Peru - Cusco – somewhat dangerous and cold

Cusco, a large city up high in the mountains at an altitude of about 3600m, fascinating and dangerous at the same time with nights that are as cold as most winters back home. I got there by plane, and fortunately had arranged a pick up to my hotel as right outside the airport there are loads of taxi drivers trying to pick you up, most likely at triple the cost of what an actual ride should cost. Fortunately my pick up was waiting for me and took me to the hotel I had booked for the first few nights. I found in my travels that whenever I arrive in a new place it is reasonable to stay the first few nights at a somewhat upscale place until I have made my bearings in the town. Arriving at the hotel I was immediately offered a Coca tea in order to start adapting to the altitude, although I have been in the Alps a few times, I don’t think I had ever been in a city this large at such a height. The first night was very quiet, I only went for a very short walk which left me breathless but with a good first impression of Cusco as during the half hour walk I was not hassled once. I then returned to the hotel for a light dinner consisting of only a chicken broth, which is recommended for the first night until one adapts to the height. I pretty much slept like a baby until 4am when I woke up feeling a bit short of breath, which was a really strange sensation.

The next day I ventured out into town to walk some more and adapt to the height, and pretty much spent the entire day walking the historic centre of town, which is filled with Inka culture contrasted by the many churches and Christian monuments that the Spaniards erected often on top of the previous Inka structures. I walked around quite a bit, and saw some very fascinating buildings, and of course Plaza de Armas, which is the main square and quite busy, but a wonderful place to sit down and just observe locals and tourists interact in various forms. Spent a bit of time at the central market which is quite large, and where you can find just about anything from food to clothing and jewellery. A nice place to visit. In the evening I had dinner once more at the hotel but this time with a bit more consistency as I had been chewing Coca leaves pretty much all day long, and that turns out to be more efficient than drinking them as a tea.

After dinner I mapped out my hike for the next day, which turned out to be quite a long one. First I headed up on foot to Saqsaywaman, a relatively large archaeological site that actually has 4 or 5 distinct areas. Walking up was quite the experience as from the 3600m level of the city you climb to about 4000m which left me breathless more then once, so I think it took me about 1.5 hours to actually make it up to the site. Once I arrived I took the long route around the site and took my time taking in all the sights, and ruins in detail. The Inka culture is fascinating, just looking at the precision with which they built their structures it is amazing! Giant stones perfectly carved to fit on top of each other without any cement or the like to hold them in place. I ended up walking from one place to the next totally fascinated and drawn to stay quite a while, unfortunately and understandably most of the monuments are actually roped off and access is forbidden, but you still get a good view of most. From the main site I headed over to the water temple, a coliseum like structure to the side of which there is a rock formation with small tunnels underneath it which are open to access, but do not run very deep, and are indeed quite small, the Incans must have been quite small people.

Once I had been to every monument in the principle Saqsaywaman area I headed further up the hill to go to the Temple of the Moon, a sort of stone hill that has halls carved into it, unfortunately again here the main hall is closed off, but on the lucky side, when you are standing in front of it, on the right hand side there is a small cave that is open to visitors. The entrance is guarded by 3 snakes, and 2 pumas (1 of which I was able to make out) carved into the stone. At the back of the hall there is a small meditation table with a hole above it where once a year on just the right date the moonlight falls in and right on the table. Although generally speaking the moon is considered a female energy I could not resist lying down on the table to meditate a bit after I had made a small offering of Coca leaves and Mapacho tobacco. I only laid there for about 10 minutes but it was quite energizing nonetheless, a little later a small group of tourist arrived with maybe a shaman as there guide who made the girl of the group lie down, and chanted a little. After the chant she said she felt quite strange lying there, as though she had been spinning all around. Very interesting to observe.

I walked outside and over the temple and had a little lunch right on top of it sitting on a beautifully carved stone that felt like the perfect place to sit. After that as it was already about 3 in the afternoon I started to make my way back down on what turned out to be a traditional Inka route right back down to the Plaza de Armas. The next day I pretty much did nothing as my legs were aching quite a lot from about 8 hours of walking in total.

I spent a couple more days in Cusco just hanging around discovering small places here and there, and spending some time each day sitting at the Plaza de Armas doing some writing and observing people as they went about their business. Ultimately I think there are as many if not more street vendors and people hassling tourist as in Iquitos, they are just a little less obnoxious.

Sometime after that I left for Machu Picchu, a review of which can be found here.

Upon returning from Machu Picchu I had a few more days in Cusco as I was not really sure where to head next, and got to know a woman by the name of Sophia a bit more, one of the street vendors who had sat with me the week before and had taken the time to just talk for a bit, which as it turns out was just a build up to suck me into her story a few days later. Before I headed to Machu Picchu I already had bought a small necklace from here so I was not intended on buying anything else, she did however lull me in with her story about how she was going to lose her home and would have to live on the streets with her 4 kids which of course she was raising by herself. So at the point where she actually added tears to the mix I got really weak and ended up giving her a bit of money in hopes she would use it towards her rent or food for her kids. Looking back I doubt she even has 4 kids, but oh well, the whole story made me think quite a lot, and thought me a thing or two about life in Peru as well as myself so I do not consider it a total loss. The next day she came back again and as I had told her I would be going to Pisac for some time, a small town north of Cusco she actually asked for a loan that she would of course give me back in a month, even though it was very unlikely for me to be around a month later. I kindly refused and actually explained to her that even though I was able to travel for quite a while I had to work my ass off to get to this point which she just ignored, and re-asked for a loan, which again I refused, and then she left, and I did not see her again, or rather I did not see again up close, but kept on observing her a bit now and then at the Plaza de Armas.

On my last night in Cusco I went for an early dinner and met some people from Argentina with whom I had a few drinks in a place called Cross Keys where there were 2 live bands, a 2 man cover band to begin with and Salsa band after that, both of which turned out to be quite good, but I ended up going home only around 1 am, and on the way back to the hostel I was staying at that point was almost mugged. Essentially I just slipped into the hostel door before some drunk guy caught up with me and ended up banging on the door to be let in, which was not my responsibility as the hostel had security cameras in order to insure that they only had actual guests entering the premises. The next day the hostel owner asked me if I had been mugged, to which I repeated that no I just had gotten in before anything happened.

In the morning I left to Pisac, a review of which will come up sometime soon, and there I heard quite a few more little horror stories about Cusco from stolen cell phones to muggings to actually one girl being zapped with an electro shocker up close to the temple of the moon, fortunately nothing bad happened to her as she did not pass out from the electro shock, but still quite a frightening story. So all in all, if you are to visit Cusco, either do so in a small group, or watch your own back very diligently. Personally I had little to no problems, as I carry the few valuables I have very close and mostly hidden under my cape, and most of the days went back to the hostel at a very reasonable time, but it seems to be a bit of a dangerous place nonetheless. And as mentioned in the title, the nights are indeed very cold, so be sure to pack a couple pyjamas so that you can get good and comfortable nights of sleep, as by far not every hostel has heaters, and if they do often it’s small electrical ones that don’t have enough power to warm the entire room. Overall still a charming city, but as most big cities go, not my favourite place thus far.

Travelling ? Part 2

So following my moral dilemma whether or not to continue my travels, I am happy to report that I will indeed go on. There are a number of reasons, first and foremost, indeed there is poverty all over the world, and I won’t be able to change that by myself and it’s not bound to change anytime soon. I will go on keeping an open ear to anyone that wants to share their story with me, or wants to just talk for a while. I will keep on helping when and where I can, but came to the conclusion that ultimately it’s not my responsibility to help everyone or to help more than I can.

Thinking about the whole thing has grown my recognition of how fortunate I am to be able to travel, and that I cannot ignore.

Additionally I am yet again amazed by how my travels unfold, today I arrived in Pisac, a small town, that is essentially the gateway to the Sacred Valley, which supposedly plays a large role in the planets Kundalini energy, and I got here just in time for full moon on Sunday, which I will most certainly enjoy a lot! Funny thing is that the last full moon I witnessed was in the Amazon, and now I am up high in the mountains. It all just flows much too perfectly to abandon such an opportunity!

Thank you to each and every one of you that responded in some way shape or form to my last post! I will keep you all updated as to how my travels progress!

Peru - Iquitos – Wonderfully weird place

So now that a few weeks have passed since I left Iquitos, it’s time to look back. Iquitos is a wonderfully weird town, and hard to describe as it’s filled with such contrasts that it’s hard to either pin it down to positive or negative or just plain crazy, which probably sums it up best, crazy indeed! It’s a place where you can easily lose yourself, and judging by the number of lost Ayahuasca souls I’ve seen there, quite a few people do get lost in search of something that Ayahuasca probably was never meant to deliver. Traditionally speaking or at least so I have gathered Ayahuasca is more of a cleansing than anything else, and as far as I found out, the tourist brews as I like to call them do not deliver much of that either… Naturally it depends on what you are looking for to begin with. Although I was very open to the idea of drinking Ayahuasca, I did end up not drinking any, as I did not find a local traditional Shaman. So this report will stay focused a bit more on Iquitos itself. Katoo the owner of the Green Track Hostel and Tapiche Jungle Reserve (a review of which can be found here) put it quite well I think: “Iquitos is like a river turn”. And with that he meant that everything that flows on or in the river gets stuck in the turn, at least for a while, and that sums up Iquitos quite well. In the first few days all I wanted to do was get out again, and as more time passed, the more comfortable and at home I felt there. Another guy, Tim from Australia, put it this way: “When I got here I felt very uncomfortable, but after some time, if nothing else, my comfort zone has been expanded. And that’s always a good thing.”

So Iquitos is one of the poorest towns around, and it shows at every corner, on the other hand, you can still see that back in the rubber days, Iquitos was one of the richest places around, proof of which lies in some of the amazing buildings that have lost little of their charm even though they have been converted to new purposes, such as the once upon a time best hotel in all of Peru, which is now some kind of military installation. The general population is relatively poor, and yet there are a ton of Jewellery stores, shops for the newest cell phones, and gambling joints. The streets are filled with roaming vendors, beggars, dealers, and kids trying to sell candy for a Soles or two. And then there is the very special kind who’ll provide whatever you are looking for. You won’t be able to go far without being hassled in some way shape or form, so if you have a hard time to say no in your life, this is the place where you’ll learn it quickly, or otherwise you’ll spend your entire budget within a few days.

Nonetheless the town at least to me seemed like a relatively safe place, and besides an Ayahuasca tourist group being relieved of all their possession by pirates while on the boat to their camp, I did not hear of much crime. Of course there is the Belen market, where you can find just about anything from Fruits to Animal parts in glass jars, which is a bit of a different story, this is not the place where you want to take out your camera for a few shots even though some people do, there is a certain amount of danger in the air. As long as you stay on the top part of the market it’s relatively safe, but down by the river it’s a different story, as there, a body can quickly vanish in the dark waters of the river. If you want to go there, do so on a dry day or wear rubber boots to make it through the gooey substance that once was earth, but nowadays is a mix of god knows what, from trash to fish and animal entrails, it probably holds everything. The contrast here is the promenade by the river which is actually one straight shot into Belen, but is the complete opposite, concrete floors, and tourist restaurants and a fountain, around which loads of people gather pretty much every evening to hang out and enjoy the slightly cooler nights. If you go there be sure to stop by the Dawn of the Amazon for their “peanut butter conspiracy” one hell of a tasty smoothie. In general if you like fresh fruit, Iquitos is a good place to be in as they have loads of it, and loads of fruits you cannot even get in Europe. Then there is Green Go a sort of pharmacy where you can all kinds of strange powders and super foods, from Una de Gato down to Sangre de Grado or Mapacho Tobacco, all of which you can also find at Belen market for a cheaper price, but where it’s less easy to make sure you are actually buying what you were looking for, especially if you are not yet familiar with the substances!

Of course as most town it’s the people that make it what it is at the end of the days, and besides the hagglers, in Iquitos you can meet all sorts of freaks of nature, from the complete madmen down to people with amazing stories. One of which was a guy named Rob Dowling, the founder of http://amazonchildren.com   whose website I urge you to visit! I won’t go into too much detail here, but he is a guy who’s set himself to conquer 4 very peculiar challenges in order to raise awareness for his website with the goal of building a medical centre on the river bank for amazon children that often are in dire need of medical attention. Another interesting person I met was called Allen, who does work as a healer and has been travelling for the past 8 years. I had one relatively long talk with him, and he did help me quite a lot in dealing with a few personal issues I have been carrying for quite a while, with a few tips and tricks for my meditations. Not to forget all the rest of the people I sat down with and had more or less fascinating talks just about everything from drugs to nature and life in general. Some who thought they were wiser than they in fact are, and some so humble and knowledgeable they could come straight out of an Indian Ashram.

Iquitos also is a prime hub for excursions into the Jungle, a lot of which are to be avoided if you ask me, as they try to lure you in with the promise of holding animals to get your picture taken, so mostly young animals whose mothers have been killed in order to make some money, but there is for example the Tapiche Reserve, which is well worth a visit! The problem here is that the region is so poor, and there are few to no regulations from the government as to what is ok and what is not, here there is still a lot of work ahead for the people and the government, as currently the government encourages people to live off and support their life off the jungle in any way they can, which most of the time is anything but sustainable. So nothing for the long run, I hope that more and more tourist that go there will avoid the places that abuse nature, in order to play their part in changing things for the better so that the locals can actually keep on living off and with nature for a long time! But as long as there is demand for things like animal trinkets and pictures with animals, it’s normal that the locals will provide just that in order to make a living! Demand and supply, as usual strongly linked.

Overall Iquitos is well worth a visit, but not necessarily for the faint of heart. I for one had a great time there, and met some amazing people, but you’ll have to be able to say no, or learn it quickly, and not let yourself get carried away in some of the quick sensations and temptations that are offered.

Humans

In my travels i have met a few people that still give me hope for humanity, but some of the crap that people spit out on social media (or in Politics, or in any other way, shape and form).. Nationalist, ignorant and just plain stupid is mindblowing. Hope someday people will realise that countries, nationality, and boarders are only an arbitrary figment of our imagination.

The same goes for race/skin colour. Peel back the skin, and it's all the same colour: MEAT. All of us share the same coloured blood.

So get over it, we are all humans living on the same fucking planet. Period.

Either we learn to live and evolve together or we will perish.

Costa Rica - Monte Verde

So following a couple of rain filled days at Arenal, which were quite fun, it was time to move on.From Arenal over to Monte Verde was about a 4 hour drive, more or less, as usual in Costa Rica, there is no telling when you’ll actually arrive at your destination, sometimes it’s faster than your GPS tells you and sometimes, well it takes a lot longer.

I arrived in Monte Verde in the late afternoon, as I had opted to throw in a few stops along the road to take in the panorama sights!

After a relatively early dinner I was in bed early, in order to make the most of my time the next day. Early in the morning I went to one of the few free attractions, a tree located in small stretch of forest in Monte Verde where there is a hollow tree (still alive) that you can climb all the way to the top, the peculiar aspect is that you are climbing through the tree trunk so to speak! I hung out at the top of the tree for a little while until more people arrived, and as the space is limited I went back down, an amazing experience nonetheless!

Following the tree climbing I wanted to go the Monte Verde National Reserve, but arriving there saw a lot of cars, and a few buses.. And as I was not in the mood for a lot of people decided to instead go to the Santa Elena Cloud forest, a privately owned reserve that is nice and wild. On the way there I could not resist the temptation and went for another round of canopy, this time in dry weather, which I must admit is somewhat more comfortable! The lines were pretty fast, and some had to be done in pairs, in order to gain enough speed going against the relatively strong winds.

I arrived at Santa Elena a little before 3, and the guard at the entrance suggested I should take the short hike of about 3 km. As I was going through on my own, just enjoying the forest, and letting its calm take a hold of me, it took me only a short while to finish that particular track, so I added the 2^nd longest of about 5 km. This trail, as it turned out actually led to a little opening in the forest, offering a perfect view of Arenal Volcano, which for once was not hidden in a veil of clouds!

The Santa Elena Cloud Forest Reserve is actually quite a nice reserve, offering a little bit of cemented trails in the beginning, but if you go for the longer walks, you are actually getting into a bit of wild nature, although the paths are still very clearly visible, it gets a bit muddy, and that is half the fun!

As I had caught a bit of a cold in the rainy climate around Arenal, I decided that after spending an additional night in Monte Verde I would head back to the Pacific coast where I knew the weather was nice and warm!

More on that in a later post!