I am back!

I am back from Peru and the experience still resonates in my mind and my heart.

Paracas beach

 I will tell you about each and every day of this trip - but please be patient if this takes some time. I want to remember each and every moment and write it down as accurate as possible adding some photos I took along the way.

These are the hard facts about the trip: We (my best friend and I) spent 21 days in Peru visiting 11 cities. We travelled almost 2500 miles - mostly by bus. We shot around 5000 (!) photos and I recorded 79 videos. We covered everything from sea level up to 5022 meters above sea level. The longest bus ride lastet 38 hours and we encountered avalanches, rock falls and flooded streets. We ate wonderful dishes and tried Alpacha. We went down the deepest canyon of the world - twice as deep as the grand canyon and we visited Machu Picchu - which for me was the most amazing experience ever.

Arequipa

We met wonderful people, slept in nice hotels, had just 2 days of rain and for the rest the most amazing weather ever. We never argued and laughed SO much all the time.

It was breathtaking, inspiring, exciting, emotional and definitely a journey we will always remember!

It's Happening

While the departure day gets closer, things are happening here. I'm meeting people with a message for me, coming across magazines that have articles I have to read and quotations others have made about their trip of a lifetime!

In this article I wanted to talk about some of those things and what I hope this journey will bring to me.

"I know well what I am fleeing from but not what I am in search of." - Michel de Montaigne

"The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes." Marcel Proust

"The hidden meaning of travelling is to be homesick." - Erich Kästner

"I'm looking at the earth. It is big and radiant and beautiful." Neil Armstrong

"...The great affair is to move; to feel the needs and hitches of our life more nearly; to come down off this feather-bed of civilisation, and finde the globe granite underfoot and strewn with cutting flints." - Robert Louis Stevenson

"Travel frees you to re-imagine yourself." - Alain de Botton

Those quotations describe perfectly, what I hope to find along the way. I  know - I should not expect too much as I could be disappointed. But I will definitely stay open to the discoveries and surprises our trip to Peru brings.

As I said in my first article on this blog, I've had the vision of me being there 7 years ago. That vision has accompanied me every since and I've always felt the urge to follow my intuition and visit that country.

Now that it's almost happening, I am excited. I don't know who I will meet, I don't know what I will see and I definitely don't know what I will feel.

I want to free my mind of those things that held me back in the past and I hope to find a piece of myself again...realizing what person I am, what needs I have, if and how my future plans fit with what I'm supposed to do - not what I THINK I need to do.

In a few weeks I will have to pack my backpack which itself will be very exciting. But what I think is even more exciting: I have to my spiritual bag and get ready mentally. It will hopefully be a time when I can leave everything at home...no thinking about problems, work, difficulties or so.

There's a song I wrote some time ago which describes it perfectly! It's called "Fly" and you should definitely watch this video!

I will fly...and this is what excites me the most!

Three weeks left

Miraflores/Lima

I can't believe it - but when I started to create this blog and to post the first articles, I never thought the time would fly this quick. Now it's only three more weeks before we leave for Peru.

We will be spending the first two nights in Lima in the Miraflores area to check out the city and it's nightlife.

Macchu Picchu

After that we will follow the coastline direction south until - after a few stops I guess - we reach the Lake Titicaca and its floating isles - the "Uros" and the town Copacabana. Maybe there is time for a short trip to La Paz/Bolivia too. 

Lake Titcaca/Uros

On the way we will take a flight to observe the Nazca Lines by plane...which is going to be very exciting I guess.

Our route will then take us back to the north via the Andes to visit cities like Iquitos and Cuzco where we will visit Macchu Picchu. We also plan to do a trip into the jungle but we will see how it goes when we're there. We didn't want to plan every step on beforehand but take things as they come along.

The whole trip will take 3 weeks and I'm getting more and more excited about it. The whole gear is in place and I got everything I will need during these three weeks. I will take my cam along to capture every moment of this journey but still - I decided to take a three-weeks-break from things like telephone, internet and e-mail.

I want it to be a whole new experience taking the time to get to know myself, to become clear about my future plans and to learn how to make my dreams come true. Yes - it is in deed going to be a very spiritual experience.

The Nazca Lines

Another thing I have planned to do is to learn spanish and I think that's the best occasion to do so. I already started to do some training with friends who teach me a lot. And being forced to speak spanish will hopefully inprove my language skills even more.

I don't know if my next article will be online before or after the trip because I won't be able to update the blog along the way. Anyhow - stay tuned for a detailed article on that. :-)

Trip Preparations

1. The bagpack

I chose the Deuter Air Contact Pro 60+15. I would suggest that you visit the sports and outdoor equipment store you trust and try on some bagpacks. It's important that it's comfortable, handy to use, not too big nor too small and that it has a reasonable price. For my purpose the Deuter is perfect. It comes with a lot of practical feauters like rain cover, compartments for drinking systems, it's extendable and very comfy. I paid something like 230 $ which is ok.

2. The shoes

I would say that the shoes are the most important piece of equipment you will need for such a tour. Don't save on good shoes cause you will be spending weeks in them and have them on for several hours a day. They should be comfortable, strong, support your feet and give you good grip on every underground you come across. I chose the Lowa Kody GTX II Mid. It's a trekking shoe and suitable for flat and slightly rocky underground. As I'm not planning to hit the mountains in terms of climbing, it's the perfect shoe to go for. It's around 180 $. I suggest you get good outdoor socks - which by the way are the only way to control the tempreature in such a shoe. The shoe is made of a Goretex material and thus very respiratory - anyhow...the right sock makes sure you don't sweat too much or it will keep you warm in higher regions. Ask your retailer - he'll be happy to help you on that matter.

3. A knife

You will spend a lot of time outside on a backpacktour - so I believe that a good knife will be very useful. For me it was important to get a small, lightweight and flexible knife. I chose the Gerber Remix foldable knife. It's small, made of aluminium and has a serrated blade as you can see on the picture.

4. Clothes

Space is the only thing you don't have on a backpack tour cause you don't want to carry around a heavy bagpack. So you need to cut back on the clothing you take with you and choose wisely. What I take with me is 3 tee's, 6 briefs, 3 pairs of socks (2 for warm temperatures, one for cold temperatures), a hat to protect your head from the sun, a thermo shirt for the mountains, 2 pairs of outdoor pants with zipper to take off half of the legs, a raincoat. If there's anything else you need, you can still get it at your destination. And to be honest - I'm really looking forward to get one of those alpaca wool pullovers they sell there. :-)

5. A moskito net

As we'll be spending nights in the jungle or nearby a lake, a moskito net is definitely a must-have. I got one from a friend which is very small and lightweight.

6. The first aid kit

You never know what might happen - so I think it's wise to take some medicine. A few basic things like aspirine or paracetamols, something against diarrhea, patches for small wounds, desinfectant, insect repellent and not to forget: the vaccinations you should get beforehand! These would be Hepatitis A and B, yellow fever, tetanus, polio and typhus. Talk to your doctor to find out about that.

I think that's all for now. I will add things if I can think of more. If you have any questions - feel free to ask! :-)

Travel plans are getting more precise

After not posting for a long time there's finally some news about our trip to Peru.

We finally decided about when to go. We will be flying to Lima/Peru on the 9th of January and fly back on the 29th of January.

Lan Airlines

We decided to cut back on the duration and to keep it simple: Only basic hotels and guest houses, economy class tickets for all flight sectors and there has been a change in the routing. We won't be flying via Caracas/Venezuela but we decided to take Bogota/Columbia since this is more convenient as Lufthansa has a direct connection departing from Frankfurt/Germany which takes us there in 12 hours.

It's going to be an adventure flying with Avianca and Lan Airlines in South America since I've never used any other Airline outside the EU. The flight will take 15 hours in total and after that we will be spending one or two nights in Lima to familiarize with the public transport system and of course take some time to get to know the city.

Avianca Airlines

After that our trip will take us to the coastline of Peru all the way down to the Lake Titicaca from where we'll be taking a national flight to the north to continue our journey. We are currently working on the waypoints - which spots we absolutely need to see like Macchu Picchu, the Lake Titicaca, the Urus - floating islands on the Lake Titicaca and so on. Once we figured it out I will post up a map with all of those spots.

I am so excited right now cause it really starts to come together. We will soon get the tickets and send in our vacation planning. Once this is done we can think about getting all the stuff together.