la selva peruana

After again spending a long time in Huaraz and its beautiful surroundings, it became time for me to leave. My visa was already overdue and I felt like it was time for me to continue my travels.
Before I left, my boyfriend decided to come with me to the Peruvian jungle. The last days in Huaraz we spent being sick with the flu, but then the day of leaving finally came.
Since we had to leave at 6 am, we decided to spend the night in Huaraz, and ended up going out and dragging ourselves to the bus station without a minute of sleep. On the way there, of course, the boys had to eat their "caldo de gallina", a heavy chicken soup that surely helps a lot with the hangover.
The bus left pretty much on time, but I spent the bus ride sleeping. Only once in a while I opened my eyes and saw the wide mountain ranges and rock walls passing by. With that first bus we crossed the Cordillera Blanca to the East, heading further inland.
After some hours we arrived in a little town called La Union, where we had to find further transport to the city of Huanuco. That transport turned out to be a simple car, where we had to stuff ourselves into the front seat. Still tired, it definitely wasn't the most comfortable ride, but the landscape was stunning. We followed a narrow and curvy mountain road, several times almost crashing into the cars that were coming from the other direction. The snow capped mountains of the Cordillera Blanca were now replaced by a valley surrounded by hills in all shades of yellowish. It was the strangest color, and it was an amazing ride.
After some hours we arrived in Huanuco, a fairly big city, where we first had to decide if we would spend the night there or change transport one more time. We ate lunch at the main square, resting in the grass with our backpacks. After eating we decided to keep on going to Tingo Maria where we would spend the night.
The bus ride was short, and the landscape started changing. In place of the dry and yellow mountains we could now see dense green forests, stretching over the hills.
And with arriving in Tingo Maria we had arrived in the high jungle.

Tingo Maria
Since Tingo Maria is a small town, it didn't take us long to find a place to stay, and after dropping our stuff in the room, we went to find something to eat. After that we immediately fall asleep after this long day.

On the next day we checked out early and went to find breakfast with all our stuff. We passed through the market, where we already found ourselves between "juanes" (banana leaves filled with rice), fish and fruits.
We bought bread and a fresh juice for breakfast, and then we went to find a bus to Pucallpa. But as we had to find out all the buses had already left, and didn't have schedules for later that day. The only other options were taking a bus overnight (which we didn't want because the road was known for its drug traffic and robberies) or go by car which was far more expensive. Only after we had already decided to stay another night in Tingo Maria and find us something to do during the day, we found a combi that was supposed to leave soon and that for a reasonable price.
Although I would have liked to stay in Tingo Maria a little longer (it seemed like a really nice and not too turistic place), we decided to take the combi.
We waited a while for the combi to fill up, and then we were already on our way.
Again the road was curvy, but this time we weren't driving along an edge of nothing, but rather were we surrounded by trees and trees and more trees. It started to rain, and sometimes we could see the fog rising over the deep forests. The first part of the journey we were still in the mountains, but after a while the landscape flattened and mountains became hills and hills became plains.

Pucallpa
Arriving in Pucallpa we got immediately surrounded by mototaxi drivers that wanted to take us somewhere. Situations like that are always stressing me out and in the end we agreed to one to take us to the center. Of course he didn't take us to the center, but to some hostel we he surely would have gotten commission if only we would have stayed there. But we went to find another place and soon we had success. For the better because walking through a loud and busy city like Pucallpa. with a heavy backpack and the sun burning down on our heads, is not something I would call "fun".
The room was clean and had a fan, and shortly after arriving we took off to the port.
Pucallpa surprised me in the way that it turned out to be a pretty big, modern and commercial city, with hectic streets dominated by the loud noise of the mototaxis.
Fortunately the streets along the river side were a little quieter, and so the heat wasn't that bad. It took us a while to find the right port, the one where the boats to Iquitos were leaving from. The company everybody told us about was called Henry, and its big cargo boats, painted in turquoise and orange, reminded me of a circus in some way.
When we entered the boat we had to find our way through the busy men loading huge sacks of onions and other things on the boat. I don't even wanna know how much one of them weight.
The smell of something weird was penetrating and the captain was exactly as you would imagine a captain in the Amazon. He told us that we had to board the boat until 6 pm that same day because it was leaving the following day at an unknown hour.
Since it was already 4 pm, we still hadn't eaten anything or bought food for the trip, we decided to take the next boat and find ourselves something to do in Pucallpa.
We stopped at a restaurant and had ceviche and an ice cold beer as a late lunch. Then we walked through the city, enjoying that the air was finally cooling off at least a little bit.
I spent a terrible night, because I got really sick in the evening and our room had a window to a loud street.

The next day in the morning I felt a little better, but as soon as we left the room and had gotten out into the heat, my stomach started hurting again and it cost me a lot to keep walking.
Again we went to the port to find out about the next boat. To our surprise (it shouldn't even have surprised me) the boat was still there, and the men loading it even busier. We were told that it would leave in the afternoon and that we could still board.
Which we did.
We went to the market to buy some fruits and water, packed our stuff, took the last shower for a while and went back to the port.
When we got there they even searched our bags and then let us go up to the part where the passengers were traveling. The first floor was already full - it was an incredible image. Hammock after hammock filled the space, things where stacked underneath and between them, everybody was talking or organizing something. Whole families had spread out their blankets on the floors and on the benches on the sides people were selling food.
Fortunately there was another floor and we went up there. Most of the space was loaded with matresses, but on the sides was still some space where we could put our hammock.
At that moment we were the only ones on that floor, but soon it filled up as well. Luckily not as bad as the one downstairs and since we had a spot on the "hallway" we always had some wind and no immediate neighbors next to us.
Soon after a Japanese girl joined us, accompanied by an Englishman. The two of them were a little confused at first, thinking that they had booked a private cabin. But those things didn't exist on our dear "Henry 10", so they put up their sleeping spots next to us in the hallway.
After we had settled down on the spot where we would spend the next 6 days, we watched the final loading of the boat and waited for its departure.

Rio Ucayali, Rio Amazonas
It´s difficult to describe the time on the boat - it all just became one, and I can´t divide it into single days anymore.
The boat was full of people, hammock next to hammock next to hammock - underneath blankets with whole families and their bags. Most of the people were locals.
Sometimes I felt like in a social experiment, testing with how much you can deal. The heat was incredible and the personal space limited.
The only relief was the wind, that, from time to time, stroke our faces.
The only diversion were the little villages where we stopped. In one of them we got off the boat to walk around a little bit, but usually just a lot of people selling fruits, drinks or shampoo came on the boat. Passengers got on or off the boat, cargo was being unloaded. Our neighours changed. The wind stopped.
And then we left again, following the wide river, surrounded by nothing but the dense trees of the Peruvian jungle.
We mostly ate fruits, and a little of the food of the boat. Usually the rice and the bread. We got up early in the morning, when everything started moving and the heat was still bearable. The afternoon was the worst. The the hour of the sunset the best. That was when it finally cooled down, and everything appeared in the magic orange light of the sinking sun.

6 days we lived in this ocean of faces, smells, sounds, bugs, heat, trees, sunsets and sunrises. Falling into the rythm of the boat. Time passing by.

And then, suddenly, we arrived.

Iquitos
We arrived in Iquitos in the afternoon, pretty much the worst hour. A mototaxi took us to the center, where we spent a lot of time finding a place to stay, being followed by one of those annoying taxi drives that want to take you somewhere.
After finally arriving at some hostel, we took a desperatley needed shower and left for the city. I felt as tired as after a really long busride.
Since we needed to eat we decided to go to the market of Belen, hoping to find something there.
The Belen market was as extreme as being on the boat. Two rows of stands, selling everything, in the middle of trash and big birds, waiting for their turn of food. Men drinking and playing cards. Children sleeping in hammocks over the table. And, still, the incredibly sticky heat.
After all those impressions and the offer of food we found, we decided to look for a restaurant. Soon we found a cevicheria with a late lunch menu. Salad, fish, rice and a cool drink was just what we needed!
Then we started our way back to the center - first through the chaotic comercial streets, and then along little plazas along the riverside. We stopped at a museum where they had an exhibition by female artists about traditional legends, and a foto spread about the explotation and trade of rubber.
We passed by the tourisitc restaurants, and the beautiful old houses of Iquitos.
At the end we stayed in a little park, where an open air stage was built up in the street and there was to be a concert. We ate some fries and drank a beer and waited for the concert to start, only being bothered by the mosquitoes.
Until then I was already surprised by Iquitos - I never really felt the urge to go there, and in reality we were just passing trough. But I actually really liked it. The open spaces, the old houses, the people, the market, the art. And what was more, I had a lot of respect for it. Just imagining that almost everything we found to see had to be brought by boat or plane made my head hurt.
When the concert started we found out that it was being organized by some university students who were quite active in politics. They acually tried to change something in the middle of all the corruption and explotation of natural ressources. And it was quite entertaining - we saw pretty much anything from hip hop over rock and electro to cumbia. I loved it, and even though we were tired we stayed until late at night and danced in the street.

On the next day we first went to the port where the boat to Yurimaguas was supposed to leave. It was easy to find but a long walk, all along one of the busiest roads.
And again, we landed in a completely different part of Iquitos.
We found the boat, and were being told that it would leave the next day. And also that it would cost a lot more that what we had expected. But it was the only way to get out of there, and so we didn´t have another choice.
The rest of the day we spent in Belen and the center. We went to the market again, this time to the part of the witches. The amount of strange plants, seeds and magic potions to cure whatever illness, acompined by a mix of smell,s was incredible. At one of the posts selling tabacco we stopped for a while, trying a cigarette with pure tabacco and chocolate. There we also bought some pure cacao.
From the market we went to the famous port of Belen, the poor and more indigenous part of Iquitos. It was very different from the center - dirty, smells of food on every corner, and drunk men sleeping on the street. But apperantely the activist art had even reached this part of the city, and we saw some graffities about nutrition and education. Again, Iquitos had surprised me.
We didn´t spent much time at the port, because it wasn´t the saftest part, and the heat had started to burn our faces. So we started our way back, passing food stands and the whole comercial part again. First we were trying to find something to eat, but then decided to go back to hostel first. At the end we found a little restaurant just on the corner of the hostel.
In the afternoon Rodrigo had to work, so I went to walk around a little by myself. I went to the handicrafts market, and one of the main plazas on the river side. Since it was Sunday it was full of people.There were games, music, and a lot of kids playing. I met a French-Argentinian couple, which had also been on the same boat as us. I talked with them for a while, and then went to the little park again where the concert had taken place, to write and read for a while.
Then I returned to the hostel and waited until Rodrigo had finished with his work. At night we went out together, this time to one of the residencial parts of Iquitos. There we found a Chifa restaurant, which was cheap and the plates huge.
Getting back, exhausted from the day and the heat, we just fell into our bed and passed out.
The next day in the morning we went to another market, to have breakfast and buy fruits for the journey. This market was way more organized than the market in Belen, but also more expensive. Still, I enjoyed walking around there and taking some pictures of the strange things like turtle shells.
After finishing we went to organize our stuff and passed by the artesania again.
And then it was already time to eat lunch and get going to the port.
When we got there we found ourselves being lucky because the price for the ticket had changed overnight. We got on the boat, which this time was a little smaller and seemed a lot more relaxed, and set up our spot again - we were gonna spend another couple of nights in the hammock.
This time we had a little more space, and I liked the boat. Also our spot was outside, so we would have more wind.
We waited and waited, and the boat started to fill up. But it didn´t leave. When night started to break in we were told that we would leave the next day. For whatever reason.
So we had to spend a whole day on the boat in the port. It was just waiting for departure. As before we passed time writing, reading or playing cards.
And then at around 6 pm, finally, we left the port of Iquitos for Yurimaguas.

Rio Marañón
This time the trip should only take about 3 days, and as I already said, the space we had was much more relaxed. We had a French couple as neighbours, but other than that most of the people were locals again. I enjoyed watching the people, seeing all different kinds of personalities. For example, close to us was also a group of 3 Peruvians going on vacation. They were from Iquitos and completely different from the people of the Andes. Much louder, obviously enjoying their vacation and playing cards with full commitment.
Again the days passed, and were diversed by eating, the little villages and playing cards with the French couple.
I got stung by a wasp, so for about 2 days my hand was double sized, but I guess that´s part of traveling the jungle. At least I didn´t get stung by some infected bug.

The last sunset was probably one of the most beautiful ones we had seen - we stopped at an idyllic village, with an open space in the middle and little wooden houses on the sides. And just right there, before the sunset, the boat got surrounded by dolphins. A lot of dolphins, and all of them really close. So for a while we just stood there and watched, feeling the air slowly getting cooler and watching the sun going down behing the river and the deep forest.

The journey went by quickly, and soon we already arrived in Yurimaguas.

Yurimaguas, Munichis

Yurimaguas is a small town where there´s neither much to see nor much to do. The most important part is probably the port, for its connection to Iquitos.

We arrived there with the plan of finding a quiet place to put up a tent. First we ate and then we started searching, which turned out to be more difficult than it should have been.

At the end we decided to go to the small village of Munichis and just camp on the beach next to the river. It was a nice spot, with some boats passing by, but still quiet. The people we met were nice and the village seemed safe. As if never anything would happen there.

Soon night fell in, and without the wind the heat kept being unberable. That made it a little hard to sleep, but in the end the tiredness won.

In the morning we got our stuff together and then went for a swim in the river. It was nice to cool down a little, before walking in the heat again. 

We found a nice lady in the village who was selling juanes, and she also agreed to make some eggs for us. It was probably the best breakfast we´ve had until then, and after it I felt like I had a lot more energy.

We took a mototaxi back to Yurimaguas, and in the middle of the way it started raining like hell. But so I got the chance to see the drivers protection - a thick blue plastic sheet, covering the whole front part of the moto, only leaving a small space to watch the road. That confirmed that for me a mototaxi is the scariest form of transportation. 

But we arrived undamaged and went straight to the bus terminal where the combis for Tarapoto were leaving. The combi soon left, and we traveled about two hours. It was raining but still the landscape was beautiful, and reminded me a lot of the part between Tingo Maria and Pucallpa. Green hills full of trees, spotted with waterfalls.

Tarapoto

Arriving in Tarapoto was relaxed. Just next to the bus stop we found a good and cheap restaurant and finding a hostel wasn´t too difficult as well. We stayed a little outside of the center, in a nice and quiet neighbourhood.

In the afternoon we walked to the center, trying to find out where to go and what to do.The center was loud and comercial, and I was glad we had found a quieter place. 

Again we were looking for a camping spot alongside a river or something, where we could spend a couple of days. The tourist information wasn´t really very helpful, and so, in the end, we decided to go to San Roque, a village close to Tarapoto, that Rodrigo already knew from a few years earlier. 

At the terminal we had to wait forever for the combi to leave, but since it was only a one hour trip we had plenty of time. When we left it felt good getting out of the city, and the road to little San Roque was beautiful as well.

San Roque de Cumbaza

We got to San Roque some time in the afternoon, and spent the rest of the day in a park next to the river. It was full of kids playing and San Roque seemed like the most peaceful place on earth. We found some fresh bread and had pasta and veggies for dinner. We put up the hammock and watched the kids play, until it got dark. The people left and we put up our tent. 

When we were just about to go to sleep we heard someone coming close, and then a voice asked to talk to us. I stayed in the tent while Rodrigo went to talk to the man, and I have to admit I was a little scared. But it turned out that it was just our neighbour, from the house across the soccer field, who invited us to stay there. We told him to stop by the next morning, and found peaceful sleep in this beautiful place.

In the morning we packed our stuff and brought it to Jorge´s house. We could leave it there for the day and so we went for a hike that was supposed to lead us to a waterfall.
The trail led us out of the village into the woods and up the hill. From there we followed the ridge, from where we had a spectacular view of the surrounding mountains. Then we were inside the jungle again, between trees and plants of all kinds, with only a little bit of light that broke through the thick cover of leaves.
The trail was clearly marked, but the first part was quite steep and uphill. We came to a crossing that was marked with arrows, and followed them downhil. There we already heard the waterfall, so we thought we should be close. 

But after a while the sound disappeared and it started to rain. Within 10 minutes we were soaked. 

We got out of the woods, into a clearing with banana trees. There we found refugee in some kind of a hut and thought of what to do. We´ve already walked more than 4 hours, and the walk wasn´t supposed to be that long. Also the sound of the waterfall had disappeared and we weren´t sure if we were still on the right trail, even though it had been clearly marked. 
We decided to walk a little more and, if nothing changes, return. When we got to that point it was already afternoon, and the both of us were tired. We didn´t bring a lot of food and water, and after a while Rodrigo´s blood sugar dropped and it cost him a lot to keep walking. I also started to get worried about the hour, because I really didn´t want to be in the jungle at night, when all the animals come out and there´s no light anymore. So I rushed and tried to keep Rodrigo going, also being concerned about his condition. What would I do if he broke down in the middle of the way? 
But at the end we go to the view point where we rested for a little bit. My body felt really tired as well and it was only will and fear that kept me going. But from the view  point it wasn´t far anymore, and as soon as we got to San Roque and ate and drank something we felt better. Rodrigo´s color returned to his face, and he seemed less exhausted than I was.
When we got back to the familiy´s house we told them about our little adventure. They gave us food and told us that we weren´t supposed to follow all the arrows becasue they mark a circuit back to San Roque. So we didn´t even have to walk back all the way, because apparently we had only been an hour away from the village!
But fortunately everything turned out fine, and the family was very nice. We put up our tent in their back yard and had breakfast with them the next morning - fried plantains, one of my favourites!
We packed our things and walked around a little, rested on the rivershore, and then went back to Tarapoto to catch a bus to the coast.

Chiclayo
We arrived in Chiclayo in the morning and first went to organize everything. I was gonna take a night bus to Cuenca, Ecuador, and Rodrigo was gonna visit a friend in Trujillo and go back to Huaraz from there.
After buying the tickets, we went to the beach and spent our last day together there, eating Ceviche.
And then it was time to say goodbye. Even though I´ve had a lot of goodbyes during my travels, that was definitely the hardest one...I just had to cross the border as fast as possible, otherwise I don´t think I would have made it.
But after such a long time in Huaraz, it also feels good to be moving again.

all around the cordillera blanca and the cordillera negra

Laguna Paron
A few days after my birthday I decided to go on a solo trek - just to have some time for myself and do something cool.
I decided to hike up to a lake that I've been wanting to see for a while, and so I left some nice monday morning.
I took a colectivo to Caraz from where I thought other buses/combis/colectivos/whatsoever were leaving to the village of Paron. But as I had to find out those only leave at weird hours, so I either had to wait or take an expensive taxi. I decided to wait, when my luck turned around a little bit and I found a colectivo taxi that was going until the village underneath Paron. The driver told me it would only be an hour or so to walk so I'd still be there earlier than if I'd take the bus.
It took me a little more than an hour and was exhausting but after a while I made it to the entrance of the national park and felt good going off on a little adventure. 
There was a dirt road until the lake, but as I was walking I could cut through the curves on little trails. That was exhausting and I kinda got lost twice, but it was still better than walking on a road all the time. 
After some (a lot) hours of walking I finally made it to the lake. I felt like I had no energy anymore and it was already getting a little late, so I abandoned my plan to hike further to another, smaller lake and camped right at the shore of one of the biggest lakes in the Cordillera Blanca, and at the foot of the Piramid glacier.
It was cold, but beautiful, and I was so tired that  passed out shortly after I ate dinner. I did see the sun going down though, the orange-lit clouds behind the white mountains and the full moon rising next to it. (The sun goes down here around 6.30 pm so sleeping time on a trek is pretty early ;))
On the next day I didn't have a long hike in front of me and I was planning on spending it a little more relaxed. I ate breakfast, got my stuff together and started the walk along the lake side to the other end. That looked shorter than it was, but at least I asn't just going up. After I reached the other side I followed a small trail through a plain of grassy rocks until I got to the other lake. There I had planned to sit down, write, read and enjoy, but unfortunately the weather didn't like that idea too much and it got pretty cold. So I started my way back earlier, and set up camp again at the shore of lake Paron.
The altitude, a some stomach problem and the little amount of food I'd had with me were making my body weak though, and I felt like I had no energy. So I took a nap in the afternoon and went to sleep early again, ready for another cold night.
On the third day I got up super early, and so I could enjoy the sun rising behind the mountains. When I started my way back through the valley, everything was filled with a golden light.
Walking down was definitely easier than walking up and I soon reached the park entrance. But again the bus time tricked me and I had to keep going until another village, which was even further down than the one where I started. Since it took me a while the heat was killing me too, and I was happy when I finally found a car.
I got back to Marian some time in the afternoon, and was happy to find the house empty so I had a little more time for myself and could think about the trek. 
I liked it, but with myself I didn't really get where I wanted.

Antacocha
Just two days after I got back from my trek, I already left the house again. I was with some friends and our plan was to go to Antacocha for a few days. That's also a lake, Cordillera Negra though, but the main subject is not hiking there but climbing. 
So we took a taxi to the campsite, and after a lunch break we started right away.
I started climbing again in Huaraz, and, slowly but surley, my arms were getting stronger and I fell in love with the sport again.
Antacocha has some short routes, but also a whole bunch of them with several pitches. That was completely new to me, so the first day my friend gave me some classes in "what to do in the middle of the wall and how to secure oneself and your partner". Or something like that.
It felt great to learn something new and the next day we started for my first "multi pitch", which consisted of four pitches and was about 200m high. The route was quite easy (even for my level of climbing), but it was a great experience. The feeling of just climbing and then the feeling of reaching the top and being regarded with an amazing view of Corlillera Blanca was just great.
To get back down we chose to walk, and spent the rest of the day relaxing and eating.
The day after that was a completely lazy day - we didn't do anything all day long, but just being there and enjoying nature.
On our last day we wanted to go climbing again, but after a little warm up and the first pitch, I had to give up because my slackline knee injury started hurting again, and I didn't want to over-do it. It sucked, but I'm still hoping to go back to Antacocha soon, so we can finish the out we've started.

Vallunaraju
After Antacocha I spent some days at the house, went climbing and met some friends that were in town at that time. 
But at the weekend it was time again to get out to the mountains, and this time it should be a real mountain. With snow and crampons and ice picks and all that stuff. 
We left Saturday afternoon and went in taxi to the trailhead for the moraine camp. That was a steep and rocky hike up with a lot of weight because we had to carry all the material. And since two of our companions were slighlty hung over it took us a little longer than usually and we got to the camp quite late. Late, because we had to get up at 2.30am to go for the summit.
It felt weird crawling out of the tent in the middle of the night and getting everything ready. When we started to hike to the glacier, one of us stayed behind because he already had troubles with the altitude and wasn't gonna go for the summit. 
So we were four, and only one of us really had experience with mountains. And stuff.
But it was supposed to be "easy" and not too technical, so it was fine. At the beginning of the glacier we put on our crampons and harnesses and were all connected by a rope. Ice pick in one hand and walking stick in the other, we started off for the summit of Vallunaraju.
The sun was rising behind the Cordillera Blanca and we were surrounded by snow and I was happy. And after a while pretty exhausted. Good thing, I wasn't the only one and the two guys behind me were doing worse. At one point they were about to turn around and go back but we managed to motivate them again. Close to the end it was me who needed motivation to keep going, but after a short climbing part we were pretty much there. At the summit. At 5680m. 
Personally, I hadn't expected to reach the summit, and even though it was hell to get up there I was surprised I did it. That we did it. It felt incredibly awesome. Arriving up there was just a feeling I can't describe, and it was definitely one of the best and most amazing experiences I've made in my travels so far. It was just unbelievable.
The way back down was a lot more fun, all of us were delighted and: we didn't have to go up anymore. I enjoyed the snow, slid down some parts, and made a snow angel. Of course I felt tired, but it didn't matter.
Back at the camp we ate, and after a little (needed!) rest we packed our things and started our way back down. The steep and rocky trail was even worse going down than up and I think all of us fell at least once. I was so glad when we finally reached the road, because it was starting to get kind of dangerous and everybody was super tired. 
At the road we had to wait for our taxi a little bit, and on the ride back I completely passed out. And woke up when we were already at the house. 
My body felt dead, but I was just happy.
I climbed a really high mountain! And I want more! ;)

expedition "un minuto y medio"

Inkawakanka
The mountain was so intense that I, again, needed some days rest. That means being at the paradise house and go climbing. And organise the next trip, which was Inkawakana.
That's a big, but relatively new climbing place, which means there are not many people and still not many routes. We were quite a big group though, and the guys wanted to build some new routes.
We rented a mini van that got us, and all our stuff, there and, just as we got there we were rewarded with the best of Inkawakanka: it's sunset. It's like you are in the mountains but see the sun going down over the ocean. Pretty awesome, I would say.
We set up camp, and then sat together making our pre-cooked camping dinner.
The next 5 days (except one day rest for me and my hands) we spent climbing, walking, eating, talking, laughing and drinking. Some other friends came for 2-3 days and everything was just good. We stayed until we ran out of food and had to go back to Huaraz. That time we had to hitch hike, each person with a backpack and one or two crash pads. But we got lucky and a big bus stopped, and took us all. 

Back in Huaraz I had to make a decision - if I would stay here a little longer or continue my travels. I was stressed out for a day and just wished being back at Inkawakanka or some other awesome place where I didn't have to think about stuff like that. And then I decided to continue the first aid project I had started in December (or something like that) and stay for another month or so. 
So I'm still in Marian/Huaraz, and I can't wait to get out of bed and into the mountains again!

huaraz

We arrived in Huaraz some time in the evening, and when I got off the bus I felt like nothing had changed. It was still raining and I found myself on streets that I know without even thinking and that I’ve walked on so many times. The Orly thing I didn’t know was where to go – I didn’t know anything about the hostels here, since I’d always had my own place.

So we just walked on a random street and it was super easy to find something we liked.

For me, it felt weird being back, but I also liked the feeling of coming to place that I already know, where I don’t have to figure everything out from the beginning and I was very excited about showing everything to my mom.

She was doing surprisingly good with the altitude, so we spent our first days in Huaraz walking around and I was explaining the things that were important to me. We went to my old house, my favourite little store, the market I used to go to, walked the streets I used to walk, went to my favourite café and, of course, we also visited the school where I used to work.

One afternoon we also went to the little village of Marian, where some of my friends live in the most awesome house ever built.

It felt surprisingly good to be back, and made me realice how much I love the mountains and that it really is the landscape that makes Huaraz so special to me. Also, coming back with some improved Spanish skills made me see and experience the people differently. Huaraz is a place that makes you feel like a foreigner no matter how long you are here, but over all most people are not as bad as I remembered them and I got to love them.

One day my mom and I went to the ruins of Chavin (she had to see at least some ruins here in Peru) and I enjoyed learning and seeing more and more about a place. (I think by now I’ve seen a loto f the places around the area, and I feel like everything is kind of familiar)

On the day alter Chavin we took off for the Santa Cruz Trek. That’s probably the most touristic trek around the area, but I still never got to do it while I was living here.

Organizing the thing was much easier than I’d thought (you can easily do everything in colectivo) and my mom was ready to do anything with me (especially alter the motorcycle ride in El Carmen).

After we got lost a little bit in the beginning everything went smoothly and neither of us had big problems with the altitude. The backpacks were big, but it was doable, and the trail was just beautiful.

We started off next to a river, in a valley. The first day we had to make quite some altitude, but it wasn’t that bad at all, and when we got to the campsite we were the only people there, just accompined by some donkeys and cows.

The second day was “tranquilo” and we arrived at the camp quite early. The landscape had changed completely though, and instead of green riverside trails, flowers, and wide sandbanks we were now closer to the mountains and the landscape had gotten rockier and not as diverted as before. Also the night was colder and when we woke up the next morning the snow of the mountains had definitely gotten closer.

That day we had to hike up to the Punta Union, the highest point of the trek, and back down on the other side, wich made it the most exhausting day of all. Besides that, we had bad luck with the weather and it was raining and snowing all day.

It wasn’t really inviting to sit down and eat and due to the weather we also missed the panoramic view that you are supposed to have from the Punta Union.

After nine hours of hiking we called it a day and set up our camp.

On the last day we Orly had about two hours more to walk, and the landscape had become what I was used to from several other hikes. We also passed some small villages until we got to our end point. We arrived exhausted but happy, andi t didn’t take long until the colectivo came to take us back into civilization.

After the trek I only ha done more day with my mom, which we mostly spent in a café until I brought her to the bus stop.

It was hard to say goodbye, for I had really enjoyed traveling with my mom and seeing her after such a long time, but I was also looping forward to having some time for myself again, and I was going to stay at my friend’s house in Marian for a little bit.

reaching the Punta Union together with my mom :)

The first reason to stay was that one of my friend’s birthday was just a day before mine and we wanted to celebrate together.

So we had a party at the house on the 6th and then went to some awesome hotsprings on the 7th, to relax.

It was good.

And now I’m still here, and I’ve been doing stuff all the time. I went trekking, got into climbing again, and got to the top of a super high mountain.

3 weeks with my mom - arequipa, huacachina, paracas, chincha; peru

Arequipa
I spent the week before my mom came to Peru in a house a little outside of Arequipa. It had a beatuiful view over some fields and I was living there with 3 Argentinians. The owner of the house, Pedro, was visiting his family at the coast so he wasn't there all the time. All of us got along very well and I enjoyed having some time to relax. We cooked together, I went for walks, and had time for some creative days. After a week I felt so comfortable there that I had a hard time leaving.
But I also had been waiting. For the day where I would see my mom, here, in Peru, after I'd been traveling for about 8 months.
I don't think I have to explain how excited I was when the day finally came and I went to the airport to pick her up at the airport.
She arrived almost on time, but unfortunately without her backpack. That day though, it didn't matter at all. Even though we hadn't seen each other that long, it soon felt like I'd never been gone. And I was excited about being able to show her a little how my life's working at the moment and what all has become normal to me, in a culture so different than ours.
The first day we didn't do much but go out to eat and walk around a little bit. As well as the next day, because we were still waiting for her backpack (which, besides, contained some Austrian chocolate and cheese for me).
Arequipa is probably one of Peru's "most beautiful and most touristic places", but for some reason the city itself definitely wasn't the most exciting I've seen. I guess at some point cities just start looking all the same, and it's more the nature around it that counts. At least for me. (Which Arequipa has, when you can actually see something through the fog. It's surrounded by Volcanos, some of them slightly topped with snow.)
So, even though the backpack still wasn't here, we left for a trek through the Colca Canyon a few days after. We wanted to go without a guided tour, and surprisingly that was much easier to organize than I'd thought.
We got picked up at our guesthouse at about 3am by a tourbus, which would take us to our starting point, the little village Cabanaconde. On the way there we stopped at the famous "Cruz del Condor", a viewpoint which the Andean Condor likes to cross on their morning flight. And we got lucky - after about 5 minutes waiting the first birds got up into the air, and they got more and more. We watched the incredible spectacle for about half an hour, when the birds started to get less and less again.

cruz del condor

And a little after we were already in Cabanaconde. From there we were on our own, so we asked around for the trail to the place where we wanted to spend our first night.
We took another route than the tours and we didn't meet anybody but a few farmers with their donkeys on the way.
The walk was exhausting though. Since it's a canyon we started up and had to get down on the first day - far down. The sun was gleaming hot and there was nearly no shade. And the trail was rocky and steep.
But we found the place, wich is less a village that two houses which are both for tourists. But it was beautiful. The one we stayed at had a big, blooming garden with fruits, flowers and vegetables of all kinds, and the owner was a super nice lady and very excited about us visiting her place. There were also three little hot springs right next to the river, which was perfect for relaxing after a long hiking day.
On the second day my whole body felt sore, but luckily our way that day was a little more relaxed. We made it to our next stop, an oasis in the canyon, by the middle of the afternoon., and before the tourist groups arrived. Because that was a place where everybody went, but still there was not much. We spent the rest of the day at the pool and playing Scrabble and enjoying life.
The hike up the canyon was waiting for us on our last day, and it was supposed to be exhausting. Which it was, but luckily it wasn't that long..rather steep than long, or how else would it work to get up 1000m of altitude in three hours?
When we made it, I was not only surprised, but also proud of my mom that she did stuff like that with me without even thinking of giving up.
Back to Arequipa we took a regular bus and everything went smoothly.
At the busterminal we bought a ticket for a night bus to Ica, our next stop. We went to get our stuff (my mom's backpack with my chocolate and cheese had finally arrived), and then back to the terminal.
The next morning we woke up in the middle of the desert, Ica.

Huacachina
We never planned to spend much time in Ica, but wanted to go on to the Oasis Huacachina. That's about 20 minutes and a 6-Soles taxi ride away from Ica City.
But before we could get there, we had to learn a Peruvian (or South American or world wide) message - backpacks do get stolen if you don't pay attention.
So we had to continue our trip without cheese and chocolate and the Scrabble.
When we arrived in Huacachina the first thing we found out that it's ridiculously expensive. And that the majority of tourists there were actually Peruvian.
It took us a while to find a place to stay within our budget, and then we decided just to enjoy the luxury. We went out to have a drink and to eat, and for the sunset we walked up the dunes behind the houses. There you get to see what you wouldn't have guessed from the center of the oasis: the wide and empty.
Personally I do prefer the mountains, but desert like that just has something that's magic. It seems so endless, and so peaceful and desperate at the same time. It was a sunset worth remembering.
On the next day we spent some quiet time at the lake of the oasis, before going back to Ica to continue our trip to the coast.
But before that we had to pay the police a visit, which delayed our leaving a little bit.

Paracas
The bus ride to the coast was short, but we had to take a taxi from Pisco to Paracas because at the time we arrived were no more public buses leaving.
I enjoyed coming to Paracas because I'd already been there before and it was one of the places I really liked. Probably because of the two extremes, the blue and endless ocean and the dry and wide desert. And the little town is also nice ;) And it was cool, being able to show my mom something I'd already seen and tell her how my first time at that place was.
We spent our first night in some kind of a hotel, before moving to a really nice hostel the next day. The only annoying thing about that, were a group of loud and stupid Englishman, which we'd already seen in Huacachina.
Besides spending time at the beach, we were at the hostel quite a lot, cooking, talking, or reading. One day we did a tour to the Ballestras Islands, two rock islands full of birds, penguins and sea lions. As always, the boat ride was what I enjoyed most.
In the afternoon we took a tour through a part of the desert, passing rockformation and beautifully coloured beaches.
Lunch time was scheduled in one of those terrible touristic places, where a plate of food costs about ten times as much as it usually does. So we tried to find something different, and ended up in the house of an old couple. They got up to make some fresh fish with fries just for us, an I bet it was a hundred times better than the tourist restaurant :P
The rest of the lunch break we spend at the beach, enjoying the sound of the waves crashing against the coast. And then it was already time to go back to Paracas.
After a few days relaxing, we decided to continue our journey into the direction of Huaraz, with a short stop in Chincha (sounded good, and was on the way).

Chincha
The main reason we stopped in Chincha was that we could go to Lima early and catch a day bus to Huaraz. And that we would see another place.
When we got off the bus in Chincha, I first regretted stopping there at all. It was loud, dusty, crowded and it seemed impossible to find a hostel close to the bus stop.
But after we finally found one and got rid of our stuff, I kinda started to like it. It's a typical Peruvian city, and it has a market you can definitely enjoy. And it's not as touristic as other places. In fact, I didn't see any tourists there.
In the afternoon we took a colectivo to a town abut 15 minutes away from Chincha - El Carmen. El Carmen used to be slaver town, and still has an Afro-Peruvian population and culture. And a lot of history.
Still, in reality, there's not much going on. It's very quiet and we hardly saw any people. The only information we found was a sign that said tourist information. In reality it was a musician's house, and his son ended up giving us a kind of private tour. It took a while to convince my mom to get on the small motorcycle as a third passenger, but at the end she didn't have a choice. And after a while, I think, she actually started to enjoy it.
We visited one of the old haciendas, where slaves lived and worked, healing water, and fields. A lot of fields - cotton, mandarines, avocados, and what not. And watched another one of the most impressive sunsets I've seen.
Back at the house we got some wine, and our tour guide gave us two huge avocados from his garden as a gift.
In the evening we took a bus back to Chincha, where we spent the night and got up early in the morning to take a bus to Lima. And I started getting nervous and excited and happy and everything about getting back to Huaraz, to see what's changed and what's the same and to show my mom everything that had been my daily life for four months.

rest of bolivia pt. 2 - sucre, potosi, uyuni, oruro, la paz

Sucre
The original plan was to stay one night in Cochabamba and take a bus to Sucre the following night. But when we (i continued travelling with Thomas because we had about the same route in mind) got to the bus terminal from Toro Toro, just to ask about the buses, we had to make a quick decision and changed our minds because 'last minute' bus tickets were being sold and we found one for an unbeatable price. So we got on that bus at that moment, without having eaten anything, and woke up in a new place in the early morning hours of the next day.
The first difficulty in Sucre was to find a hostel - it's a very touristic place, full of Europeans, and prices were high for Bolivian standards (which doesn't mean it was high for European standards, but still). But after a while we found a cheap, though not very nice, place right across from the central market. 
It turned out that that was great because Sucre's market is one of the richest and cleanest markets I have seen so far. The breakfast and lunch was cheap and good, but the best part was the juice section. Fresh juices and milkshakes made out of fruits that you're never gonna find in Austria for the price of about 50 euro cents for two glasses. That was definitely the best part of the breakfast every day.
Our first day in Sucre we just spent walking around the city. Sucre is the old capital of Bolivia and due to its white colonial buildings far more beautiful than any other Bolivian city. It's also a very clean place and people are different - all in all it felt more European.
In the afternoon I went to look for another place to stay for the following days. After asking around a little bit I was successful and found a hostel that was a little more expensive but also a lot nicer and it had a kitchen.
 So the next day in the morning we moved with all our stuff and since Thomas was taking Spanish classes I had some time to wander around on my own. I spent some hours drawing, and in the afternoon we went to the market. At that point we were being joined by a French guy, who wasn't staying in our hostel but he spent a lot of time there with us. 
In my time in Sucre I also went to a museum, which had an anthropological section and an exhibition of Bolivian contemporary art. But most of the time I spent walking around, drawing or cooking. I had a good time there but at some point I just felt like there wasn't really any more to do for me, so I decided to move on to Potosi after a few days. At that point Thomas had also given up his Spanish classes, and so we continued to Potosi together.

Potosi
The bus ride from Sucre to Potosi wasn't that long and the landscape was worth being seen. 
When we got there we first had a little difficulty with orientation, but then found a bus from the terminal into direction of the center, where we started looking for a place to stay after a quite exhausting walk uphill for a couple of blocks. But we found a good place, and after dropping our stuff we went to explore the city a little bit.
Potosi is a medium-sized city at an altitude of about 4000 msnm. It has quite a heavy history, having once been one of the richest cities in South America because of the so called 'cerro rico', the 'rich mountain'. Working under the worst of conditions in the colonial times, the miners had made this city as rich as it used to be. They exploited mostly silver, but after years the mountain not only shrank,  but the silver veins disappeared, leaving the city with impressive churches and buildings but little else. 
The mines of the cerro rico are still active and working conditions have improved (most miners now work in cooperatives), and even tourists are being taken into the mountain to see and learn about its history and the miners' life. If you ask me, you can not only argue about the fact that tourists are being taken to a place where the workers suffer from severe illnesses after about 10 years of working, but also about how far working conditions REALLY have improved. The tunnels are as dark and claustrophobic as always and the walls are full of toxics, that you have to breathe in every step you take.
I was very sceptical about doing a tour like this but at the same time I found the intense, and still very present, history interesting. 
Since I couldn't make up my mind if I should do a tour or not, we spent our first morning at a hot spring called the 'ojo del inca' (eye of the inca), a perfectly round lake in the middle of the mountains with thermal water. Potosi was pretty fucking cold, but swimming in the warm water and then being exposed to the cold wind felt relaxing and cleansing.
And after a lot of thinking I finally decided to go for the mines tour in the afternoon. I made it to the agency just in time and landed in a multicultural group of four girls. Our guide was a miner himself, and it made me feel at least a little better that he didn't have to work in those terrible mines as long as there were tourists like us. 
I'd already heard from several people that visiting the mines is one of the memorable experiences in Bolivia, and I think they were right. It really was an intense experience - we spent nearly two hours inside the mines of the cerro rico. The only light that existed was the one from our headlamps - without them we were surrounded by the darkest of darkness. Some of the walls were covered in shades of blue, green and yellow, all of that making the already stuffy air not the healthiest to breathe. The ceiling of the tunnels was partly so low that we almost had to crawl and I hit my head several times (thank god we had helmets).
We met one working miner and all I'm going to say about that is, that I'm happy that we didn't meet any more. 
After those hours in the mines I definitely wasn't in the happiest of moods, but at the end I think I'm glad I did it. But at the same time I don't think I would do it again.
After the second freezing cold night in Potosi, we left for Uyuni on a Sunday morning.

Unyuni

laguna colorada

The road to Uyuni led through a marvelous mountain landscape and ended in a high, desert like flatland where the ugly town of Uyuni lay. It's one of those places that mainly exist for tourists, in that case because of the big salt desert 'Salar de Uyuni'. 
We got there some time in the afternoon, and after dropping our stuff at the first cheap hostel we found, we went to book a classic three-day-tour through the salar and surrounding desert/volcanic landscape. 
The tour started on the following day in the late morning hours and we ended up being in a group with two Japanese and two French. Age-wise we were completely mixed, ranging from a 63-year-old Frenchman being the oldest to me being the youngest with my 19 years. But during the following days we found out once more how unimportant age is when it comes to traveling and we all got along well, including our super friendly guide and driver.
After leaving Uyuni our first stop was the 'train cemetery', a place in the desert where they had just dumped their old iron trains. It looked cool, but also had something of a horror movie scenario. After that we drove into the salar, the probably most impressive part of the trip. We first visited the salt hotel (completely built out of salt, but not being used as a hotel anymore), where we also had lunch out of the back of our truck, looking at the endless white salt that surrounded us. 
Our next stop was an island in the middle of the salt desert, overgrown by huge cactus plants. At that point we really were in the middle of nothing but salt, only being able to make out some mountains in the far distance.
At the island we also had time to take our 'crazy pictures', and then moved on out of the salar to the village where we would spent our first night. Our hotel was nice, partly made out of salt as well, and we were accompanied there by a huge group of Coreans. The dinner was good and all of us passed out pretty early after having had a long day and two more in front of us.
On the second day we left earlier in the morning, because we had a long way to kill that day. We went south, stopping at lakes and big volcanic rock formations. We entered some national park, which was quite funny because the guard was still sleeping when we got there. We had to wake him up and out of the house came a sleepy, drunk guy, almost falling over his empty beer cans from the night before. 
Our lunch we had again out of the back of the truck, pretty much in the middle of nowhere. We made it down almost to Chile, visiting a turquoise-white lake at the bottom of a volcano which was half on the Bolivian, half on the Chilenean side.
Then we went back up north, passing some geysers, more rock formations and an active volcano. 
The place where we spent our second night was freezing cold and only existed as a lodging place for the tours. Which means that other than a couple hospedajes there was nothing there. The best thing about that was the night sky, which was incredibly beautiful.
On our last day we got up early in the morning and started to make our way back up to the town of Uyuni. We stopped at the Laguna Colorada, a kind of reddish lake with a ton of flamingos hanging around there, some more rock formations and other lakes. 
We got back to town some time in the afternoon, and I was ready to go back to La Paz and to Peru from there. But it shouldn't be that easy..
The first thing I found out was, that there were no buses leaving to La Paz because of a miners' strike. When I went to ask the bus company what's going on and to change my bus ticket if necessary, the office was closed. So I went to the ATM to get some cash. That didn't work. When I wanted to pay the internet where I had to go to check my bank account, my wallet was gone. Including my bus ticket, my bank card and the last 7 Bolivianos I had. Together with a police officer I went back to the bus agency's office to get my us ticket back. Luckily they were open, and even said that the bus would leave. But they weren't sure if it would really get to Oruro (the town where I had to stop before going to La Paz) and it was a night bus. It was still a better option than selling the bus ticket and being stuck in ugly Uyuni without money or anything. 
So I got on the bus, and it actually did arrive in Oruro in the middle of the night.

Oruro
When I got into the bus terminal, there was a guy selling tickets to La Paz. But when I asked him if the bus would actually get all the way to La Paz, he couldn't really give me an answer. And I still didn't have any money so I had to wait for the money exchange to open anyways (I had some Soles left). I made myself comfortable next to the police office and tried to sleep. Head on the backpack, on a freezing cold floor. 
Next to me was a couple, waiting for the morning to come. I talked with them a little bit and they were super worried about me. Before they left they borrowed me some money to get to La Paz. And bought me a warm drink, whatever the hell it was. 
When daytime finally came, I thought that the worst was over and that there had to be a bus to La Paz sooner or later. More later as I had to find out...the miners kept blocking the roads and no one knew when anything. So I spent my day at the marvellous Oruro bus terminal, waiting for something to change. Some time in the afternoon  met an Australian couple, with which waiting got a little easier. At least I could leave the terminal without my backpack and get something to eat.
Josh and Emma originally wanted to cross the border to the Chilenean coast, but the border was closed because of the earthquakes there. It was the same as going to La Paz: nobody knew anything, but everybody said that "soon there will be buses". Other than that not much exciting happened all day long. Until some one, first very quietly, and almost hard to hear, started selling tickets to La Paz. I almost couldn't believe it (and actually didn't until I arrived in La Paz), but apparently two buses just got in and the roads were more or less clear. I got more positive when, after a while, more and more bus companies started to sell their tickets, and was excited when the bus finally left. Only one more stop on the way to Peru!

La Paz
If you ask me, there was not a single sign of a road block all the way, and we arrived safely. Only that we didn't arrive at the bus terminal, but outside because "officially" there were still no buses. 
But I could wait inside for my couchsurfing host to pick me up, and while I was waiting I met another guardian angel, who gave me some money so I didn't have to change my Soles for one day. Or two, as my plans got delayed by a massive hangover and a lost camera.
More than that is not to say about my second visit to La Paz.

rest of bolivia pt. 1 - samaipata, cochabamba, toro toro

Since I was working in a bar in Rurre, it was clear that my last night there had to be celebrated. That led to me sleeping in way longer than planned, and then having to say goodbye to everybody with quite a hangover. But I made it to my flight in time (which wasn't that hard because it got delayed anyways) and spent an horrible hour on a small airplane above the wide and empty lowlands of Bolivia.
I was continuing my travels with an English guy, Scott, and after arriving in Trinidad we made our way to the bus terminal to find a night bus to Santa Cruz. We bought our tickets and had then a couple of hours in Trinidad, which we spent walking around. Fortunately I felt better by then, but there's pretty much nothing interesting in Trini.
The bus to Sta. Cruz was definitely not the best one in my life (I don't sleep that well with a drunk guy sitting behind me, coughing all night) but we made it.
Since I'd heard that Sta. Cruz isn't the nicest of places, all we did was find a taxi to the 'bus stop' from which we could go to the nice little town of Samaipata.
The taxi driver had no idea where to go, but he was nice and eventually he brought us to the right place. From there we took a shared taxi to Samaipata. It was a 3 hour ride, but I slept most of it, still suffering from my hangover.

Samaipata
When we got to Samaipata we were surprised how quiet it was. It kind of felt like there were no people there, and no busy life. Also all the streets around the main square were under construction, so there was no traffic at all ( not that one would need any kind of transportation in a place as small as this). It was easy to find the hostel, which was the place where I was supposed to be to work a month before, and after settling down we cooked some lunch and walked around the town. There was a 'mirador' (viewpoint) and several small, but fancy and European shops, and that was pretty much it.
I still didn't know what exactly I wanted to do in Samaipata and it took me a while to decide. But then I ended up going to some ruins called 'el fuerte', which were pretty impressive, and some beautiful waterfalls. I took a long walk above the waterfalls and was surprised how much it looked like Austria - I almost felt like I was in my home country.
My afternoons in Samaipata I spent with painting - the owners of the hostel saw my sketchbook the first day, and liked it, and offered me to paint something in exchange for a room. So I made a draft for a mural in the kitchen, and now there's my artwork on their wall (which is pretty cool). And i didn't have to pay for any of the nights I stayed there, including the delicious breakfast with whole wheat bread and fresh fruits.
But there really wasn't that much to do in Samaipata, and I was a little bit in a rush to travel the rest of Bolivia without overstaying my visa. So after a couple days of nice and quiet I felt like I was ready again for a big city - Cochabamba.

Cochabamba
To get from Samaipata to Cochabamba, without having to go back to Santa Cruz, was an interesting thing to do. First I had to go to an even smaller town than Samaipata called Mairana. The departure time of the bus changed depending on the person I asked, so I wanted to get there early. Luckily I caught a bus so I didn't have to take a taxi and arrived in Mairana super early. I found a restaurant that sold the bus tickets, but when I bought it I noticed that I was the only person on the bus. I had to wait for almost 2 hours, but no more people came within that time. When we left there was one other person with me in the back, and a whole family sitting in the driver's cabin of the bus. I was a little nervous, but along the way we collected and dropped off some more people and after some hours we arrived safely in Cochabamba. Since it was the middle of the night I could sleep on the bus until morning - that seemed like a great solution to me except that it was freezing cold.
When I got up my plan was to go first to the bus station to collect some information and a map of the city (that only got interrupted by a delicious breakfast on the street). I also had a good friend there, but since my phone had given up working in Rurre i couldn't get a hold of him.
I spent the early morning hours looking for a hostel with a reasonable price and after i finally found one i just dropped my bag there and left for the city.
The first thing I did, and one of the only things you can do in Cochabamba besides eating, is to walk up to their enormous Jesus statue which overlooks pretty much the whole city (it's even bigger than the one in Rio de Janeiro) Getting up there was more that exhausting, and the heat started to kill me. And since I had left everything at the hostel (which wasn't really a hostel, but more just a cheap place to crash) I didn't have to wait long for my sunburn.
At the top of the hill, and right next to Jesus' feet I met some guys that spoke German. It turned out that they were Swiss, German and Austrian, and they were the only white tourists I met in Cocha. After a while we decided to go and get lunch together, but that plan got interrupted by some Texan missionaries, from which I learned never to admit to speak English at the bottom of a giant Jesus and to people that wear 'I love Jesus'-shirts. What else they said I don't know, because my mind was too occupied with finding the fastest and least rude way to get away from them.
The way down was a lot better than the way up, and the next task was to find a public phone to call my friend. Usually you can find a phone on every corner but, of course, when you need one there are none.
After a while I found it though, and my friend agreed to meet us for lunch. He actually showed up on time, and I was super happy to see him because he reminded me of the good times I had in Rurre.
We had lunch at the market and then I split up with the German-speaking guys and David (my Bolivian friend) took me on a little tour through the city and its markets, including the place where the buses to Toro Toro leave. Until a week before that I had no idea that Toro Toro exists nor what it was. But a good friend of mine in Rurre told me about it and then I looked it up in a 2008 travel guide. It said something about the only house in town having electricity 24/7 was the church and buses leaving twice a week.
The reality in 2014 was a little different though, and when we got to the bus station a grand group of tourists awaited us. It turned out that buses now were leaving once or twice a day and it was an easy thing to say 'yes' to the plan of going there the next day.
I spent the evening at my David's house (mostly playing with his monkey Jack, which is his pet) and as Bolivians are they invited me to dinner, for which they served delicious homemade empanadas.
And as Bolivian guys are, David insisted on taking me back to my hostel safely and after finally getting there I passed out immediately after this long day.
The next morning I spent walking around and reading before getting lunch with David. After that we went to get my stuff and he brought me to the Toro Toro bus station.
My original plan was to find the German guy again because he had said he might come with me. But since I couldn't find their hostel, I thought I was going by myself after all and was quite surprised when Andi and Thomas suddenly showed up at the bus stop. It felt good and I was looking forward to this unexpected trip.

Toro Toro
The bus ride to Toro Toro werd about 5 hours on a bumpy road, but I had a lot of food with me and was in the middle of a good book so I didn't mind.
We stayed at the first place we found, which was basic but nice, and for a little extra money (which the owner forgot to charge us for in the end anyways) we could use the kitchen too.
Toro Toro seemed like a pretty dead place, especially after a big and busy city like Cochabamba, and at the hour of 9.30 pm it was impossible to find something to eat.
The next day we wanted to do a hike into the canyon, and since tourism is 'improving' rapidly we had to go with a guide. At first I was a little disappointed because I had expected Toro Toro being the kind of place where you can just go on your own, but then the tour was good and the guide showed us things which we definitely would have missed without him. Like the dinosaur tracks. And some ancient wall paintings. And he explained us a lot about the plants and how they were, and are, being used for medical purposes.
The hike itself was beautiful as well, and since we didn't meet any other people  we were just surrounded by the incredible silence of nature and our own noises. We also went down into the canyon to take a break and a swim at some beautiful waterfalls, before walking the exhausting steps back up.
The rest of the day we spend with buying food for dinner (the Toro Toro market is the emptiest I've seen in all my time in South America) and cooking, and reading.
On the following day we had planned to go to a place called 'cementario de tortugas' (turtle cemetary), this time on our own. The morning was slow because it rained, but when it stopped we started the short, but very nice walk to the 'cemetery'. The landscape in Toro Toro is quite interesting, because you're able to see all the lines and layers of the mountains' formation.
When we got to the cemetery, the only person there was a little  energetic girl. When she saw us she took us to the little museum, and then went to get her mom while we were looking around. The museum was new and it seemed like it still hasn't been all finished, but it showed some interesting information about the dinosaurs and mountains of the area. There were also some fossils including (what a surprise) turtles. But the best part about going there was the little girl's mom, an original Bolivian 'cholita', who the showed us around the place of the archaeological excavation. It was a hilly field of earth in different intense shades of red, where they had found multiple turtle fossils and were still discovering new ones. It was pretty impressive, if you ask me.
On the way back I once more noticed the many different colours the landscape here had, going through all shades of grey, green, purple and red. I loved it.
Back at our hostel everybody had a little alone time before we cooked again, had dinner on the rooftop and played cards.
This was our last night in Toro Toro and when we got up the next day we only went down to the river for a little bit before taking the bus back to Cochabamba.