The Curse

Hola Chicos!

Now in Cuzco, the Inca capital. We just got back from the Mc Donalds (sorry can’t help it, but sometimes u just want to eat a big mac). It has been a while but I had some more bad luck since then. Think someone put a curse on our trip, for since the Galapagos a lot went wrong. The main things were:
We went to the dessert and my camera broke down (although miraculously it worked again when I just put it on, although there still is sand in the lens);
My phone got stolen again (can’t seem to hold those things with me while traveling), together with the playing cards (so we were bored for the next 24 hours);
After the parasite I had a panic attack in the bus to Cuzco because of the altitude differences (altitude sickness), exhaustion and some fever. Result: I thought I was going to die, couldn’t move my face, arms or chest and Linda freeked out. :S
But, since my camera works again and last days were great, I think the Inca gods lifted the curse and good luck will come to me again. The prove: today a lamb ate my hair.. the story: we (Lin, me and 2 people we met in Machu Picchu) were playing cards in the park when suddenly some local girls in traditional outfit came to us. Was about 10 of them, playing in the park, with their dog and 2 white lambs and one black one. And at one point one of the whites (we kept eating the cards) jumped on my back, went on to my head and started grazing from my hair. :P Funny, no?? I saw a sign from the gods. :)

Anyway, before Cuzco (and Machu Picchu) we went, like I said, to the dessert in Huacachina (near Ica) and also visited the Nazca lines. And we stayed some nights in Lima. Hereby our adventures till now in Peru

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1) A Lima, Pachacamac and Miraflores
Like I told last time we wanted to go paragliding in Lima. We wanted to stay just ne night in Lima, but since the paragliding took so long, we had to stay another night. And because Condors Hostel was so chil/clean/nice etc. we even stayed a third night. :D So Lima and Miraflores (the city part where the hostel was) were kind of a relax place. And we did the paragliding, but that wasn’t really fun. Paid $40,- for it, but got more adrenalin from the driving in the car of one of the pilots than of the paragliding. :( My pilot wasn’t that good, so I went down quite quick (and we even went to Pachacamac where there are thermo winds). But all in all, Lima was a chill place.

1) B Huacachina, Sand, Sand and even more sand
Huacachina is a small village/oasis (200 pop) near Ica. It lays in the dessert and mostly consists out of hostels, restaurants and tour operators for sand boarding and buggy rides. So that is what we did. But the mistake was bringing the camera, it didn’t like the sand. But the 4 glides we made were really cool. I did 2 standing: the furthest I got without falling was about 20 meter. Not bad I think since Lin did about the same. The other 2 I did on my belly. Last one was really long, and in the end you felt G-forces! :D With the tour came also the (dune) buggy ride. For me there was some extra adrenalin since my belt broke and I spent most of the time not falling out of it. :S We visited an oasis as well and watched a beautiful dessert sunset!
Back in the hostel we had a BBQ and drunk quite a lot, since it was included. Here we met 2 American girls with which we played cards and who asked us to join then on a tour in the morning to a picso factory, a wine yard and a chocolate factory. Unfortunately the alcohol prevented us from getting up at 9. :P :S

1) C Nazca, Lines in the Desert
From Huacachina we went on to Nazca. Here there is some lines in the dessert made by the Nazca idians. Why? Nobody knows, but some explanations are: for astronomical reasons, for water/irrigation, just to paint what they saw or as a religious thing. We saw them by plane (see pics). It was nice, but I think overgraded.

1) D Cuzco and Machu Picchu, Inca Capital
After 2 days dessert, dry and sand, we went on to the oldest city in Peru: Cuszo. Like I said in the introduction, the bus journey was crap. And our ‘couch’ here was a really dirty, so we stayed there just one night and moved to a hostel. Most of the time we did nothing and I was recovering. But we also went to the Inca Museum and saw ‘life’ mummies. On the second we left our backpacks in the hostel, took our day packs and went on to Santa Marta by mini bus. From there we had another to Hidro and from there we walked about 3 hours over the train tracks to Aguas Callientes. So we did our very own Inca Rail. Here we also met Arjan (NL), Chris (EN) and Jan An (Korea) who we see now and then here and probably also in Arequipa. All 5 of us got up at 4 the next day and we started the hike to Machu Picchu (Old Mountain). We did it in about 1,5 hour and got at the gate around 5.40 AM. Was really funny, al cheap ass backpackers went up that early and sat there at the gate until a bus of Americans came up about 5 minutes before opening hours. At that second everybody rushed to the gate to get in line because nobody wanted the ‘lazy’ Americans enter before them. :P And once on the terrain everybody run to the entrance of Wayna Picchu (young mountain) because only 400 people are allowed to go up there a day. We went up with the 200 of 7 o’clock. Lin and me were number 12 and 13 to go up (7.10h), and were number 5 and 6 to get to the top (8.00h). Clime was, just like the one to Machu Picchu, quite heavy and even included some caves. :P View was amazing on the top. Clouds moving everywhere and the ruins of Machu Picchu appearing and disappearing! We even had an aura when we had the sun in the back and looked at our shade in the clouds!! About 11 we were down at Machu Picchu again and spent there some hours wandering around and listening to other peoples guides. And at 2 we were finally back in Aguas Callientes (by bus since we were really tired) to have lunch (since we didn’t eat since 4AM). And in the afternoon to the hot springs to chill. On the 4th the five of us went back to Cuzco again. Chris and me walking the Inca Rail again while Lin and the others took the Inca Train back to hidro. And from there another 7,5 hours by bus and when we got to Cuzco at 9 PM, we were hungry again after not eating since breakfast. :S That was yesterday. Today we had a brunch (really good), chilled in the park and then ate at Mc Donalds. But now it is bedtime, almost 11.

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2) The Route

This was my trip:
- 22/01/09 I flew to Aruba to visit and pick up Linda;
- 03/02/09 We went to Washington DC and visited Mariska;
- 06/02/09 We took take the bus to New York and slept in our first hostel;
- 10/02/09 We had a flight to Orlando and did 2 days Disney World
- 13/02/09 Drove to Miami were we did Miami city and the Keys;
- 17/02/09 Flew to Bogota (Colombia);
- 23/02/09 Cartagena;
- 24/02/09 Santa Marta and la Ciudad Perdida (6 day hike in the jungle);
- 02/03/09 Taganga (rest!);
- 04/03/09 Medillin;
- 05/03/09 Salento (Zona Cafetera, between Perreira and Armenia);
- 08/03/09 We took the bus to Ipiales (border) and left Colombia behind us;
- 09/03/09 Quito;
- 13/03/09 Galapagos (8 day cruise and 2 days on Santa Cruz for diving);
- 22/03/09 Guayaquil;
- 25/03/09 Lima;
- 28/03/09 Huarachina (Sandboarding);
- 29/03/09 Nazca lines;
- 30/03/09 Cuzco;
- 01/04/09 Aguas Calientes, Machu Picchu and Wayna Picchu (hot springs and ruins);
- 04/04/09 Cuzco again;

And then what we planned (hopefully we’ll make it :P)
- 06/04/09 Arequipa and Canyon Country (Vulcanos, Canyon del Colca)
- 09/04/09 Puno (crossing to Bolivia, lake Titicaca)
- 13/04/09 A short visit to Bolivia will bring us to La Paz and some salt desert;
- 20/04/09 We will continue to go south, but only go to Arica in Chile and in Argentinia we only go to the waterfalls at border of Urugay/Brazil and Buenos Aires;
- 05/05/09 Brasil (Rio, Brasilia, Pantagan or Amazone Jungle);
- 26/05/09 I hope to fly to the states again (:S) to visit Joanna in Saint Louis and then Chicago at the same time. However, depends on my money.
- 04/06/09 B-day of Ta ;)
As you can see, tight schedule. So everyone that wants to go to South America: 4 months isn’t enough!!!

Roughly my trip after North and South America will look like this:
- 07/09 (or 06/09) Australia (working and traveling 1 year, maybe with Katie);
- 05/10 (or 06/10) Asia (Indonesia, Philipijnen, Maleisia, Thailand, Vietnam, India, China, Korea and Japan, maybe with Isabel for a while);
- 11/10 Trans-siberian Railway Peking Express through among others Peking (China), Mongolia, Jarkoetsk (Rusland), Onsk (Rusland), Moskou (Rusland) for 18 days (maybe with Robbert);
- 12/10 Home sweet home, Wingman back in the Netherlands.

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3) My to do list

In one of the first messages I wrote, I said that you could let me do certain things in exchange for money. Here is the status quo:

- Get (naked) on national tele in the USA: Waiting if were on, being taped for Comedy Central and MTV’s the Fashion Show ~ REWARD: € 100,- by Ruud and Youri;
*** (nearly) ACCOMPLISHED ***
- Find a famous place/square and be a street artist: I forgot my jiggling balls every time I went into Paris or other cities, but I had some audience in Zipaquire. ~ REWARD: € 100,- by Ruud and Youri;
- Enjoy your trip: I will! ~ REWARD: € 25,- by Hans (Thank you Hans!!)
*** ACCOMPLISHED ***
- Shave your head bold: since my mum shaved me twice I'm almost hairless now. :S ~ REWARD: € 3,50 by Sarah H;
*** ACCOMPLISHED ***
- Come to the Luna-Tik Switch: since I'm in Maastricht now (and bored) and waiting till 10h, I think I'll manage. ~ REWARD: free entrance as per Erik;
*** ACCOMPLISHED ***
- Carry Mickey around the world and take pictures in famous places: I WILL! ~ REWARD: A cool photo collection, as per me!;
- Get married in Las Vegas in an Elvis Suite and stay married for at least 6 months: Linda s not interested ~ REWARD: € 450,- as per Erik;
*** FAILED ***
- Carry the hand cups around that I ‘won’ with the Saint Nicolas Surprise: they are still on my back, but people looked weird when I took them into the jungle ~ REWARD: ??? told by Jule;

Did I forget one, do you want to add one?? Let me know!!
Do you want to add some?? Let me know!!

NOTE!! I’m running out of quests, please give me some more!!!

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4) Games

A little game for all:

Each person that posts, must repeat the sentence 'I will go on holiday and take with me:', repeat the items of previous persons and add one item of his own.

This is where we left of and since nobody played last post, we’ll stop with this one:

*I'll go on holiday and take with me: my backpack (Inge, afblijven!), my hand cups, Inge's prom dress, Mickey Mouse, a snorkel, juggling balls, 1 under pens, a passport, mama's toothbrush, Linda!, a winter jacket, snow boats, my MP3 player, mama’s bracelet, some dollars to buy breakfast, everybody’s notes with the best wishes on them (there actually at my parents Erik) and my lonely planet. :D

Here’s a new one:

Each post must say a number (in sequence from one till 50). The one who is number 50, will receive a little reward. :) And there will be a secret number reward as well!

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That’s all again. I’m going to sleep. Try to put the pics online somewhere next days. Hope it goes well for u all. I had some downers, but my moral is going up again. :) See ya all in a bit.

Kisses, great love and more from the one and only Wingman aka Ralf and a hug from Mickey!!!!

PS. Who has some more quests for me!?!?!