Volando vengo, volando voy!

Quito-Capital

2006-12-22T22:39:00.000+01:00

I only had a couple of days left in Quito. As christmas was approaching I spent my time buying the last presents and also another kilo of books for me. But still, I was lucky at the airport, my backpack only weighed 20.15 kgs. And not even IBERIA made me pay for these 150 grms ;-) I liked Quito, but as in most southamerican cities, pollution is a real problem. But even if many people warned me, I felt pretty safe there. Strolling around the historical center was great and even though the city is at 2800m, it's still warm enough for nice streetcoffees, no Starbucks.....
i also went to the famous market in Otavalo, ok. it's a nice place, but if you ever travel Peru and Ecuador, buy your Alpacastuff, knitware and all kinds of gifts in Peru, they don't have the $ and they do have a lot of these animals.

Teatro Sucre, view from 'Cafe del Teatro'

Plaza de la Independencia, sounds so much nicer than
Plaza de Armas

The Basilica by a french Architect

Time is ticking away, indeed it's my last day ;-(

The Hill is Quitos Panecillo...muy peligroso...

There is a great number of churches and monasteries in Quito,
some are really nice with amazing woodcarvings and paintings,
it's the first time on this trip that i saw churches similar
to the ones in brasils colonial cities of Minas Gerais

The haunchbacks home ;-)

I felt pretty dizzy on that climb and it reminded me of a trip to
Florence, Italy; where a good friend of mine turned white as a sheet...

OOPS, hold tight..... it felt rather cool to be closer to the sky, or should I say heaven,
than the priest down in the Basilica.

I think it was my best sleep ever on an airplane, but that bloke woke
me up to give me some bad coffee and really dry bread...
but soon after that we approached good old europe...... Whoooaah!!!
2 years ago I went to this beautyful place, that was when I decided
to go to one of their former colonies, therefore I studied that
beautyful language, to understand some more words than only
Saudade ;-) As most of you know, I hardly stayed another year in
Switzerland and I hit the road again. This time without having to
study any language, ya que el español es tan facíl...jejeje
The good thing about South America is that, even having visited
it's biggest countries, there is still plenty to see.......
'...so I'll keep coming back to you over and over again'

I'll be back, so stay tuned!!
And make the best of 2007!

Hey Megan, if you ever read this,
could you send me olli's e-mail?!

Baños

2006-12-16T23:13:00.000+01:00

From the beach to the mountains, after a crazy nightride i arrived in
Quito in the early morning. I took the next bus straight on to Baños.
That's where you have the Tungurahua-Volcano, which has been
quite active recently. Which was pretty bad for tourism. Except for
some crazy Volcano-Watching-Guys, most visitors for the hot
springs stopped coming to baños.
As a matter of fact, as soon as I made my appearance in the small
town of Baños, the bad weather was there too..... so I rent a bike
and went to visit some nice waterfalls along the road down to Puyo.

There was this crazy Cablecar

Greetings from Garaventa!

Swingbridge over the Pastaza-River and the 'Manto de la Novia' waterfall

'Little Brother' Marcello is watching over his beautiful Paradise!

I had to fish the trout for my great lunch prepared by Rocio, Marcellos wife,
to be honest, I'didn't catch one, but Marcello did the job, lucky me!

Here they are, they built up the place 15 years ago, out of nothing!!

Further down the valley is the awesome Pailón del Diablo-Fall!! That was loud!!!

The 'Cast away' 'pirate of the carribean' ;-)

Los Organos, Peru to Montañita, Ecuador

2006-12-13T21:36:00.000+01:00

Los Organos

Esperando la ultima ola

Hostal Takaynamo, chevere!

Montañita, Ecuador

Eins für d' Sandy

Bottleneck

Surfwatching I

Surferwatching

Backwatching...
'I was looking back to see if you were
looking back, to see me looking back at you'

Birdline I

Birdline II

Birdline III

Bird with lines ;-)

Skylines

Chan Chan - Cultura Chimo

2006-12-13T21:21:00.000+01:00

Huanchaco, Trujillos beachresort

On my way to ChanChan

Ok, it was flat, but my lens isn't...

Huge, kinda ' Superstudio'

Plenty of fish in the sea.

Guru Josh

Konstruktionsschnitt

Nature Morte

Huaraz-Santa Cruz Trekking

2006-11-30T04:42:00.000+01:00

1st day

Bus Publico!

Engadin ;-) On our way to the St.Cruz Trekk, riding on a bus
for about 2 hours. I hope you like that pic, I hold my 1000Euro
Camera out of the window and just shot some pics, it
was shaking really hard, soon after the lakes we started
to climb up a narrow mountain road. Back in Switzerland you
would only drive up there with a small Subaru and,
of course your HH. We were on a bus.

1st Camp, 3700 m, the green tent is the kitchen/diningroom
and our chill-out lounge area. There was a stove for cooking,
but still it was pretty cold in there. But guide Felix turned out
to be a great cook. Well done. El areiro, the guy with the mules,
Elmer played us some nice andean tunes at night.

2nd day

Tough life! Pretty humid weather. Walking up to the
Paso Union at 4800msnm

Tobbogan

2nd Camp at 4200m. When we arrived it was raining really
hard. We waited in the kitchentent and when it finally stopped,
we had hardly enough time to put up our tents,
when....de repente........

Alpamayo appeared!!

That's another one.

And another one, don't ask me the names!

A sometimes rainy trekk, but hey we saw one of the most
impressive mountains on the continent!! 10-15 minutes ;-)

Cansado y muy feliz!
'Hey folks on your left hand you can see a cloud that looks
exactly like Badly Drawn Boy' Insider ;-)

Thanks to MONTTREK in Huaraz, if you plan to go there, contact

pochodelosandes@hotmail.com

Roadside Peru II

2006-11-30T02:01:00.000+01:00

It took me 48 hours to get from Sorata in the Cordillera Real (B)
to Huaraz in the Cordillera Blanca (P). Some impressions!

Getting bored on the bus!

Ride in Style!

Monstertrucks!

Hagenholz!!

Messieurs les architectes!

Do you remeber that little one, loads of petroglyphs around!

1st, only and last time that I travelled with that company!

The bright side of life vs. ...

...the dark side of Ormeño, we stopped at 6'o clock in the
morning and at 9 o'clock we could get on another bus that
was already pretty full.The rest of the trip was so uncomfortable,
that I insisted on getting a refund at the office in lima. Got it.

Pre inca Statue ;-)

Sorata-Laguna Glaciar Trekking

2006-11-30T01:14:00.000+01:00

We were supposed to do a 3-day trekking, but as the weather was really bad we made it a day shorter. We went up to a first mountainlake, Laguna Chillacta, on 4200m. The next morning I left with guide Julio up to the Laguna Glacial on 5200m. We didn't see a lot and had just enough time to have a sandwich before another hailstorm came down. We walked back to the camp over slippery stones and decided to leave for the village, which took us another 4 hours. I was exhausted but happy, but hey Sr.Morales, why do you leave poor Sorata people without electricity every other day? No hot water and not even light in the shower. And that's just not the best place for a candle!

A glimpse of mountain on the first day.

Laguna Chillacta, can u see that strange pattern with the reflection?

First Night in some kind of 'Migros'-tent. That's for sure,
next time I'll bring my own one. By the way, thats only
one of my many new hats!

Do you remeber 'the magic eye'? I tell you it's right in the middle ;-)
click to enlarge.............

Laguna Glacial, can u see it?

Cocinero and Portero Milan with his swedish
stove, hot coffee was waiting for us when
we arrived from the cold Laguna.

Slippery I tell you, and even worse with my peruvian AntiVibram Sole.
The original one on my boots abandoned me after the first trekking!

Sorata-Buscando la Gruta San Pedro

2006-11-30T00:14:00.000+01:00

Some impressions of my short bolivian excursion. I wanted to visit Sucre, Potosi and the Salar de Uyiuni and continue to San Pedro de Atacama in Chile. But time is ticking away...so I decided to go only as far as Sorata and head back north after that. see the 'no internet in my tent'-post!

Estrecho de Tiquina on the bolivian side of Lake Titicaca

Just jumped of the bus in the middle of nowhere and hoped
that there would really be a connecting one to Sorata!

Las 'chicas' de Sorata, most of them belong to the Aymara people;
beside Quechua another important ethnic group in the Andes.

Alejandra got a sketchbook too, she just
couldn't believe it, and half of my breakfast ;-)

Landscape on my way to the Gruta San Pedro

Batman!

La Gruta: nothing awesome, until..........................

......this funky Caveman appeared!

Isla del Sol-Lake Titicaca Bolivia

2006-11-30T00:08:00.000+01:00

Before I went to Sorata I spent two days on the beautyful Isla del Sol. There are some incaruins and some hostals on the crest of the island, means sunset and sunrise. This was the only time I really saw the Cordillera Real with the impressive Illampu. I went to Sorata to see these mountains and there was nothing but fog..............

Hasta ahorita Peru, chevere conocerte!!

Welcome to Evos Empire!

Beautiful Cordillera Real with Nevado Illampu, thanks to
my trip to the Isla del Sol, I saw this mountainrange.

It's not flowing down, but the boat was moving!

First Evening on the Isla,
first Bolivian Beer, first sunset

'Red is the color of the blue sky'

Mmmhh, 4000m, pretty cold here!

When I woke up: Snow is only frozen water, it was hail....

Another road to nowhere, no other tourist in sight........

Suits with the local Radioprogram:it's all about 80s & 90s:
'Wind of change' ;-)

Some more Ruins seen from a small hill.

On the hill: 'Bring your swiss army knife and a bottle
of something...'

On the other side of that hill: Greece!

But watertemperature is only 8-10º C, local kids dont care at all!

Piglounge! Sauhufe!

Rastaktus!

No running water, but they have electricity here!

Quite basic restaurant with a tasty trout, mmhhh!

I gave them small Sketchbooks,
but I guess they are rather interested in
money and candys.

No Internet in my tent

2006-11-26T05:23:00.000+01:00

Hi everybody,
I'm fine and I really enjoy my trip. Doing things like walking up to 5200 m
and not being able to see anything, but knowing, there is the beautiful
Illampu just somewhere there in the mist!
After a 48-hour trip from Sorata, Cordillera Real, Bolivia; with 2 buses who failed,
I reached Huaraz in the peruvian Cordillera Blanca. It sometimes looks
like on the picture around here, but 'wait till tomorrow comes'.
I' m going on a 4-day trek, so no new updates, sorry!
Back in Bolivia they seem to have some electricity trouble. Before I left for the
hike and the day I came back, there was no 'luz', hence no warm water and
no internet. As I couldn't really check the flights up to northern peru, I just
went back the whole way from Sorata to Copacabana/Lago Titicaca and on
to Lima and directly on to Huaraz. Just no time left for blogging ;-p

Huascaran North and South, 6768 m high
25.11.2006; 6 o'clock; taken from the bus approaching Huaraz

A room with a View: 8 US $

Uros and Taquile Island-Worst case TouriTour

2006-11-26T04:40:00.000+01:00

Next Tour in Puno, to be honest, rather deceiving, Touritrap.
On a long and pretty cold boattrip we visited first
the floating Islands: Uros. According to our guide, all that
native people want, is to get out of there. Way too much humidity.
They suffer of rheumatism and don't get old.
So tourism shall get them out of there!

He's the boss of this island and demonstrates how the
islands are built. And when some neighbours don't get along
anymore, they just cut one part of the Island off,
hasta la vista baby!

OOPS, where's the fireextinguisher?

Propina! Caramelos! Tienes plata Gringo?

Backyard memories!

All kind of Arts and Crafts: main source of income!
Works pretty good! People on our tour didn't seem
to be familiar with other markets in the region... ;)

Then we went on a very slow boattrip to the next Island!

From there we went back on our boat and visited TaquileIsland.
I don't have any pictures of that place, but the meal was great!
To see what it's like, see the 'Isla del Sol-post'

Puno-Sillustani

2006-11-25T23:28:00.000+01:00

Right after coming back from Machu Picchu, I took a bus to Puno on the shore of Lake Titicaca.
The first day I explored the City and made a TOUR to Sillustani and the Chullpas,
which are funerarytowers. Nowadays also famous as a ' Kraftort'.

Puno-people:Hat-people, Clash of Generations!

Chullpa, funerarytower for around 12 persons,
the upper part was empty: chill-out area for the souls ;-)

Chullpa del Lagarto, the biggest one on the Site!

Same one.

Jaguars Face, Profile

Can you see the light?

Chullpas as far as your eyes can see!

El largo Nacimiento de Huayna Picchu

2006-11-16T00:48:00.000+01:00

We're on the road to nowhere! 6:00 a.m.

LlamaPacaCuña-I still don't get the difference between them!!

By 7:30 it doesn't really get better, but the guides coming in
from the Inca Trail, told us we would have a beautiful day!

The Watchman's hut: Some of the few japanese tourists
around do the same as almost everybody else:
We're all desperately waiting for the sun!!

A short glimpse of Machu and Huayna Picchu,
must be 8 o'clock by now!

OOPS!

Intihuatana! Strong Energies here!!

Getting closer to Huayna Picchu!

It's a long way to the top!!

Now or never, make your choice!

Sometimes it felt like they built up that whole mountain!

Worn out but happy-I met Frank from Fribourg while waiting for
the sun on the other side of Machu Picchu!
This lucky Guy is travelling for one year!!

Sitting on top of the world!! On the left hand you can see
'Puerta del Sol'-Intipunku. This is where the Inca trail comes in!

Awesome!I spent a long time up there!

Close-up of Watchmans Hut
and thousands of tourists!

The famous Inca-Bridge: Intipata-better known as IntiPATTO ;-)

Down left Intipata:Guess where the trail is going! Crazy Incas!

A last glimpse of 'Chappe Picchu' before night falls. A day
I sure will remeber for a long time.........

Urubamba-Maras-Moray-Salineras-Ollantaytambo

2006-11-15T04:46:00.000+01:00

My last day before finally going to M.P. The weather is great. After a busride and a less comfortable one in the back of a Taxi Collectivo, I arrived in Maras. There, I started walking with a local guy, who does this every day. I couldn't really keep up with him, air is thin and he's a tough local. Moray is an impressive Incaplace. It was probably used as some kind of biological research laboratory. On the circular terrasses you have a notable difference of temperature. I mean plants do, I didn't really notice it ;-) Today it is famous for its energies. Kraftort.

On the Way to Moray, that's where I had to take a rest!

Moray, Topview! Where's my fisheye ?

Climbing down.

Hijo del Sol o Hija de la Luna? Or just a freaky weirdo?

Steps, pretty high ones.

Back in Maras there was one of the last loud and angry
Preelection Manifestations!

Mmhh, neither nor..............but imagine Peruvians seeing a
poster with Phipos L'egger and Blogger.....

¡Santa Negligencia! I think it really was a
nightgown?¿ Departurepoint for the Salineras.

I'm not shure if she only does it for Tourists?
But it looked great anyway!

'A River runs between'

Chinchero to Urubamba, in the Valle Sagrado de los Incas

2006-11-15T04:39:00.000+01:00

I left Cusco two days before going to Machu Picchu. I went with the 'bare necesseties' to Chinchero. Another impressive church and some nice Incaruins. There is also a small Artesanía market with beautiful weavings showing traditional local patterns, like Pachamama and Pachapapa. It's good to buy your stuff here, because the money goes directly to the local communities. So you don't pay large commisions to the Cusco shopdealers.

'Compra Amigo, compra! Animate, llevate eso!'

That's where I bought! Great ;-)

Spanish Church built on Incawalls

CH-Wanderwege sind ein Witz dagegen!

Chillin' at my dorm, 6 beds and a great bath for me alone!

Andahuaylillas-the less visited southern part

2006-11-15T04:31:00.000+01:00

I went to visit some old churches, 17th century. They had some funny mural paintings, showing purgatory to frighten people and keep them on the right path... These were actually the first churches worth visiting. So far nothing was comparable to the churches I visited last year in Minas Gerais, Brasil. Maybe the Portuguese are the better Christians, or maybe just the better architects. ;-)

The church in Huaro dates from 1610 and is being restored

ArchiCad Hintergrundbild - Stormy Sky ;-) for insiders.....

Looks really frightening ;-) Los reyes catolicos imposing their
religion!

The guardian walked up to me and said: No pictures...but
you give me 5 Soles, you take as many pictures you want. So
I took some pictures and he came along telling me I had
already taken 5 of them.
Only one per sol. This is Peru, I love it! ;-)

Club Social-In Ziiri waers wohl ein GZ!

All you can do is sit and wait! Sometimes I'm really happy
about my 18-200 lens ;-) Even if the result is a bit shaky sometimes!

Plaza de armas Huaro! The Mayor?

The hunchback of Huaro!

Cementerio de Huaro, up on the hill

Streetvendors, nothing for sissy-stomachs!

Around Cusco-Pisac to Saqsayhuaman

2006-11-15T04:26:00.000+01:00

There's alot of incaruins to visit around Cusco. With Craig and Natalie we set out to discover the surroundings, on our own and with public busses, which is much more fun and less stress ;-) And by the way, it's much cheaper and you know better where your money is going.

Cuzco-Cusco-Qosqo

2006-11-15T04:17:00.000+01:00

After a nightride with some heavy curves and loads of bumps, I arrived in Cusco.
Even though there were a lot ofr foreign tourists in Arequipa, here in Cusco it's rather annoying.
Everybody wants to sell you about everything, meals, tours, postcards, puppets, sweaters-alpaca amigo!!-massages, drugs. You can't walk 2 minutes in this really nice place without being bothered. We're all Gringos to them.
Oh, by the way, I met a real one, from Colorado, and...she is really cool. Hilaryous Hillary.

Generación Chivay-les yeux des pauvres

2006-11-15T04:14:00.000+01:00

Chivay is another village at the entrance to the Colca. We stopped there on our way back to Arequipa. There was a market. I tried to take some pictures with my tele, hiding and feeling like a thief.
I really hope I'll be able to upload them.

Arequipa-Trekking por el Colca cañon

2006-11-15T03:59:00.000+01:00

After a six hour busride we arrived at the village of Cabanaconde. It's the departurepoint for the awesome Colcacanyon. It's said to be deeper than Crand Canyon. So to walk up from the depth of the canyon, it's about 1000 meters of altitude, but you walk up to 3300, which means less oxygen than you have on Mt.Titlis....
On the way down down I felt pretty sick and had a terrible headache, no, no hangover. Just the altitude. So our guide paulo gave me some Coca leaves to chew, and by the time we reached our accomodation I felt already much better.
On the second day I felt great again. 'Yesterday was dramatic, today is ok'!

Arequipa-Convento St.Catalina

2006-11-15T03:54:00.000+01:00

This monastery is really amazing. Every nun had her own cell with a small openair kitchen in the backyard. The whole complex is organized like some spanish village. There are 'streets' with names such as Sevilla or Toledo.
Pix maybe later-fotos de repente mas tarde.............

Cementerio .....

2006-11-11T04:34:00.000+01:00

Close to Nasca there is a cementery with mummies from the Nasca-culture, who lived there from 200 b.C-600 a.C. Unfortunately this sacred place has been robbed shortly after it's discovery in the 19th. century. The graves are original, so are the mummies, but they might just be in a differnt grave by now. There was a big mess after all the burglaries, everything was just scattered over the desert.
Watch the HAIR! Chevere!!

NOTE: I put these comments on the blog, hoping to put the fotos later. I have some problems with my mp3-player. The great PC's around here can't recognize this HD-drive anymore, so I'm actually not able to get hold of the pictures which are already on the player....Sorry!

Nazcalines

2006-11-09T04:59:00.000+01:00

I knew it was going to be bumpy, a couple of people had
already told me about it, and how they had felt on that flight.
But hey, I decided to do it anyway. Don't be a 'sissy' !!!
And most important: Have breakfast after the flight!!

Bumpy Cessna

Craig from Sidney - beside the pilot, he must have been the
only one on the plane to enjoy bumpy flights!

Natalie from Sidney-still laughing....

It looks pretty small, but this was one of the biggest ones!

El Astronauta - for our beloved Mr. Mystery Park von Däniken,

this is the proof, that it's all about ET's. Mrs Reiche said,

it's a warrior with an owls mask.

But she ignores, Peter is always right ;-)

My favourite one - can't remeber the Name!!

This must have been when I didn't care any longer what the

funny pilot was pointing at and yelling. I only wanted to get

out of there, but nooo: 'Now left side, left side!!' And we flew

over that thing again and I had some more G's in my stomach.......

Back on earth, geez I felt sick, but...no no no, don't get it

wrong, I really loved it ;-)

La Huacachina

2006-11-09T00:52:00.000+01:00

Before going to Nazca I went to an oasis in da middle of nowhere,

but only a 5 minute ride from the next town Ica.

It's 'La Huacachina'. You can't do much more than chill and

do some dunerides in some crazy buggies called 'tubulares'.

On this trip I finally went sandboarding, but sand isn't really frozen

water then, it's way slooooooow...... As I do already have enough

dustproblems with my cam, I didn't bring it to the crazy ride, sorry.....

the 'Bananaplace' - opnR breakfast bar

GrenobleBen and the maltese couple @ the 'Bananaplace'

'Tubular' @ the 'Bananaplace'

View from 'Hospedaje del Barco' to the oasis

Fata Morgana.......

View from 'Hospedaje del Barco' to the dunes

Pisco-Parracas-Islas Ballestas

2006-11-08T18:00:00.000+01:00

Pisco is the hometown of the famous Piscowine, used for the Piscosour, a strange drink with eggwhite. It´s also the startingpoint for some excursions to Parracas and the Ballestas Islands. I don´t try to describe what animals you can find there, just check the pics.

Pre-Inca drawing on a sanddune

Perfect Life

Moonwalk in Parracas

Nowhere to go but everywhere, keep walking under the sun

Sous nos pieds-la Catedral

Entrada a la catedral

Vista desde la Catedral

I luv ' Organized Tours':Hello Friends I ama Juan,
yourr Gaaid tuuday, friends, you have 10 miniits we liiiv

ki onda I

ki onda II

Roadside Peru I

2006-10-29T01:01:00.000+02:00

Busride from Lima to Pisco

Lima

2006-10-26T22:41:00.000+02:00

Convento San Francisco (con Valderrama)

Plaza de Armas

Neblina-No Smog

Friedhof-Cementerio de Lima

Tranksame I

Tranksame II

Amigo, amigo, tus Zapatos.......

Lima, Barranco-Gallinazos, kleine Geier....

Streetvendors Barranco-Parcheros con Artesania

Mucho Trafico siempre

Viajando otra vez-On the road again- Mochila nas costas e pe na rua

2006-10-17T23:36:00.000+02:00

Oi, ich bin also schon wieder auf Reisen - also..na ja, ist ja doch schon länger als ein Jahr her. Diesmal werde ich etwa 9 Wochen unterwegs sein. Startpunkt Lima, Peru- Endpunkt Quito, Ecuador. Unterdessen hat sich gezeigt, dass wohl auch noch Abstecher über Bolivien und Chile dabei sein werden.
Das Ziel dieses blogs ist es eigentlich euch da draussen an meinen Erlebnissen wenigstens ein Bisschen teilhaben zu lassen. Gleichzeitig entsteht dadurch eine Art Reisetagebuch mit hoffentlich ganz vielen Bildern. So soll sich auch niemand der Vielbeschäftigten im Alltagsstress dazu verpflichtet fühlen, auf überlange e-mails zu reagieren.
Aufgrund diverser Reisen und Auslandaufenthalten gibts da ein paar Leute, welche des Deutschen ganz bestimmt nicht mächtig sind. Ich werde also versuchen möglichst oft die Bilder sprechen zu lassen, so lange mir die fette Nikon nicht abhanden kommt, versteht sich.

Madrid-Barrajas