Never before had I joined a group trip. Never could I have imagined that I would enjoy my group trip to Peru and Bolivia so much. The main reasons why I wanted to join a group trip this time were because of the huge distances I would cross (in total I spent more than 70 hours in a bus or train during the trip), the fact that I didn't speak any Spanish and my laziness to search for tour agencies that would offer trips to places like Machu Picchu, Salar de Uyuni and Colca Canyon. In the end I really enjoyed having some company with me while travelling.
It all started as a normal travel for me. I didn't know any other group members in advance, so on the flight to Peru I was alone and talking to the middle-aged Peruvian man who was sitting next to me. I had already noticed this man before boarding the plane. He was wearing a t-shirt that looked like it was designed by some stoned hippie in the 1970s and his eyes were opened like he was surprised at everything he saw. The man certainly looked like he had an interesting life story and when I found myself sitting next to him during the 12-hour flight to Lima I knew I was going to try to get it out of him. I was right about his life story. It was an interesting one. The man, who introduced himself as Miguel, just came back from Greece, where he visited his sister. His sister was a diplomat who had lived all over the world, including the Netherlands. And before visiting his sister, he had made a trip to Tibet, India and Nepal, with a two-day stopover in Qatar. We exchanged travel stories, talked about Peruvian culture and food (he was right when he said I was going to love it) and other things. All in all this was a good start to my travel.
Arriving in Peru
At Jorge Chavez International Airport I said goodbye to Miguel and first met the other group members. We were going to travel with a group of 24 Dutch people, plus a Peruvian guide and an Ecuadorian travel photographer (you have to be jealous of this man's job...). It's a big group, but at least I was sure to meet a lot of new people. On the first day we all went on a city tour in Lima to get to know each other.
The second day we needed to get up early for a day full of excursions. In the afternoon we arrived at Huacachina: an oasis in the Peruvian desert. After enjoying the swimming pool for a while, we went into the desert at 5 o'clock for a bumpy (but awesome) ride in a buggy and to go sandboarding. We arrived at some very steep dunes, where we would go down on a sandboard, which is like a snowboard for sand. The first person who went down cheekily drew a line to indicate how far he had gotten on his sandboard. That's when I knew I had to break his "record". So I asked the guy on top of the dune to push me as hard as he could, held my feet in a straight line with the rest of my body and there I went... I was even faster than I expected. Some guys that were standing on the "record-line" had to jump out of the way to avoid a collusion and I beat the existing record with flying colors.
After all this excitement we went to a high viewing point in the desert to watch the sunset, which was awesome.
Nazca & Lake Titicaca
On the third day of our journey we visited Nazca and the famous Nazca lines. Nothing special to tell about this (it was a bit disappointing to me), so I will tell you an anecdote. During the first two days I had shared the food recommendations from my Peruvian friend with two other group members. The first two days they were really excited about my suggestions so they appointed me as their culinary advisor for the coming weeks. On day 3 I wanted to pull a prank on them by saying that spaghetti with pesto, fried egg and banana (really, it was on the menu there!!) was a delicious Peruvian delicacy and that they had to try it. Apparently they really trusted in my advice. Even after I explained that it was just a joke, they both ordered this dish. My words sometimes have bigger impact than I think and I felt sorry for these two guys. One of them didn't finish his meal more than halfway and the other guy finished it and said it was delicious, but I could hear from the tone of his voice that it wasn't true. :)
After Nazca it was time to go into the mountains. We first visited Arequipa at an altitude of around 2200 meters. From here we made a two-daytrip to Colca Canyon, where we would go see some condors: big birds that can be up to 3 meters wide when they spread their wings. We stayed in a village at an altitude of 3600 meters and for many people, including me, this high altitude caused some trouble in the form of a headache that wouldn't go away. Luckily for me I recovered well after a night sleeping (or maybe it was because I ate a lot of alpaca meat there), but other people felt uncomfortable for days due to the high altitude. Here are two pictures of our trip to Colca Canyon:
Up next was the city of Puno. The city itself is not so special, but the location (next to Lake Titicaca, the highest navigable lake in the world at an altitude of 3810 meters) is very special. I joined a boat trip to the Uros Islands. These islands are not like normal islands: they are not stuck to the earth but rather floating in the lake. Originally these islands were made by a local tribe that didn't want to be conquered by the Spanish when they invaded Peru. Initially the people used boats to escape from the Spanish people, but soon they developed techniques to create floating islands. We were "invited" by one of the families living on these islands nowadays. They showed us how to make a floating island, explained more about their culture and showed us how they live. We were also allowed to try on traditional Peruvian clothing. Of course I had to try this as well. How do you think I look in the following picture? Like a true Peruvian, eh?
Anyway, soon after the "trying on clothes"-phase the friendly and welcoming atmosphere changed. The women started selling all kinds of handmade products (probably produced in a nearby factory...) and we felt more or less obliged to buy something after accepting their initial friendliness. Then we were invited to join a boat trip to another island on a reed boat, which cost 3 euros per person. Of course this is not a huge price, but considering the fact that 24 people joined this boat trip (of only 15 minutes) and that during the boat trip cute local children would start singing for a "small tip", we don't need to worry about the financial situation of the people living on these islands. That is, if they are actually living there.
Despite the commercial attitude of these people, I still had a very enjoyable morning on the floating islands.
Experiencing life in Bolivia
After 9 days in Peru it was time to go to Bolivia. After a short stop at a small village with some ruins next to it we arrived at La Paz, which is one of the highest big cities in the world. Not the highest capital city in the world like some people think, because La Paz isn't the capital city of Bolivia. In La Paz I had the option to join an organized city tour plus an excursion to Valle de la Luna: a valley where the landscape looks just like moon-landscape. But I thought: why do this the easy way when you can do it the hard and more exciting way as well? So I decided to make my own tour, on my own. In the morning I walked around the city and in the afternoon I went searching for a local bus to Valle de la Luna. Using the local bus in La Paz is a real experience. There are no bus stops, all buses are just driving around the city center at a really slow pace with an open door, allowing people to hop in if they want to go somewhere. Of course it's possible to signal the driver first and make the bus stop for you, but most people just jump into the bus while it's driving. I remember only one time when the bus actually stopped for a new passenger, but this new passenger was an old lady who used a stick to walk, so she physically couldn't jump into the bus. :)
The typically Bolivian driver, who was making unhealthy noises from time to time, made my adventure complete. Without any issues I arrived at Valle de la Luna, where I met two Japanese tourists who gave me a ride back to the city. All of this would never have happened if I would have chosen to join the excursion.
After visiting La Paz we were facing a long bus ride towards Uyuni. Distance is a factor here, but it's not the main factor why this trip takes so long. This main factor is the fact that we had to drive 160 kilometres on an unpaved road to reach Uyuni. We were driving on this road with another bus close behind us when disaster strikes. While overtaking a slow truck, the bus behind us gets stuck in the sand. And it was really, really stuck. In line with the unwritten rules of driving on unpaved roads in Bolivia our bus driver offered his help, so we had to wait as well. It took more than an hour to get the other bus on the road again, but at least this extra stop allowed us to take a closer look at the sand tornados that were developing next to us. In the end our bus ride from La Paz to Uyuni took 14 hours.
It was worth it though: Salar de Uyuni was THE highlight of my trip to Peru and Bolivia. It feels so special to drive in a jeep through this totally deserted landscape. It felt like being on another planet, because at some places all you can see is salt, salt and more salt. All photographers know that in these circumstances it's difficult to see depth on photos. Therefore Salar de Uyuni is an ideal place to make funny pictures that fool its viewers. For example, on the picture below I am crushing my roommate during the trip, after shrinking him down to miniature size first:
And for those of you who actually want to learn something from reading my blog, here's an explanation of how the salt flats were formed in the first place: a long time ago there was a huge lake close to Uyuni. Due to the warm and dry weather, the lake dried up, leaving behind all of the salt from the water. And here's a funny fact: when Neil Armstrong was walking on the moon in 1969 one of the first things he saw when looking at the earth was a huge white spot: Salar de Uyuni. If you want to experience the same thing, I highly recommend looking at South America using Google Earth. Just like I did many times when preparing for my amazing trip to Salar de Uyuni.
Cusco & Machu Picchu
After visiting Uyuni we had a lot of travelling days. Via Potosí, again La Paz and Copacabana (not the famous one, just a small village at Lake Titicaca) we went back to Peru. We would spend four days in and around Cusco, to allow some brave group members to walk the Inca Trail towards Machu Picchu. I didn't do this, because I wanted to have enough time to visit the city and the area around it. On the first day I stayed inside the city. One may think that Cusco is only famous for being close to Machu Picchu, but actually it's a really nice city where you can easily spend a few days without getting bored. It's very lively and has a beautiful main square called Plaza de Armas. For reasons unknown to me all main squares in Peru are called Plaza de Armas. But all of those Plaza de Armas's are very pretty, just like the one in Cusco, photographed from above here:
For the second day in Cusco we rented a minibus with a small group to take us to some nearby Inca-ruins. It was very nice to see all these ruins. The day was also memorable because we had a driver who was not very concentrated. He even managed to hit a donkey on the road (yes, a donkey! how can you not see a donkey standing in the middle of the road?!?). The donkey fell down on its ass and got up quickly, looking very confused about what on earth just happened to him, but it seemed like it was doing ok again.
On day 3 we took a train to Aguas Calientes: the village that is right next to Machu Picchu. We spent the night there and the next morning at 6 o'clock we arrived at the gates of Machu Picchu. We were hoping to see the sunrise there, but it was already light when we got there and moreover it was too cloudy to see any sun at all in the morning. First we walked up to the Sun Gate to greet the people who walked the Inca Trail. After this, I started climbing Machu Picchu mountain. And I was a fast climber. I climbed this mountain in around 50 minutes and was the first tourist to reach the top that day. What I had feared for already happened: I could see only clouds. In the end there was one small moment when the clouds opened up enough so I could see a small part of Machu Picchu, but the amazing view I had hoped for never showed itself. This was the only short view on Machu Picchu I got:
So after being at the top for some time I went down again. When I was walking down I suddenly saw it: an amazing view on Machu Picchu. So I asked the first person that came by, a latino man with long hair and a cowboy hat, who didn't speak any English, if he could take a picture of me in my Inca Kola shirt. I had bought this shirt especially for this day so I could take a picture together with my roommate (who bought exactly the same t-shirt) in front of Machu Picchu, so don't start thinking that I am a typical tourist because I wear such a t-shirt. This is a sensitive topic for me: I consider myself a traveler, not a tourist. :) Anyway, the latino guy had some trouble with my photo camera, but in the end he made a nice picture.
For two hours I was walking around Machu Picchu. I came close to the exit, but felt it was too early to leave, so I sat down to enjoy some food. Shortly after this I was approached by a school teacher who was there for a trip with his class. With some hesitation he said: "¿Hables... español?". I told him I only spoke English and then, after some careful consideration he produced the word: "Photo?". So I stood up to take his camera and take a picture of his class when suddenly 3 giggling schoolgirls appeared next to me. Apparently they wanted to be on a picture with me. I don't know why they picked me out of all those tourists walking around there, but I calmly posed for one picture. After this, more the guys in the class also wanted to have a picture with me. And even their teacher wanted to join the picture. In the end pretty much all schoolgirls wanted to have an individual picture with their new "amigo" as well. Patiently I posed with them, because they all seemed so excited to have a picture with this tall Dutch guy.
After this memorable moment, I went a little up the hill again, took the photo with my roommate in front of Machu Picchu and then hopped on the bus back to Aguas Calientes.
The final day
Basically the trip was over now. We just went back to Lima with a domestic flight and the next day we would get on a plane back home. The guys from the group bought a lot of alcohol to have a secret party in the hotel (it was not allowed to drink in Lima that day, because there were elections the next day), but I still had one thing left to do: hang out with a local. Traveling with Dutch friends is fun, but I had missed meeting up with locals, seeing cities how they see it and listening to how they look at their home country a lot during the trip. So I was very glad that I could meet up with my friend Jhoselyn on the last day. She and her friend took me to Barranco, where we enjoyed a great view over the Pacific Ocean. At night she even guided me to a well-hidden local club where we had a nice night together.
It was difficult to say goodbye to Peru the next day. I really enjoyed my stay there and I'm certainly going to miss drinking Inca Kola and eating all the delicious Peruvian food. Really, the food deserves a special mention here. Many people asked me what I enjoyed the most about my trip. Here's my top 3:
1) Riding in a jeep on Salar de Uyuni. It's such a special feeling and it should be even more special when it's hot and the salt becomes a bit fluid. The salt will then reflect the blue sky above it, which makes the landscape even more beautiful.
2) Sandboarding in the desert! I'm certainly going to do it again, when given another chance.
3) Visiting Machu Picchu. This is the most well-known place in all of Peru and it didn't disappoint me. Especially when you think about the history of this place it truly gives you a special feeling to be there.
That's all about my trip. I hope you enjoyed reading my stories. If you have any other questions or comments about my trip, let me know via a comment here or a message on Facebook. I will be happy to give you more information.
