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I scheduled this post just before I left yesterday (Wednesday) as I am currently completely without any internet (FINALLY I am disconnected!! hehe)…I am ‘somewhere out there’ doing the Lares Trek, a 4 day / 3 night hike to Machu Picchu (woohooooo!!).

Day 8-10, Cusco

An amazing town this is, Cusco, the historic capital of the Inca Empire and therefor stuffed with ancient buildings and also flooded with tourists (many youngsters) using it as the portal to many Inca sites in the area (or just to party ’till you drop 😉 ).

I flew in from Lima last Sunday morning after enjoying the splendid night bus from Trujillo to Lima on Saturday night, tapped in to the ancient yet vibrant energy that flows all around and booked two day trips to the Sacred Valley of the Incas; Monday to the Inca sites in Písac and Ollantaytambo, and Tuesday to the Moray Terraces and the Maras salt mines, also both Inca sites.

The Sacred Valley of the Incas was a crucial area for the Inca empire and it functioned as both an agricultural, spiritual and political center for them and boy, ain’t that so; loads of old ruins and structures showing the Incas’ amazing construction skills!

As usual, pictures say it all so I included a LOT (if you’d rather read; the Wikipedia links inserted above provide you enough reading material 😉 ):

The Inca site in Písac:

The Inca site in Ollantaytambo:

Moray Terraces:

Maras salt mines:

Though not specifically planned, it turns out that I am chronologically following various ancient Peruvian cultures; from Moche (100-800AD) to Chimú (900-1470AD) to the Inca empire (1438-1533AD).

Day 6&7, Trujillo

After arriving in Trujillo, roughly 800km north of Lima, and having explored the city, I visited two ancient sites just out of the city. First on the list were Huaca del Sol y de la Luna (Temple of the Sun and Temple of the Moon), two adobe brick temples built by the Moche civilization, very impressive! (pictures below 😉 )

Since both sites are so close by (roughly 9km apart, ‘just’ 2 hours with local buses 😉 ), I was able to visit the second site on the same day; Chan Chan build by the Chimú culture, which is the largest adobe city in the world. (adobe is a natural building material made from sand, clay, water, and some kind of fibrous or organic material like sticks, straw, and/or manure). Less ‘arty’ compared to the Moche’s Huaca del Sol y de la Luna, yet still impressive to see. Glad that I visited this place, which is not ‘typical’ for most tourists coming to Peru.

And now, it’s pictures-time!! 😉

First Trujillo city centre:

Moche culture in Huaca del Sol y de la Luna:

Chimú culture in Chan Chan:

It would make a great song title; ‘I lost my soul on my way to Lake 69’…except for the fact that I lost my SOLE, not my soul! 😉

After 12 years of duty my hiking boots decided to retire; in the same trip both soles came off!! Pretty amazing that I still made it to ‘Laguna 69’ as the hard plastic sole on the inside made hiking extremely hard; it got very slippery on the trail, especially the river crossing rocks…will-power and extreme care did it! 😉
So, my next challenge was to find new hiking boots as I am not done exploring Peru by foot! 😉 Now, finding hiking boots in Huaraz (aka mountaineering paradise) is no problem at all, finding the right size (=BIG 😉 ) is however! It took me a great deal of the afternoon and many, many shops, but I succeeded! In the process I discovered that speaking Spanish would have made things a lot easier and go faster, and I also found out that the size mentioned on the boot is totally random; it turns out I am a size 46,5 (US12) here in Peru, WTF?!?

All in all another nice experience in Peru! Below the story in photos for the ones who like pictures over text. 😉

All ends well…

A picture heavy update from the last (quite intense) days in Huaraz, Peru!

Day 3-5, Huaraz

I arrived last Tuesday by bus in Huaraz at a very convenient time; 06:00h (AM that is)…luckily the hostel I booked was open and ready to serve me banana pancake breakfast! 😉 The host Frank also talked me into a first trip to the high Andes mountains and I figured that 3 hours in Huaraz at 3052m above sea level would be enough to get used to the altitude, uhhhh maybe not?! 😉

The trip went up the the Pastoruri Glacier which tops at 5250m and we hiked from 4800m to the base of the glacier at 5000m, I believe this is the highest altitude I have ever been…within a couple of hours after coming from sea level oof! (I did have slow my pace to be able to catch enough oxygen)

It was all worth it though, as you can see in the pictures below:

Since I got into hiking at high altitudes 😉 , I booked a tour on Wednesday to the beautiful Laguna 69 (no comment on the name…in earlier days they gave every lake a number and this one just happened to get #69 😉 ). We first stopped at the two Llanganuco lakes called Laguna Chinancocha (female lake) and Laguna Orconcocha (male lake) to enjoy the crazy beautiful early morning views over these blue green lakes. The next stop was at the basecamp for the hike to Laguna 69; another fantastic hike through spectacular nature surrounded by the steep walls of the highest mountains of Peru the Huascaran (6746m) and the Huandoy! It made me completely forget the early wake-up at 05:25h! 😉

As always, pictures say it all:

First the Llanganuco lakes

Then, on to Laguna 69:

I made today a day to relax a bit after all the hiking and make bookings for the coming days; the bus to Trujillo is booked, so is the hostel there, the night bus to Lima on Saturday and the flight to Cuzco on Sunday!

My (ever-draft) travel schedule is still intact (although I might check out Chili to avoid double passings 😉 ) so upcoming highlights are: Trujillo (Chan Chan), Cuzco (Machu Picchu), Puno (Lake Titicaca) then on to Bolivia: Copacabana, La Paz, Salar de Uyuni (Salt lakes), Coroico in The Yungas. Then most likely Chili to go back to Peru: Arequipa, Nazca, and Lima once again to fly back to Europe on September 23)…verrrrrry exciting!!!

After a relaxed flight from Amsterdam to Lima (I got three seats to myself thanks to KLM steward Auke! 😉 ), I arrived in the early evening last Saturday at the Quincha House guesthouse with no plans for the first days other than…resting and making my travel schedule!

Day 1&2, Lima

I got up late Sunday morning after a ’round-the-clock’ night sleep (yeah, I guess I was pretty knackered…the added bonus is that I lost the jetlag in just one night! 😉 ). I spend the Sunday afternoon sniffing up some of Peru’s historic culture in the National Museum (Museo de la Nación) and wandered around the historic centre of Lima. The city offers nice mix of colonial architecture, street entertainment/artists and churches, loads of churches…I accidentally stumbled into the lesser documented parts of Lima, the ones you would rather not go to…you know, those that are recognized by a distinct urine smell and hardly any people on the streets (probably hiding in a place I don’t want to be! 😉 ).
All in all it is quite easy to get around Lima; just grab one of the 325.000 taxis 😉 that are driving around, empty most of the day it seems and costing just a couple of euro’s for distances you don’t want to walk!

The craziest thing I experienced was getting back to the guesthouse in the evening; I literally had to guide the taxi driver using the map in my Lonely Planet!! A piece of cake of course; my spanish is non existent (though I am fluent in my dreams;) ) and obviously I know the city by heart after a full day! 😉

Today I completed my (ever-draft) travel schedule, which for now leads me tonight to Huaraz, high up in the Andes mountains (I just booked the bus!), Trujillo (Chan Chan), Cuzco (Machu Picchu), Puno (Lake Titicaca) then on to Bolivia: Copacabana, La Paz, Salar de Uyuni (Salt lakes), Coroico in The Yungas. Then back to Peru: Arequipa, Nazca, and Lima once again to fly back to Europe on September 23)…verrrrrry exciting!!!

And now…picturessss! 😉
My room in Quincha House

Museo de la Nación

Plaza de Armas (Plaza Mayor)

Iglesia de Santa Domingo

Chinatown

Lima city with the Cerro San Cristóbal hill in the background

The real Lima?! 😉

Giving the taxi driver directions where to go…?!?

Yesterday evening I wrote ‘the time is NOW’…well, the time is actually NOW as I am ON my way, yayyy!! I am halfway between Oslo and Lima, not in distance/time but the first of the two flights is done! 😉

The trip is great so far, I arrived well in time in Amsterdam so my luggage should make it to Inca land without any problem…

Also; flying without the ‘standby-seat-stress’ that I got so used to is a charm! (especially since I still have an el-cheapo flight by using my frequent flyer miles 😉 )

Ready, set, go…Peru, here I come!!

The famous Machu Picchu is certainly on my ‘to-see’ list!

The time is NOW…all is packed for my trip to Peru & Bolivia, woohoooo!

Ha, I had to dust off my backpack (I believe that I used it last for my trip Downunder in 2001, oof! 😉 ) and have my hiking boots with me: verrrry thrilled to see and experience South America!

I expect to blog (with photos 😉 ) every now and then when internet is available AND when I feel for it (!), I have the Quotes of the Day scheduled though, so there is something waiting everyday for y’all… 😉

Thank you for being a friend…

Nooooooo………awful news when I came back home today; Nikky died…The oldest of the three cats, daddy to Kwibus and really everyone’s friend got hit by a car late this afternoon (similar to Juultje (his ‘wife’) many years ago)….I am so sad….. 🙁 🙁 🙁

Just 14 years old (72 in cat years), the sweetest cuddle cat of all is now in cat heaven…

Thank you for being my friend dear Nikky…I love you!

Lowlands experience rules; never change a proven concept so…we started the day *very* relaxed, packed to travel light and know that we will still have too much cloths with us 😉 , enjoyed a scenic route to the festival terrain without any traffic-jams, hope that the lovely 26C sunny weather stays with us until Monday and we are wondering if our ‘set-up-the-tent-within-10-minutes’ talent also applies to the new tent…….Lowlands…here we are and we are READYYYY!!

Sun, fun, music, friends, drinks and then some…rock on, HELL YEAH!!!

Yayyy, it is that time of year again; the third weekend in August is coming up and already booked for months for ‘A campingflight to Lowlands Festival‘!

I flew back from Norway today and can’t wait to enjoy the perfect mix between great performances by well-known bands and being pleasantly surprised by not-so-well-known-bands (Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, Nine Inch Nails, Editors, Slayer, Franz Ferdinand, The Opposites, TNGHT, The Knife, Michael Kiwanuka and more, many more! 😉 ), drinking to avoid dehydration 😉 , ROTFLMAO and heaps fun with friends, making new ones and oof, walking until your feet bleed…yeah, it is going to be great, again!! (cross fingers for sun/no rain!! 😉 )

This video/commercial is several years old, and still very actual; people today use technology to communicate more, but seem further away from each other than ever…smartphones are our ‘biggest friend’, and become our worse enemy in the process?!

This video is part of the ‘Disconnect to connect’ concept by DTAC (the second largest GSM mobile phone provider in Thailand, owned by Telenor).
It was created so that everyone would become aware of the phone that fits best for you and in order to get a happy smile and laughter of those around you. Into our lives.

Before I go ‘really’ South to enjoy South America in a few weeks time, I wanted to discover and enjoy a more of the South of Norway, again! 😉 Soooo many places I didn’t see yet!

Lianne, Misha and I packed the car and ended up in Kragerø, a lovely little town with one challenge these particular days; no available place to stay in or around the picturesque town due to a youth event…bummer! We ended up in Portør, roughly an hour drive from Kragerø which turned out to be a hidden gem…check out the pictures below; WoW and beautiful!!!

A long time wish will come true; I made up my mind and…Peru it will be! (plus some of Bolivia 😉 )

I am traveling to Inca country from August 24 until September 24, woohoooo!!! I am very much looking forward to this new experience, backpacking on my own for a month is a first timer for me…exciting!!

Tips are more than welcome! 😉

And I thought that finding the Peru flag would be easy; it turns out that there are multiple versions…hihi

Apple’s iOS 7 beta releases keep coming in; today iOS 7 Beta 5 was released, just one week after Beta 4. I guess Apple is making sure that the final release will be available for its new iPhone 5S, somewhere September/October. 😉

No major changes in this release besides the standard ‘improvements, changes, and bug fixes to the operating system’ as well as a newly redesigned Settings icons and some more tweaks. Ha, iOS 7 has been a great experience so far; I am still a happy Beta tester/user. 😉

What starts of as an entertaining dance performance in the windows of the Red Light district, turns out to be a pretty strong and confronting message: ‘Every year, thousands of women are promised a dance career in Western Europe. Sadly, they end up here’…

STOP THE TRAFFIK is a global movement of individuals, communities and organisations fighting to prevent human trafficking around the world.

So you think you can dance? Well, perhaps a lap-dance is what they really meant…sad!

The Dutch Club Oslo organized a BBQ in the Frognerpark today and over 40 fellow dutchies joined for a sunny afternoon gathering at a  ‘designated area’ marked by a dutch flag on a bicycle. Great to see some friends and meet new people. Misha had a blast too; a whole field for himself, wow, and oh so many things to play with (besides a soccer ball 😉 ).

I changed the default representation of images on the weblog. They will now be loaded in a nice overlay instead of in a separate browser window/tab. I used the Lightbox JavaScript technique (extremely easy and smooth to install) and you can access all pictures in one post by clicking the arrow on the side of the image or using  the arrows on your keyboard (clicking anywhere outside the image frame or hitting the <esc> key will bring you back to the blogpost). You can still see the full version of the image if you want; just right-click the image and open it in a separate tab or window.

I am still testing, so let me know how this works for you.

As an example I included some of the fantastic pictures from last weeks trip to the South… 😉

ROTFLMAO!!

The YouTube clip below shows the ‘harshness’ of the German language as a joke, yet in a very funny way. Indeed, pretty harsh especially done this way; one of the ‘worst’ of the languages I know (I consider Dutch a close nr. 2 btw. 😉 ). There are two follow-ups videos which are just as funny as the original (part 2 and part 3)! 😉

Part 2:

Part 3:

Wow…this guy can draw!! His name is Xiaonan Sun (interview) and mannnn, is this guy talented!

Check out the full-color pastel portrait drawing of Chloe Grace Moretz below…unreal yet sooo realistic! Or the one below that; a two (!!) handed simultaneous drawing of Morgan Freeman and Tim Robbins (honouring the movie Shawshank Redemption).

If you can’t get enough of it, check out his website at ThePortraitArt.com or his YouTube channel.