Left Samana Wasi this morning and now we are in Cusco, waiting to catch the night train to Arequipa (I am so NOT looking forward to that) to see Johanna again (I am so looking forward to that), and then the next day catch another bus (16 hours) to Lima, to do a final trek with David, and thus end this Peruvian trip the way it began.

The day before yesterday we left for Aguas Calientes, the city near Machu Picchu. We spend the day and a (very bad) night there, and got up at four in the morning to hike (instead of bus) the last one and a half hour climb to Machu Picchu. The intention was to get there before the masses of tourists arrive. We arrived before it opened, but then had to wait an hour and a half for the mist to clear up - time that Heather spent nearly sleeping, exhausted from the hike and getting up early.

¨Mir kommen die traenen¨I heard a German middle aged guy reply to the question of his guide what seeing Machu Picchu invoked in him. I don´t think I am shy of shedding a tear now and then, but in this case Machu Picchu obviously left me less moved than the German. It was beautiful, splendid, without a doubt, but it is hard for this extremely hyped place to meet expectations. I mean, a visit to Machu Picchu is announced as a life-changing experience etc etc. Very beautiful, but let´s keep it at that.

As we rushed to the train back from Aguas Calientes to Ollantantambo (52 dollars, a case of pure tourist exploitation), I was - for no apparent reason and as the only one - stopped by the railguard, who took a critical look at my ticket. He pointed out to us that it showed the date of yesterday. We were dragged to the office desk and tried to explain that it was a mistake of the guy who sold us the ticket (which it wasn´t - we simply didn´t tell him we wanted to get back only the next day). After a lot of discussing (Heather was suggesting she would fake crying, but I told her not to as I would have to laugh then), they offered that we pay 7 dollars each to change the ticket and jump on the next and last train, which was about to leave. We had miscalculated the money we needed for this Machu Picchu adventure, and couldn´t find 15 dollars even among the two of us. We were five soles (one and a half euro) short and the railguard, a fine specimen of Peruvian beaurocracy, kept shaking his head. Then Heather found a five soles piece in the back of her wallet and we rushed to the train that was about to depart. If we wouldn´t have found the coin, we´d be, like, fucked, to quote Heather, cause in that whole town there was no ATM and we wouldn´t know how to find money anywhere (to sleep another night in the hotel too).
Once on the train, we realised we didn´t have money any more for the bus we had to take after the train. I was standing up and preparing to ask the whole train car for some money, but an American woman noticed our agitation and spontaneously said ´excuse me, do you need some money?´. I said yes! we need two soles! And that was the end of it. We kept fantasising a bit about how we would´ve gotten more money (sing, steal, sell our bodies, rent out our bathing suits for people who forgot them and wanted to bathe in the thermals...).

Oh yeah, I had a really good pancake with chocolate and banana in the Hare Krishna restaurant in Aguas Calientes. Which, by the way, is an ok city to eat. We ordered a pizza without cheese, and after a ´sin queso??? es horrible no??¨got a very delicious pizza, of which we asked one more (que?? un otro?).

So now we are in Cusco and just said goodbye to Marta, who is staying here for quite a few more weeks.

Exactly one month today and I´ll be back in Belgium.

abrazo a todos

Martha, Heather and me in veg restaurant La Encuentra, in Cusco. Highly recommended for breakfast and for the mashed potatoes and soymeat I had here (yes, on seperate occasions, even though I could be convinced to combine them ;-)


Last day in Samana Wasi. This morning I had a ´regression´session with Anton. The intention is to regress into your past - this life or others - and find out about certain things that would prevent you from living your life to the fullest, so to speak. What I went through was like hypnosis, but conscious. It was interesting, though I am not convinced of anything. I can see some people raise their eyebrows and Johan is probably puking, so I won´t say more. If you want to know who I turned out to be in a previous life, you can ask me.

Halloween tonight, but I don´t know if we´ll make it to the party in town as Martha is staying in Cusco and Heather says she just literally cannot dance, in spite of all my attempts to convince
her of the contrary. In any case, you all have a good one!

love
Tobias

Friday we decided we had to check out the nightlife in Urubamba, so we headed toward the town at about 21h. We, that is to say me, Heather, and Martha - the Italian girl who is also working here - found a bar on the central square, which initially was full of gringos, but after a few hours was all for the locals (except us, of course). After three rather heavy cocktails (1 to 2 euros each) I was ready for action, and when they played Jailhouse Rock, me and Martha hit the dance floor, mingling among some 15 Peruanos and Peruanas. The exciting mix of western classics and latino music did not allow us to stop, and we saw Heather - who apparently hasn´t danced in 14 years - leaning further and further on the table, till - as we hoped - she was fast asleep. A couple of hours later she made it clear that she´d like to go, so we walked the 20 minutes home under a wonderfully starry sky. I sat down on the dirtroad for a few minutes to admire it, the rim of the mountains just below it, and saw six shooting stars in that time. I wasn´t entirely sobre - to say the least - so that made the spectacle even more special. No matter what the AA, Marcel or whoever says, alcohol is a good friend of mine. When consumed in moderation, of course ;-)

Yesterday, Saturday, we left early for Cusco, hung out there, had some good food, shopped, and at night, after a tired Heather had left for our guest house, I had a nice long talk with Martha in some restaurant in the so called Gringo Alley. Amazing how much effort people are making to get you to eat in their restaurant. My way to get rid of them is saying that we only eat elephant meat (somos elefantarianos).

Today we left from Cusco to Pisac, where there is a famous and big market, generously visited by tourists. I bought gifts for a few loved ones, as well as for myself. There is no way I´m gonna be able to fit all of this into my backpack. Veremos.

Tomorrow is our last day in Samana Wasi.

Stay beautiful

The end of my Peruvian adventure is approaching fast. Even while there´s still ten days left, if seems as I´m rounding off here... I am staying a few more days at Samana Wasi. Before leaving to Lima, we will visit what is the climax of most tourists´stay in Peru: Machu Picchu. We will also do the market at Pisac, spend one more day in Cusco, and after that head to Lima via Arequipa. Arequipa is a bit of a detour, but it will give us a chance to see Johanna again and spend one more night at her place. I plan to arrive a few days early in Lima, in the hope of still being able to visit Marcahuasi with David and Paulo. Marcahuasi is the name of a plateau at 4000 m above sea level, some 100 km away from Lima. It has very strange rock formations, of which it is not clear whether they are man-made or natural. They are mostly in the shape of animals. If you want to know more, check out http://www.labyrinthina.com/schneider.htm.

I spend my days as usual here, although our painting job is done. I finished Many Lives, Many Masters, about reincarnation. Very interesting. Also read a book about the secret life of Jesus, which is about the theories alleging and documents proving that Jesus spend the time between his 12th and 30th years in the east (Ladakh and Tibet). Fascinating. Other than that, Heather and me have been brainstorming and philosophising about our future communes (not the same one, cause we have different ideas).

Oh, and just to end this whole trip nicely, I will probably meet Andrea - the girl that drove me crazy on the vegetarian conference in Brazil last year - on the very last day of my trip. She lives in the US now but will be visiting Rio from the 30th on. I will meet her on the 1st of Dec in Rio, and then leave to Sao Paulo on the 2nd, where I have to catch my plane in the night. If they change the flight, it will be fate... ,-)

I am still enjoying it very much here, but thoughts about home and my friends are starting to cross my mind more frequently...

Ten days at Samana Wasi now. It remains a wonderful place. I spend the days painting (lamps and walls), reading, resting, teaching some English... I also gave one judo class, which was great fun. We did it in the meditation room though, which is shaped like a pyramid, and which apparently couldn´t stand too much of our stumping and running around, so we had to be very careful. Next time, outside will be better.
We love the kids and I guess they love us too. It is one big and apparently happy family, the father of whom is now 78, and started to adopt the first kid when he was about 60, after hearing what his task in life was from an old Qechua Indian, somewhere high up in the mountains, where he was brought blindfolded. Yes, it is all a little bit strange, but very exciting. The guy, Anton, wrote about these experiences in three books. He also wrote about mysteries and UFO´s. Told me that not too far from here they found an old big rock in the shape of a ufo... He´s full of these weird tales... I love it...
We have all the meals together, and yesterday it was the end of the second trimester for the kids, and reports were handed out. Funny to hear an 78 year old guy go over the boys´and girls´marks, chiding or congratulating them. They day before he was giving a whole explanation about a coming referendum in Peru, on regionalisation. Cute to see how (most of) the kids were listening attentively.

Anton really has a specific mission with this orphanage. He wants to educate the kids with specific values and with a lot of love, trying to make a new kind of human. I must say the kids are really nice. They look smart and are very social, helpful and kind. Whether they have any paranormal gifts, as is written in one of the books, I don´t know :-)

Wanted to upload some more pics but my camera´s batteries just gave up.

Health flash: I am under attack by fleas. I think we picked them up at a cheap hotel in Cusco, and brought them to Samana Wasi. They were feasting on Heather first, but then, for reasons not communicated, moved to me. There must be about a hundred bites on my body. On Heather´s advice I bought a fresh Aloe plant at the market and rub myself with its juice at night, but I am not sure if it does anything other than making me all slimy :-)

some of the ninos taking karate class
heather sunbathing












the guest house, all for us, in the background. flowers like this and others are everywhere. peaceful huh?

I´ve been in Samana Wasi for a couple of days now. My impressions are mixed. I love the place. The kids are great and the place is absolutely wonderful. However, it seems that if there is ONE place in Peru that does NOT need any help, it is this one. The kids have a wonderful live. They are able to play in a wonderful domain, have meditation and karate lessons, get two warm meals a day, have each other as friends, etc... There are like five or six gardeners constantly pruning the flowers and mowing the glass, there´s nannies and a cook... I don´t feel needed, so I am not staying because I still have an urge to help (although I guess teaching English is useful). I stay for now because I feel good here, but we´ll see what happens next. There is still time to go to Bolivia if I want to, although that would entail a lot of bussing.
The food is pretty good, but there isn´t enough of it and I usually leave the table hungry.

By the way, a poem I came across, by Dorothy Parker, that encaptures very well the traveller´s sentiment, at times:

Why is it, when I am in Rome,
I'd give an eye to be at home,
But when on native earth I be,
My soul is sick for Italy?

And why with you, my love, my lord,
Am I spectacularly bored,
Yet do you up and leave me- then
I scream to have you back again?

Yesterday Heather and I arrived at Samana Wasi, the orphanage/guest house we will normally stay at for two weeks. The place is wonderful: the different buildings are all set within a wonderful garden full of ponds, colorful flowers, wooden sculptures and upbeat quotes on signs. We have the guesthouse for ourselves right now. Don´t have time to blog much now, cause we are leaving on a one night camping trip with the 19 kids. Yesterday I already gave an English lesson to five children, aged 9 - 13. It was fun. They´re very sweet and polite. More news and pictures sometime later.

ciudate su sonrisa!
tobias

Just got the CD with pics and movie of my rafting trip. Seeing them, I just want to do it again. It beats sex, it beats sleeping, it beats vegan waffles.
This pictures do not give you the best idea, but the video is better.

I am in the front right of the boat
Same here
Holding on tight, on the right in the picture, at the end of the rapid called Purgatory, just before saving hands got me back on the boat.

Back in Cusco after 3 day rafting trip.

I don´t want to sound overly dramatic, but I am glad I survived this rafting trip. I sure got the scare of my life.
For those who don´t have a good idea of what rafting is: it is descending a river on an inflatable raft. You are in a raft with 5 to 6 people, plus a guide. You are wearing a wetsuit, lifejacket, raincoat and a helmet. Everyone uses his own paddle, and follows the instructions shouted by the guide, e.g. All Forward, Right Backward, Down! Jump to the Right! etc. Executing his commands promptly is especially important when you are in a rapid, a place in the river where the current is faster. Rapids are classified according to difficulty, from class I to class V. The Apurimac river is a class V river, and is considered one of the ten best rafting rivers in the world. It contains all classes of rapids, which are given delightful names like After You, Indiana Jones, Little Zambesi, Shoot, Don´t Worry Be Happy, and Last Laugh.
The hardest rapid, a class V one, was called Purgatory. At this point the river went through a small canyon, making the current very fast. I was all the time in the front of the boat, which is the position where you have to paddle hardest, and where you have more chance of falling out. So that´s what happened. Purgatory threw me out of the boat, and I don´t know how scary it *looked* but I sure thought these were my final minutes. One of the first commands to remember is when you go overboard, you have to try to keep hold of the boad, by grabbing the lifeline that is tied alongside it. So when all of a sudden the water was all around, I somehow managed to grab the line, after I was under water for a few seconds. I was then dragged alongside the boat, wondering if there were sucking holes around, and how wide the space was between the rocks and the boat - where I was. Like I wrote here before, I always think that I won´t die very soon because I have some stuff to do still, but right then I was thinking: apparently that´s not true and this is how it ends. Well, in hindsight I like having had the experience - it´s a new one. I felt some of the fearlessness people say they experience after having survived something very frightening. I am getting a cd a video montage and pictures, and this rapid should be on it, so if anyone wants to see me almost drowning (I am sure it will look less scary then it felt) you can come see it in December.

All in all, rafting is absolutely wonderful and I would recommend it to everyone not scared of a little speed and a little water. I had a great time, in spite of several things. First of all, the second day I felt kind of sick and wasn´t able to warm myself. The weather was horrible the first night and the second day. Our tent leaked, and in the morning we had to get in our wet wetsuits. The only thing I could think of was my cozy attic room in Gent. Furthermore, the people in the group were not that great. Now let me tell you a bit about Israeli...

It is hard to understand the number of Israeli travelling in this country. There´s only 6 million people in Israel, and you would think half are here. In my group of 30 people, 23 were Israeli. In the other group, departing the same time, there was 1 non-Israeli out of 30 people.
I don´t think there´s anything much wrong with the people in themselves, but there is most of the time a clear split between them and the rest of us. Initially I was in a boat with an Australian girl, two English girls and two Americans, but then they switched me to a full Israeli boat. One of the annoying things is that often they will stick very much to their Hebrew, certainly if there is only one poor other guy. So that´s what happened. They invented a codename to talk about me (Kalimero) and didn´t think I noticed. So I didn´t find them very sympathetic, but well, there was the rafting itself to enjoy, and after the water I could mingle with the other people.
The night before I left I had gone to a bar where they offered free salsa lessons, and I think I was the only non-Israeli there. Felt like an outcast, especially since they are like a family after one hour or so - something to envy them for I think. That in itself makes them very loud though, and they will often sing and whatnot till late into the night. Apparently there are hotels which have a ´no israeli´ sign. Anywway, didn´t do much salsa but drank two Machu Picchu Cocktails, which set badly in my stomach.

Other than that, the people of the organizing company were great guys. There was good vegetarian food (hard to resist the morning pancakes again, but I did), sunshine on the second day, great rapids, beautiful scenery...

Heather is arriving at six in the morning. Guess we explore Cusco for one or two more days and then head for the orphanage.

Happy birthday to Helga, first of all!


Cusco is wonderful but tomorrow I am leaving it already, for now, cause I´m going on a three day rafting trip on the Apurimac, one of the top ten rafting rivers in the world. I´ll be back on Tuesday evening. I´m going with perurafting.com. From their site (in bad English):

"Rafting and kayaking the rivers of Peru will be an unforgettable experience that you will really enjoy. The waters that flows down from the Andes form the mighty rivers of Peru and Chile, an authentic and irresistible challenge for lovers of rafting and kayaking , is an experience that will put you on the edge of risk and danger.
Among this Rafting Peruvian rivers is the Apurimac river, a classic class IV & V , run that drops through house sized granite boulders with canyon walls soaring thousands of feet above. It is rated among the 10 best rafting trips in the world and the number one Rafting trip in Peru.
This Peruvian river for rafting is born on the summits of the glaciar Misti only 100 km from the Pacific Ocean and cuts across the Andes of the South American Continent flowing directly into the Amazon river making it the longest river in the world.
You will feel the vertiginous fury of the waters , the raft quivers, jumps , sifts and you have to row with perseverance and passion, while your heart accelerates its beats and you grit your teeth."

Just arrived in Cusco after an 8 hour bus ride. Again it was a pretty irritating one. Like I said, not my preferred company, so it stopped every five meters to pick people up. Most horribly, at some point some woman entered with a big bag on her back. She put it down on the platform right in front of my seat, opened it, and the next moment she was hacking on its contents with a large butcher´s knife. Apparently there was some dead animal in there - fortunately hidden from my sight - which she was chopping up and selling to the passengers. I put my fleece in front of my eyes because the scene was too horrible (as were the smells and the chomping sounds), and the one time I looked, she reached over my seat with her hand to give some grisly, bony meat - or meaty bone - to the person behind me. I was briefly reminded of the Aztec sacrifices where the priest takes the heart of the victim and holds it in the air... Quite disturbing.

Tonight I am staying in Hotel Los Ninos (ninoshotel.com), which is way above my budget, but the profits go to a project with street children, so I figure it´s ok for one night. I´ll look for another place tonight or tomorrow. Now it´s chowtime.

stay beautiful

T

Foodieblog...
As I have to get up early tomorrow, I should be in bed by now. Besides, I sleep less well at this altitude, I noticed. But I can´t hit the sack yet, cause I over-ate, and I need to blog as I want to saveguard this culinary experience for posterity and my own memories.
Often when I eat, my stomach and my tongue start as allies, but end up disagreeing. My tongue wants me to keep eating as long as the food tastes good, but after a while my stomach may be protesting.
Tonight I started off with a big salad consisting of raw spinach, cucumber, lettuce, tomato, avocado, some strange but tasty vegetable called kaiwa, and other stuff. I let it follow by a kind of curry made with soy meat, koriander, garlic, vegetables, quinoa, sweet potato and yam, accompanied by a glass of red wine. There were a couple of vegan desserts on the menu, and as they were as usual pretty cheap, I took two. First came slices of orange that were to be dipped in chocolate sauce. The sauce, made with pure chocolate and mint, was the best I ever tasted. It was kind of messy to eat, and I positively ruined a napkin (all the more because I also used it to clean up spilled wine). Second was a dish consisting of apples baked in cognac, with raisins, nuts and blackberry sauce. Together with this I drank a huajspata, a warm drink with red wine, pisco (a local alcoholic specialty), orange juice and cinnamon.
Apart from the size of my stomach, my sweet tooth, and my spoiled tastebuds, I have only two excuses for this irresponsible case of gluttony: 1. it was raining very heavily and I couldn´t leave the restaurant, so I had to keep on eating. 2. twice, a beggar knocked on the restaurant door, and the wonderful waitress gave them free food. Without people patronizing this restaurant, this generous behaviour wouldn´t be possible :-)
The restaurant - called El Sol Interior or The Inner Sun, is kind of spiritually/religiously inspired. On their menu one can read: ´lo que buscas esta en tu corazon´, or ´what you are looking for is in your heart´. Good that it´s not in our stomach, cause there I certainly wouldn´t know how to find it there, at this point...

Oh, something I read in this Coelho book I mentioned. I have thought of this myself, but this guy put it nicely: something like ´...the sweetness of wine, which makes it easier for us to say and hear difficult things...´. Indeed, that is one of alcohol´s functions. Nothing wrong with alcohol, when consumed in moderation. On the contrary, it may help us to be true.

Did a guided tour today of Titicaca, visiting the Uros and Taquina islands. Actually I dislike guided tours. They make me feel like a tourist - which in a sense of course I am. Anyway, Titicaca is nice, but it´s, well... a lake. A lake trying to be a sea. You don´t really notice that it´s a lake at 4.000 m above sea level, so it is just a lake. The Taquina island is just an island, while the Uros islands are man-made islands, made from reed. However, this is now mainly a tourist attraction. So sum total: not really worth my time I guess, and certainly not worth five hours on a boat. Of course, I had some things you just have to see in order to know you wouldn´t have missed anything if you hadn´t :-) I´ll wash this down with a nice glass of wine and a good meal in a minute... Puno has cosy restaurants - obviously, the vegetarian ones do no fall under that category, unfortunately. But at least I had a great meal yesterday. Mashed potatoes, for the first time! Didn´t realize how I had been missing them till I tried them again.

Finished Paulo Coelho´s ´A las orillas del rio Piedra me siento y llore´, which I can recommend. It´s about love :-)

The bus company I am normally using doesn´t do busses to Cusco for a month, so I am scheduled for another bus. Touching wood. It´s another eight hour ride. If they´re gonna stop every five paces I´m going to screaaaaaam.

Daddy, happy birthday!

Hungry. Catch you later, amigos...

This morning I left Arequipa, and I just arrived in Puno, the Peruvian gateway to the Titicaca lake, at 3.800m above sea level. Heather will remain a couple more days with Johanna and we will meet up later again in Cusco.
I had a great time in Arequipa, mainly because of Johanna´s kindness. It is so great when people you randomly meet online, turn out to be wonderful persons in real life. I knew Johanna was a very kind person, but in real life she was even better than expected, and it is hard to express my fondness and gratitude towards her for what she did for me and heather. I hope to get better at expressing those things, some time...
Tomorrow I´m going for a tour on the lake and visit some of the Titicaca islands, and the next morning it´s finally off to Cusco.

Yesterday was world animal´s day I believe, because it is also the day of St Francis. I visited a church of St Francis here, and came across the Spanish version of the so called Prayer of St Francis. (a wonderful prayer/poem, google it up if you´re interested). In the Spanish version, there is one wonderful sentence not figuring in the English or Dutch one. It is:
´olvidandose se encuentra´ en betekent zoveel als ´forgetting one´s self one finds one´s self´. Prachtig he ;-)

going to search for some food...

all the best a todos!

Couple of more pictures. Here´s a view on Arequipa, with the Misti Volcano in the background.



















Heather and Johanna.

I´ve been with Heather in Arequipa for three days now, staying with Johanna, my internet-friend (or previously only internet friend, at least). Our last stop, Ica, was kind of a miss. I just wanted to briefly stop there for a particular museum, but it never opened that day. Also, I was a bit sick in the stomach. So at the Plaza de Armas - or town square - I lied down on a bench, till a security guard said I couldn´t do that. He left and I lied down again. He saw me, told me I had to get up, and I said I was feeling sick. He said if you are sick you have to go to the hospital. I stayed down, so he said ok then I´ll call an ambulance. I said yeah, as if... but ten minutes later the ambulance was there. Anyway, we left before we got into trouble...
At five pm we got back on the bus, and a horrible ride it was this time. The driver put on a DVD of five Jackie Chan movies, and if I hadn´t asked him to stop it as no one was looking, it would´ve played all night – as did the music. The bus stopped every two hours and then people got up, crying loudly to sell whatever they were selling, before disappearing again. Of course all the time the lights went on. So when I leave tomorrow for Puno, I´m taking a more expensive bus.

Anyway, now I am still in Arequipa, which is a very nice city, its horizon dominated by the 5800 high El Misti volcano, and some other snow capped mountains. Our host, Johanna is a wonderfully sweet girl. Staying with a family is a different and interesting experience. Her father runs a business that publishes school books, and I´m going to take some to the orphanage I´m going to in Cusco. We had some days of rest here and hung around the city, visiting the Santa Catalina convent, rowing a boat, seeing some churches... Yesterday Heather and I cooked for the family and they seemed to like it a lot. The mother, a very sweet woman, spoils us with good food (the first time it was hard to get around a soup with beef stock, and I had a few spoonfuls before I put it aside, and yesterday we had to refuse a gelatine-dessert).

So tomorrow I leave for Puno, the main city near the Peruvian side of the Titicaca lake. The day after or two days after I will leave for Cusco.

Ica.
Heather and me - and also Kobi, who just left us right now - are travelling south. Two days ago we jumped on the bus towards Lima. A very comfortable luxury bus, for the price of about 3 euros for 7 hours travel. I didn´´t sleep the whole time, and next to me Heather was very motion-sick all the way. We left the clear sky of Huaraz at 10pm and arrived in smog covered Lima at 5am. As we were gazing at the very bright stars and what i believe was the planet Venus through the bus-window, I felt a rush of excessive happiness...
We didnt spend the night in Lima but rushed right on to Pisco, where that same day, without having slept, we did a guided tour of a nature reserve. I felt too much like a tourist to enjoy it much, and there wasn´t that much to see anyway. This morning, after a wonderful night´s rest, we drove one hour to Ica, and now I am waiting in a cybercafe for the museum next door to open. Tonight at 17 we start the 14 hour journey to Arequipa.

Resting at the San Antonio Pass.


My posture is not entirely secure, as there was like a precipice gaping in my back...


I am reading The Time Traveller´s Wife. Recommended!

Heather and I are reunited since yesterday. She spent two weeks with a family, some 6 hours from Huaraz, in apparently even more primitive circumstances than me... She is now apparently inhabited by a parasite and has giardiasis. We went to get the medication, even though she is not in favour of western medicine and is afraid of the side effects of the pills. Heather asked me to teach her some words in Spanish for ´sod off´as she is constantly being hit on and even felt up by Peruvian guys.

Here is a picture of us having breakfast at the cafe Andino. Did I already tell about the cafe Andino? It is the most wonderful place in the world (cafeandino.com)

Tonight we are getting on the bus South. Plan is to visit Pisco, the so called Galapagos of Peru, and Ica, a little town where I´d like to visit a mysterious museum showing the Ica stones, supposedly thousands of years old, but depicting impossible scenes like people with dinosaurs, blood transfusions, telescopes... After that, we´ll head to Arequipa where we´ll meet Johanna, a girl I met on messenger and practised Spanish with online.