• Anni Messer

nadie sabe lo que va a pasar

Backpacking through South America, starting from Bogotá, Colombia. Destinations mostly unplanned:) Czytaj więcej
  • Salkantay Trek to Machu Picchu

    26–31 sty 2024, Peru ⋅ ☁️ 12 °C

    Before coming to South America it was one of my goals to do a hiking trek for several days to Machu Picchu. The salkantay trek is a famous trek that you can do in 4 or 5 days but it’s also a quite tough one due to the amounts of kilometres you walk ever day and especially due to the altitudes you reach! Especially the second and the fourth day were pretty exhausting since on the second day we went up to 4.600m and since we are still in the rainy season, both of the days it was raining heavily. Nevertheless, the views we had and the hiking days which were filled with compelling conversations with other members of the (Papi’s-) group were worth the struggle! After 4 days of hiking we then arrived in Aguas Calientes, the town next to Machu Picchu. Due to the manifestations these days it was all empty and we were not 100% sure if we can enter Machu Picchu the next day. Our guides told us to go as early as possible in order to arrive before the strikers and pass the entry so we got up at 3:30am and walked up the last challenging kilometres up to the Machu Picchu! In the end we were rewarded with a beautiful view over the mountains and the archeological site (apparently not that common in rainy season) and since many tours these days were cancelled, we could experience Machu Picchu as a quiet and peaceful place instead of a tourist hotspot🙏🏼After the hike which was in the end about 100km in 5 days, we needed some rest in Cusco again to process the whole experience! Czytaj więcej

  • Cusco again

    31 sty–5 lut 2024, Peru ⋅ ☁️ 8 °C

    After the Salkantay trek I first needed to get some rest in Cusco so I decided to stay a few days more. The first days we just went out to cafés and museums (in one of them they even portrayed Stuttgart as a sister city of Cusco but showed Tübingen as the historical centre of Stuttgart😭) and in the night we met our new friends we made during the trek to have some pisco sours (famous Peruvian drink). Then, since there is so many archeological sites of the Inkas around Cusco, one day I did a day tour with a bus. We went to places like the town of Chinchero, the terraces of Moray and the salt terraces of Maras, Ollantaytambo, Urubamba and Písac. Although those tours are super touristy, I had a good time getting to know another German guy and an Austrian girl. Czytaj więcej

  • Arequipa

    6–8 lut 2024, Peru ⋅ ☀️ 15 °C

    My next stop after another 12 hours in the bus (with the fanciest bus so far though) was Arequipa! I’m now again travelling on my own since my friend Petra moved on to Bolivia already. At first I was really excited after my arrival since the city looked so cute to me but I was then welcomed with the information that there is no water in the city due to heavy rain in the north and too much sediments in the river (or so). With the ugly feeling after the night bus and no shower I then did a great free walking tour through the city with a very passionate arequipeño and explored more and more the relaxed but still lively atmosphere of the white city. The city is by the way white since they used white volcanic rocks to construct it and this is because Arequipa is close to several dormant or extinct volcanos. Although the no-water-situation at the hostel got uglier and uglier, I enjoyed my stay not least because of the sunny weather and the great local food market! Czytaj więcej

  • Cañón de Colca

    8–9 lut 2024, Peru ⋅ ⛅ 7 °C

    One of the principal things to see near Arequipa is the cañón de colca, the third biggest canyon in the world! I decided to go there for a two day hike with a tour and hence was picked up at 3am in the morning😴The bus ride already predicted beautiful landscapes and we observed the source of the Amazonas on the way. Unfortunately that day we could not observe the Andean condor at a famous viewpoint but saw some later during the hike!! After the breakfast spot and around 4h by bus we started our hike. The first day we walked all the way down to the river to the middle of the canyon and had lunch on the other side. We enjoyed the sun and relaxed for a bit at the lunch place but then needed to continue the hike since our guide knew that in the afternoon it would start raining and we still needed to walk another 3h to get to the campsite for the night. As he told, it started raining soon but in contrast to some other people of the group I was gladly well prepared for that. The hike along the unaccountable fig trees and cactus fields was still so nice and the mood of the group was kept high! In the night we were told to revise the whole room and the bed sheets to make sure there is no dangerous spiders or scorpions but gladly we did not see anything! The next day we then started our hike at 4:30am when it was still dark since we needed to hike up the canyon again. The hike was with 6km quite short in kilometres but pretty steep and it then took me around 3h to walk up the 1.200m. Fortunately that day we did not have to walk anymore and just went to some (really) hot springs, drove up to 4.900m to have a view over the volcanos that we did not have but at least watched plenty of llamas, alpacas and vicuñas on the way☺️ Czytaj więcej

  • Arequipa again

    9–11 lut 2024, Peru ⋅ ☁️ 18 °C

    Had another short stay in Arequipa to relax after the hike, do some yoga, go to the market, have some coffee and finally tried the cheese ice cream (basically just sweet milk ice cream with cinnamon on top)! Czytaj więcej

  • Puno

    11–12 lut 2024, Peru ⋅ ☁️ 12 °C

    One night in Puno☺️Together with a Spanish girl I met during the hike at the colca canyon I travelled to Puno, the city next to the Peruvian side of the Lake Titicaca and over there we met two guys from Italy we also got to know during the hike. Together we went out for dinner and afterwards watched the carnival parade of Puno together which is quite a famous one in Peru! As far as I understood, the several groups start to parade early in the morning at a competition in the stadium and then walk/dance/sing through the streets of Puno until midnight. I think this is only possible due to the amount of alcohol they consume so when we arrived the whole city was basically drunk but still they continued trying their best😅In the end I did not see much more of the city than these parades because it is also not too nice to visit so I decided to cross the border to Bolivia the next morning! Czytaj więcej

  • Isla del Sol

    12–14 lut 2024, Boliwia ⋅ ☁️ 13 °C

    Made it to Bolivia!🇧🇴I must say I was a bit nervous about crossing the border since I did not get a stamp in my passport at the airport in Lima when entering Peru and I did not have any ticket that shows that I would leave the country within 90 days (Colombia and Peru both requested these tickets) but it turned out to be the easiest process ever. With the bus we stopped at the border and got off at the Peruvian side to get our exit stamp, then we walked over to the Bolivian side to get the entry stamp and that was it:) My first stop in Bolivia was Isla del Sol which is the biggest island on the Lake Titicaca. First I needed to go to Copacabana and then hopped on a boat to the island. On the island there is three indigenous communities living and you can choose whether to just visit the island for a day or to stay at an accommodation of an indigenous family for a few nights. I did the latter in order to have more time to visit the places. During the boat ride I got to know two Brazilian tourists and so the second day we decided to discover the island from the north to the south together. The landscape is incredibly beautiful and the views have changed so quickly all the time. At the beginning of the hike we met a young guy living in the Northern community who explained to us how the people grow food on the terraces and collected some herbs for infusions for us. In general the people here are super friendly and open which makes you feel very welcomed. Although it should be the Isla del Sol (deriving from the dios del sol - the god of the sun who is said to have sent a couple from this island to Cusco to start the imperium of the inkas) it is pretty cold here so I’ll rather continue soonish:) Czytaj więcej

  • La Paz

    14–18 lut 2024, Boliwia ⋅ ☁️ 13 °C

    I was pretty hyped for La Paz since I heard so many good things about it and people were definitely right. Being the highest city in the world, La Paz can sometimes be exhausting to explore and you can reach areas like El Alto which are higher than 4.000m! The best thing to do in La Paz is probably the rides with the teleférico where you get amazing views over the whole city and can easily access all of its parts. One day I went to Valle de la Luna which is a place a bit outside of the city where you can observe these special formations of rocks. They have appeared due to erosion of the top of a mountain and since the soil is not solid, it has turned over centuries in a landscape like that. I was also partying a lot (more than I wanted) in La Paz and met some really nice new people or met people again! Finally, there must be a lot of good specialty food and drinks in La Paz that I unfortunately could not enjoy since I still have a lot of stomach problems which might not least appear due to the poor quality of water and in general the low level of hygiene. Nevertheless La Paz was a blast and I would always love to come back, it feels very safe to walk around, there is many cool places to visit and people are very sweet:) Czytaj więcej

  • Cochabamba

    19 lutego 2024, Boliwia ⋅ ☁️ 13 °C

    Hope y’all didn’t forget about me so here is finally an update of my travels… About three weeks ago I’ve been to Cochabamba, a very un-touristy and super sweet city! I wanted to visit Cochabamba since we talked a lot about the city at school, more specifically the water war that took place in Cochabamba in 2000. Back then, huge companies wanted to privatise water access but the citizens, mainly indigenous communities, fighted and eventually won and hindered the privatisation. In the end I could visit some places I’ve seen in the movie around the event called “También la lluvia” and could imagine a bit better how the fights in the city must’ve looked like. Other than that I did not have that much energy to explore the city so I just walked around which was super nice due to the beautiful flowers next to the streets! Czytaj więcej

  • Mizque

    21 lut–11 mar 2024, Boliwia ⋅ ☁️ 23 °C

    Don’t really know how to describe these past three weeks in Mizque but I can tell it was pretty hard to leave this place. Firstly, Mizque is not really a place you’ll find a lot of foreigners. If there is “gringos” then it’s probably because they are volunteers at the only gringo’s farm, which I was too:) My initial plan was to use this place to recharge my travel energies but in the end it was so much more than that. At the farm I learned a lot about permaculture and building a farm in Bolivia from scratch being hosted by Simon and Jessica as well as their newborn boy. I shared the experience with other lovely volunteers working at the farm, cooking, eating, talking and playing a lot of Monopoly! One day we could even go on a hike and explore nature around Mizque when visiting the Pajchapata waterfall. Thanks to Nico, another volunteer who had already made a lot of connections in town, I could then even get to know many local people. With one Bolivian couple, Chaqueño and Doña Juana, we established a great relationship and since for them it’s a pleasure two invite people, we could dive deeper into Bolivian culture
    and get to know their customs at several events. Their endless generosity, openness and kindness inspired me immensely. The only downside was that their culture includes a lot of drinking and so every time we were invited we enjoyed an abundance of Chicha, some sort of corn beer, and then some bad hangovers afterwards…:) Still, I will definitely never forget these dreamy weeks and hope to come back one day to be able to visit these people again!
    Czytaj więcej

  • Sucre

    11–14 mar 2024, Boliwia ⋅ ☁️ 21 °C

    Visited the official capital of Bolivia (which is not La Paz as many people believe including me before visiting) - Sucre! Sucre is a white colonial city with many official buildings, some of them still used but many powers were moved to La Paz as well. The streets of the old town are super cute and you can enjoy many beautiful views from small churches (one of them is now a café!) or the monastery La Recoleta. Sucre is a very lively student city and there is always a lot of (young) people on the go. At the central market you can find endlessly fruits and cheap dishes as well as literally anything else you need. During a city tour, held by a former president of the university, we learned a lot about the history of Bolivia with the important independence document signed in Sucre in 1825, traditional food and some romantic stories in the beautiful Parque Simón Bolívar. When leaving I still had a lot of things to do on my list so I could have definitely stayed longer in this city, especially due to this sweet garden in my amazing hostel! Czytaj więcej

  • Potosí

    14–18 mar 2024, Boliwia ⋅ ⛅ 16 °C

    Potosí is mainly famous for its “Cerro Rico”, a mountain next to the city with lots of minerals, mainly silver. During colonisation, the Spanish would exploit this mountain, force Indigenous people to work for them and Potosí became one of the richest cities with the second highest population right after London. Until today, there is still several active mines in which mainly male workers extract minerals in order to sell them and sustain themselves. The working conditions in those mines are absurd and even young boys at the age of 14 start working there. As part of a guided tour we could eventually enter the mines and get to know their rich culture inside the mines and even watch them working. The tour is not made for people with claustrophobia or asthma since you’re walking, crawling and climbing in those dark mines on almost 4.300m over see level. Nevertheless it has been one of the most impressive experiences on this trip. It is expected that in 20-30 years there will be no more minerals left which ends an era of more than 470 years of mineral extraction. Other than that the city of Potosí has a nice city centre which is pretty small but I found it cute. One day we went to a thermal lagoon called “Ojo del Inca” and on the way discovered a small festival of apples where they sold every possible product containing apples and we even met some Belgians selling Belgium waffles with apple marmelade topping! Czytaj więcej

  • Uyuni & Salar de Uyuni

    18–22 mar 2024, Boliwia ⋅ ☁️ 16 °C

    One of Bolivias main attractions is definitely the Salar de Uyuni, the biggest and highest salt flats on earth. Most people do several day tours to the salar and other places (and I did that too) but before Nico and I tried to enter the salt flats on our own. After taking a tour bus for 5 bolivianos (not even 1€) that dropped us of in a town near the salt flats, we walked around 1-1,5h until arriving to the salar. The salar doesn’t have any entry fee but tbh without a car you can’t really go far since in this season there is a lot of water on the surface. Still we could get some nice views! The next day I then started a 3 days/2 nights tour and went with a group of 6 people and our guide. The tour was pretty impressive and we’ve not only seen the salar but also several lagoons, some of them coloured and with flamingos (!!!), active volcanos, geysers and we drove through several deserts. I really liked our group consisting of two Brazilians, two Colombians, a French/German/Japanese woman, our Bolivian guide and me:) For me the tour then ended crossing the border to Chile and driving to a town called San Pedro de Atacama in the Atacama desert since from the last stop of the tour you’re right next to the border. Czytaj więcej

  • San Pedro de Atacama

    22–25 mar 2024, Chili ⋅ ☀️ 27 °C

    San Pedro de Atacama is a super touristy but very sweet little town in the world’s driest desert! There is an incredible amount of agencies offering tours to several lagoons or parts of the desert around town but since I stayed at a super sweet hostel with a nice owner who offers tours at a lower price and a bit less touristy, I just did some tours with him. The first night we went to see some stars which was quite an adventure with the people from the hostel. The second day we did a hike through the Valle de la Luna which was super impressive but also quite challenging since the hike included some parts of climbing as well. That night we then also went out with some people from the hostel to a bar/club and later found out about a clandestine desert party which they often have around San Pedro. So then at 4am after the party in the club ended, small buses took us to the place in the desert and it was really crazy experience. We danced to techno and reggaeton until 7am and then went for breakfast in town(: The next day I was obviously dead so I just chilled before the next day heading to my next destination, la Serena, a coast town more in the South. Oh my initial plan was to travel to Northern Argentina after San Pedro but since a bridge on the road to Salta collapsed and for one week you can’t cross the border, I changed my plans and I am now already making my way down to Santiago de Chile! Czytaj więcej

  • Ls Serena & Coquimbo

    26–29 mar 2024, Chili ⋅ ⛅ 20 °C

    After another long but cozy bus ride I arrived in La Serena, a city at the Chilean coast. Since my travel energy at this point is a bit low I decided to mainly stay in the city rather than doing a lot of day trips to other towns nearby which tourists mainly do. I visited the market La recova where they sell everything around papaya, did a surf class with some Germans, went for a run at the beach to a town close by called Coquimbo and walked around the Japanese garden. Czytaj więcej

  • Santiago no. 1

    29 mar–8 kwi 2024, Chili ⋅ ☀️ 29 °C

    Finally made it to Santiago de Chile to visit my friend Alexandra who I made during my Erasmus in Spain! The biggest luxury is that I can stay with her and her family in Santiago and get to know the city and the culture with her. The first night we had a party with her friends and prepared some completos (1000 times the better version of hotdogs). The following days we visited some view points and parks around the city like the Cerro San Cristóbal or the Mirador Santa Lucía. We also had some great vegan food in the Barrio Italia, a rather fancy/vogue neighbourhood. One day we did a hike around a national reserve close to the city centre called La Quebrada de Macul where we could swim in small natural pools and just hike near the river. Another day we went to Valparaíso but I’ll do a separate for that. Santiago and the way I can get to know the city is great. Staying with my friend and sharing time with her, getting to know her family and friends is just the best way to see how life is there. After a short trip to Argentina I will come back and have a few more days left to spend in Santiago! Czytaj więcej

  • Mendoza no. 1

    8–9 kwi 2024, Argentyna ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C

    After a nervous bus ride to the Argentinian border thinking I could not cross the border because I threw away my Chilean tourist visa (a small paper they hand you over when entering Chile) I could luckily enter the country without any problems. The bus ride from Santiago to Mendoza is super interesting and beautiful since you cross the Andes and pass by the highest mountain in Latin America, the Aconcagua! Having only very little time for Argentina and knowing I would come back to Mendoza I didn’t do much except for walking around the city a bit and drinking some good wine (and beer) at the hostel since the region is very famous for producing very good wine. Will come back to try some more!! Czytaj więcej

  • Buenos Aires

    10–12 kwi 2024, Argentyna ⋅ ⛅ 16 °C

    People told me when in Latin America you want to see Buenos Aires so here I am! Sacrificed another night in the bus and safely arrived on the other coast side of the continent. My goal was to catch the vibe and see how the mixture of the European and the Latin culture is reflected in the city and I must say I can understand why so many Europeans choose this city to live. It has so many beautiful areas, it’s clean, people are nice and nightlife is great as well. I think there is so many interesting places I could see in the two days here but still I got to know some nice people, saw a friend I made in Perú again, won a beer pong tournament and ate some delicious empanadas! Czytaj więcej

    Koniec wyprawy
    17 kwietnia 2024