Travel Report Peru 2016
Apr 11, 2016
Peru – Machu Picchu, Incas and Ayahuasca
As part of my first South American stay, we decided to travel through Peru and Bolivia for 2 weeks. In late February, we flew from Asuncion to Cusco, a city high in the Peruvian Andes and near the famous Inca city of Machu Picchu.
The pictures below were taken at Lake Titicaca, where we stopped for two days before we drove on to Bolivia. We took a boat to one of the many islands and did a long hike there. The inhabitants of the island live mainly from tourism (how could it be otherwise ?!) and the sale of clothing made from alpaca wool. This wool is considered particularly high quality and is many times more expensive in Europe than in Peru. One of the pictures shows a brown alpaca sheep.
Peru – Quad Tour
In Peru, there are countless opportunities to pass the time as a tourist. We opted for a guided quad tour. For the equivalent of 60 €, we could on technically more or less well-preserved vehicles (if I wanted to drive straight, I had to turn the handlebars to the left), we could speed for 5 hours on trails, trails, fields, and mountains. An impressive experience that ended with a visit to a salt mine. The third picture shows how we looked after the tour.
Peru – Ayahuasca
Ayahuasca, one of the strongest psychedelic drugs that nature has to offer. In Cusco, you will find almost every corner of the house a billboard on the so-called Ayahuasca retreats, with more or less well-trained “shaman” are offered. Tourists can participate in a meeting for between 60 € – 90 €, which we did of course. Ayahuasca is a viscous substance cooked from a particular liana found in the Peruvian jungle.
Already, the Incas used this “drug” to get closer to the gods. This happens through the release of DMT in the brain, which normally only happens twice in a person’s life: At birth and at death. An unforgettable experience whose further description would go beyond the scope of this article.
Peru – Machu Picchu
The visit of the Inca cities Machu Picchu I had imagined differently. We were picked up at Cusco at 3 am with a shared taxi, had to get on a train at 7 o’clock and arrived at 9 o’clock in the completely tourist flooded Machu Picchu village (Machu Picchu Pueblo). From there, we took the bus up to the mountain, where one of the 7 wonders of the world, the ancient Inca city, Machu Picchu, is located. That it has rained all day is easy to recognize in the pictures.
On the whole, it was interesting to have been there, but due to the bad weather, many people and the high price for this trip (all together for just under 200 €), the whole action was rather disappointing in the end.
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