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  • Isa and UlfSouthAmerica Touring
    Day 81

    Isabela Island, Galapagos

    March 5, 2015 in Ecuador ⋅ ⛅ 22 °C

    Taking a rather bumpy boat ride from Santa Cruz to Isabela, the largest island of the archipelago. the animals are even more relaxed here than on other islands, after getting off the boat at the pier, we had to step across sleeping sea lions and marine iguanas to get to town. after finding nice accommodation we started snorkeling around the port, swimming with penguins and sea lions and watched the sunset over the pacific on the enormous but almost (human-) empty beach. the next day we went up to the Sierras Negra, the gigantic volcano of the south of the island. it is the second largest crater in the world (10 x 9 km) and responsible for vast lava fields, kilometers around the crater with forests and vegetations like small islands within. after so much fun, we decided to extend our stay at Isabela, to explore an area called tunnels of lava, a lava field covered by the ocean with great snorkeling opportunities. it was absolutely worth staying longer, swimming with gigantic marine turtles, penguins, diving into small caves to have close encounters with sharks and stingrays. at the end the stay, the evitable lesson that one has to pay for everything, also for the paradise and the equator sun: Isa with a slight sunburn, and Ulf with a most beautiful red back burnt: not soooo cool, when you're backpacking, though :-\Read more

  • Isa and UlfSouthAmerica Touring
    Day 81

    Santa Cruz, Galapagos

    March 5, 2015 in Ecuador ⋅ ⛅ 22 °C

    Arriving in the late morning at Santa Cruz, walking with our backpacks at 32 degrees under equator sun to find a hotel, proper brunch and a cruise for the next eight days. We found all of it...but when we found a good offer for a luxurious cruise, all we had hoped for, we remembered that we are on a backpacking trip, turned down the offer and decided to explore the islands on our own.
    So after planning the week, we rented out bikes and forced ourselves up to the highland of the island to visit the famous giant turtles in their natural habitat...almost didn't make it, riding 20 km uphill, at 36 degrees and burning equator sun is serious sports (good that it was Isa's idea otherwise Ulf would have ended up hanging from a banana palm tree after this almost suicidal plan) .
    But seeing the animals in the end...was absolutely amazing, they are incredibly huge!
    taking the bike back was great fun, 20 km downhill in an amazing landscape is just fun, so we had time to go scientific and visited the Darwin research center with rare Galapagos species in breeding centers.
    there we actually realized, that we had followed the young Darwin on his trip during our sabbatical: we had been like him in Tierra del fuego, sailed the beagle channel named after his ship, stayed in paragons at the bottom of mount Fitzroy, named after his captain, we survived like Darwin an earthquake in Chile (well, ours being ridiculous in comparison to his) and now meet him again in Galapagos (where even the wifi passwords in hostels are the dates of his arrival)    Read more

  • Isa and UlfSouthAmerica Touring
    Day 76

    San Cristobal, Galapagos

    February 28, 2015 in Ecuador ⋅ ⛅ 26 °C

    A livelong dream comes true in the early morning: boarding the plane that will bring us to the Galapagos islands!
    The islands have never been connected to the mainland, and the volcanoes literally created them out of the sea, once pure volcanic rocks without plants or animals in the center of three ocean currents bringing, warm, cold and very cold water from three directions. whatever plant or animal arrived over the next million of years with those currents and survived and settled here developed independently from their species on the continent (as we probably all remember from biology class ;-). due to the lack of human settlers, the animals have no instinctive fear of man and one can get even closer than in a zoo, plus seeing them in their natural environment.
    After having arrived, the second day, we hiked through the amazing lava fields that form the islands to a beach. beautiful and completely empty...the entire beach for ourselves. well, not quite: We had to share the beach with a colony of land iguanas, sea lions and pelicans and the water with sea turtles and stingrays. after two days, we set the sails for Santa Cruz island...to see if we'd manage to find a last minute affordable cruise around the archipelago.    Read more

  • Isa and UlfSouthAmerica Touring
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    Day 74

    Máncora

    February 26, 2015 in Peru ⋅ ⛅ 5 °C

    Time for vacation! After hardcore archeology and serious high mountain trekking, the last two days of Peru have been beach, pool and the Pacific ocean in the marvelous town of Mancora, close to the border of Ecuador. vacation needed while traveling??? may sound strange for everybody who have not done a big backpacking yet (to some even unfair). But traveling is not holiday, and sometimes one simply needs some time to rest and simply reflect on the hundreds of things one has seen and the people one has met on the trip...well, we ourselves wouldn't have thought so before the trip...but we actually realize, we are not getting any younger :-( So, here we are, getting strengths before flying out to the pacific on to the Galapagos islands, before returning to the Andes to complete it with the northern parts in a Ecuador and Colombia!Read more

  • Isa and UlfSouthAmerica Touring
    Day 71

    Trujillo and Northern Peru

    February 23, 2015 in Peru ⋅ ☁️ 22 °C

    After two and a half months of no time pressure and complete freedom to choose how long long we want to stay in one place and where to go next...the clock now is really ticking: on the 27.02 we have to catch our flight from Guayaquil to the Galapagos Islands. That's why we have decided for a small serious of overnight buses to cross northern Peru, spending our nights on the road trying to catch some sleep and spending our days fighting the sleep and discovering the unknown territory. in Trujillo we arrived at 5:00am in the morning, waiting for the sun to come up. We organized our escape to the north for the next night, and headed out to city center to find the so called tours, we decided for a hit-and-run- archeology experience.
    first we traveled to the pyramid of the moon, built by the Moche culture and between 200 and 600, an extraordinary complex,that impresses with 30 meter high walls, painted with bright colors and exquisite figures. in the afternoon, we traveled to Chan Chan, a city that was built between 600 and 1450. the area is more than 22 square kilometers big, making it the biggest ancient city on the entire american continent, and the largest adobe city in the world. the palace of the governor, beautifully restored amazes with sheer size and unique architecture. After the hardcore archeology program we even had a bit of time left to go to the beach and watch the sunset, while some Peruvians where riding primitive surfboards made of dried grass, like their ancestors had been doing for hundreds of years. a quick, light dinner in the beautiful colonial old town of Trujillo...and back to the terminal, for another night on the road...always up north.    Read more

  • Isa and UlfSouthAmerica Touring
    1
    Day 69

    Huaraz and White cordillera

    February 21, 2015 in Peru ⋅ ☁️ 19 °C

    After the short coastal 'intermezzo', we reminded ourselves that we wanted to get to know the Andes during our trip and took the next bus back to the mountains. The target was Huaraz, the capital of a region called the Peruvian 'Switzerland'; we thought we actually had seen the Ande's most spectacular face in Chile and Argentina, but the Andes surprised us again with the most beautiful mountain range one can imagine, containing 22 summits over 6000mts and 55 over 5700mts, making it the highest mountain range outside the Himalaya. So we put out our trekking shoes again, and started trekking again; on the first day to start to ''acclimatize'' we went up to 5050mt to touch a glacier... something very special only 1000km away from the equator, yet sad when they told us that it is melting so fast, that they give the glacier only 13 more years (serious global warming).
    Next day we returned to hardcore hiking and went to the Huascaran Peru's highest mountain and went up to 4800mt to a beautiful lake, all the time being watched by the majestic 6768mt high summit...the highest mountain we have ever seen in our lives!!
    But the area is not only a fantastic from a nature point of view, it is also home to Peru's most ancient civilization. to honor that (and chill a bit) we visited Chavin, a 3500 year old complex of pyramids; what makes this place special and unique is that it has a statue of Peru's oldest god. while the Spanish destroyed all Inca gods they could find, and no statues are left anywhere in the entire continent, this impressive carved block, the mother of all Andean gods, remains still in the chamber where it was erected and has not been destroyed nor moved since 3500 years.    Read more

  • Isa and UlfSouthAmerica Touring
    Day 66

    Lima

    February 18, 2015 in Peru ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C

    A city where transit police are mostly women (because men are easily bribed), cats are kings in all parks and the statue of one independence heroine has a "Llama" on top of her head due to the miss interpretation of the Indian (in Spanish the word "llama" does not only mean Llama, but also flame....as the Spaniards had originally intended ;-)

    We knew Lima from short visits and business trips before, as a crowded city of 9 mill inhabitants where fighting with constant fog, pollution and a never-ending traffic jam. this time, we were extremely positively surprised by the huge improvements that have been achieved over the past 5 years. this time we stroll around enjoying Mediterranean weather, admiring the new bicycle lanes, the speed-bus system and the metro, and finally found time to discover the incredible colonial beauty of its old-town...for the first time understanding why Lima was the capital of colonial south america and the richest city on the continent. in order to understand the city in all its facets, we took a bus to the Inca and pre-inca ceremonial center of Pachacamac, crossing the entire city, including areas you certainly never see as a tourist...and probably wouldn't want to see anyway. needless to say that we crowned our trip with more joys of the excellent Peruvian cuisine: we went shopping at the local market and took a private class with a Peruvian chef who taught us how to prepare a delicious ceviche and other delights from the rich local kitchen. all and all as the saying goes: ''The way to the heart is through the stomach'' <3    Read more

  • Isa and UlfSouthAmerica Touring
    Day 63

    Huacachina and Peruvian desert

    February 15, 2015 in Peru ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C

    Still surprised by the heat and dryness of Nasca, we realized we just had a blurry idea of what would come next on the coast on the way to Lima. What we certainly didn't expect, was spending two relaxing nights on a palm-tree covered oasis between high sand dunes, in the middle of the desert. Huacachina is a 'lover's resort' just perfect to warm up after the Andes ;-) and although not-so-clever arriving this time of the year at this very romantic place on Valentine's day, we managed to relax a lot in the first pool (on this trip so far) and under the palm trees...but didn't forget to climb the sand dunes, enjoy the marvelous view and the dusk across the desert...when we realized, that none of us has ever been to a desert, and we had not expected to change that during our voyage.Read more

  • Isa and UlfSouthAmerica Touring
    21
    Day 60

    Nasca

    February 12, 2015 in Peru ⋅ ⛅ 28 °C

    Honestly, Nasca really had a kind of a difficult start.
    We arrived with the overnight bus from Arequipa at 7:AM and it was incredibly dry and hot, (obviously after 9 weeks in the mountains). A friendly guy accepted not only to store our backpacks but also warned us not to get scammed by a bunch of people selling fake tours by the entrance door of the terminal and with the help of a friend of his' we went to the airport and took a flight over the famous nasca lines...

    The nasca lines from above are really impressive and our plan was to return and take a bus further north directly... but the maneuvers of the pilots trying to show us all caused Ulf to vomit in the plane- so, quite frankly we were too sick to take a bus and move on...and very happy we didn't. After a heavy "chaufa rice" lunch and a little siesta, we accepted an offer from an agency for an archeological tour. it turned out to be a tour to the pyramids and tomb fields of the Nasca: the pyramids extremely impressive, the tombs very sad. For an archeology-lover like Ulf, it was heartbreaking seeing skulls, bones, some even with human hair still attached after 1000 years, textiles laying around in the open sand as a result of looting and artifact trade...yet interesting and unique.
    The second part consisted in driving around at 90km\h on the sand dunes with a gigantic-open jeep and sandboarding in the dunes...hehehe honestly, it was big fun, and a great day after a-not-really promising start.    Read more

  • Isa and UlfSouthAmerica Touring
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    Day 56

    Arequipa

    February 8, 2015 in Peru ⋅ 🌫 12 °C

    Taking a super-slow bus from lake Titikaka down to Arequipa, passing the altiplano and entering the land of the canyons. After more than three weeks around 4000 m high, Arequipa almost feels tropical at 2400 meters. la ciudad blanca, the white city with 360 days of sushine and everblue skies received us with rain and clouds for the 6 days of our stay. Nevertheless, it will be one of the highlights of the trip. That is to large extend the "fault" of the casa de melgar hostel. Due to a communication error among their staff, the hostel offered us one of their best rooms, a honeymoon suite about the size of our entire apartment in Cologne, with four meter high ceilings and walls of massive, castle-like volcanic stones inside an old Spanish colonial townhouse for 28 euros a night...which we accepted gladly for three nights, and even managed to convince the hotel to extend another night. Every morning and evening with a big smile, we walked the almost a hundred meters from our cozy realm to the reception, crossing 5(!) interior courts and a flower garden, making every day in Arequipa automatically very special! apart from that, we celebrated halftime of our sabbatical with the excellent Peruvian kitchen,with Arequipa being one of its culinary centers and took a pisco sour mixing class, in order to not repeat the terrible result that we achieved when trying to prepare one for Ulf's family four years ago :-(
    In order to not only spend the days sleeping long, enjoying excellent food and prepare drinks, we decided it was time to do some hardcore sports: climbing the Chachani, a 6085 meter high volcano, overlooking the city and the canyon land. at the end, together with a lovely swiss couple, Samuel and Michaela, and Ivan, our mountain guide traveled up to our base camp at 5200 meters, where we all spend half of the night in tents, before starting to attack the summit at 1:00 o'clock in the morning. Isa decided after some climbing, that she would rather go back and wait for the group in the base camp, and also the swiss couple stopped at 5700 meters...kind of sad because it was Samuels plan to propose marriage to Michaela on the summit...but a proposal in the base camp with champaign was almost as nice. so in the end, out of the four, only Ulf arrived at the summit together with the guide. since then, we know, that "one of the easiest" 6000 mountains, does not mean "easy"at all. isa waited in the base camp for the completely exhausted Ulf, who returned after 10 hours from the summit...while she also broke her record, carrying for 5 hours almost 15 kilogram of equipment up to 5200 meters...after that, we slept almost 14 hours in our cozy hotel room.    Read more

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