno is quite touristy, and not a standard for Peru. Eirik has never gotten more complaints about dirty shoes either, and they do not understand that we actually want to look shabby. No point explaining them about special treatment for gore-tex shoes either.

You can get a 3 course meal for 1 Euro here, but these places are probably not the best places to go right after being food poisoned. Today is sunday, and most of the shops are closed. The only things we need now is a map for the area up to Cusco and sportstape for our feet (which are the more difficult things to get). If we are unsuccessful tomorrow, we just have to live without the map. You can get far with a compass (at least the right direction).

We are trying to fatten up during our stay in cities. Unfortunately, Anita is still not 100% well, and has lost weight instead of gaining it. We are working on it.

Last day in Bolivia

2008-09-06T10:41:00.002-05:00

Back on my legs, if not so stable yet. Yesterday has been really awful, Eirik had to listen to my moaning all day long. Today is fortunately better. We will leave to Puno in some hours and I hope the busride will be okay. I´ve thrown up enough yesterday.
Next blog will be from Peru!

A day extra in Copacabana - Anita is sick in bed

2008-09-05T13:07:00.004-05:00

We joined a tourist boat trip out to the island of Isla del Sol yesterday. The boat ride was long and jumpy, but we got to know some really nice people. The island is known to be the birthplace of the sun in the Inca empire, which gave us all the more reason to wear hat and sunscreen. After returning to Copacabana, we joined a Dutch couple for dinner and went back relatively early in order to go to Puno in Peru today.

Unfortuntaley, Anita got sick (probably food poisoning) and has to stay in bed today. I will have to get something to eat and head back to her. We will hopefully be able to go to Puno tomorrow, this strech with bus.

Summary of first trekking part

2008-09-03T15:33:00.003-05:00

Hello everybody! After one week in Bolivias countryside, among fields, hills, mountains, scattered towns and its biggest lake we are again in a city, hungry for food and water (especially me, I could eat everything I see). But what amazing expiriences have we made, seeing such beautifuls landscapes and meeting special people!
It is difficult to put everything in words, I would like best our pictures to speak for themselves(the shop has no card reader so we burned the pics on a dvd just to find out the computer can´t read dvds eather :-(
The light here is unique, dipping everything in wonderful and surreal shades and structures in the evenings and mornings The sky in the night has left us breathless, especially at the camping site overlooking Lago Titicaca. We have aching backs and legs, walking so long with such heavy backpacks is a great challenge to our bodies. After 22 km yesterday (and lots of ups and downs) I could hardly help put up the tent.
We have met many locals and for most we were a very strange sight (where we went, there are NO tourists). Some people came up to us and shoke our hands, curious to talk with us, or waved out of the bus when passing, while others didn´t even reply our greetings. One landowner didn´t want us to camp on his field because he thought we must freeze to death in the night. Not even some dollars could change his (and his wifes) mind. Only many explanations (I want to speak Spanish!) and a look in the tent could finally convince him that he wouldn´t have two corpses to deal with the next morning. He did want the dollars then, though.
Especially my walking sticks have caused many giggles and curious looks. Two women sitting on a field watching their sheep and llamas and weaving colourful textiles the same time (imagine that picture!) pointed asking and laughing at them. I tried to show them that the backpack was so heavy that I would fall backwards otherwards. We had a good time together :-)

But sorry, it is quarter over five now and that means: Time to eat!!!!!

Copacabana

2008-09-03T14:56:00.006-05:00

We arrived Copacabana at 10:05 this morning, starving as we skipped our daily porridge with raisins, and thirsty since we were low on water. A slightly embarrasing incident costed us 2 hours more of walking yesterday, and a lot of energy: As we approached the village Titi Yopanchi to refill water (a 200 meter decent as there is no water at the top of the mountain), we were close to the Peruvian border. The map showed a border road we could follow, but unfortunately we though a line of blue outdoor toilets (a part of a Peruvian welfare project) was the border between Peru and Bolivia. We followed these toilets quite far into Peru, and were totally lost since out Bolivian maps have no data for Peru at all. We were all in the white and took a compass course back on track. Without this extra detour, we would not have taken part of an unforgettable moment in a local school. We were welcomed heartily as strangers from another world. We promised to post a picture of their Inca bauta, which will be posted at the first opportunity.

Let us give you an insight of a normal day:
0700: The sun is up, but the tent is frozen. No point packing a wet tent, as you may put it up in a pile of sand the next time.
0815: Beep-beep, beep-beep (anitas wristwatch)
0845: Preparing porridge, airing out sleeping bags, applying SF 30, starting packing
0915: Packing tent
0930: Plan the current day, and off we go
1100: Need extra water, running low
1200: No clean water available, shops (a room of a normal house we pass) only sell fizzy drinks and crackers, too humiliating for the society if we filter their drinking water in front of their eyes, Settle for a lemonade and some old dry bread.
1400: Passes a local community with clean water supply, refill our camelbacks (5l).
1500: Start planning where a good tent place might be (should not be too close to a community, and not on a 45 degree elevation).
1730: Peg up our tent, settle in. Foot care.
1745: Cook (soups with added whatever we can get)
1830: Dark. Reading a bit.
1930: ZZZzzzzzz......

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2008-09-02T18:40:00.001-05:00

Special note: Eirik proposed yesterday at sunrise sailing in a fishing boat at lake Tititaca. Anita said YES.

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2008-09-02T18:32:00.000-05:00

22km up and down. Thought peruvian toilets were border control houses and took a detour into Peru. 4km east of Copacabana.

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2008-09-01T18:41:00.001-05:00

Stunning view over lake Titicaca. Eating biscuits and reading in the sleeping bag. Trying to reach Copacabana tomorrow.

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2008-08-31T19:45:00.000-05:00

Restetution in Puerto Perez at balsa hotel. Crossing titicaca wiñaymarca by boat tomorrow. Both are full and cannot move. A&E

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2008-08-30T18:18:00.000-05:00

We are officialy gringos. Walked 27298 steps. Many sheep,cows,pigs. No llama, 1 alpaca. hmmf. Near Titicaca. NOW CHOCOLATE!

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2008-08-29T18:02:00.001-05:00

Dog barked 10min at our tent. Anita got hug from landowner. Eirik is good in hand and foot language. Near pucarani. All well.

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2008-08-28T17:51:00.001-05:00

Succesful day.Had sunset,water,path,food,fun.All good.Hug A&E