After a 30 hours journey (instead of 19!) we finally made it to Lima, the place where it all begins...4 months of travelling, exploring and just being. Trying to catch up with some sleep, adjusting to an 8 hour time difference and taking in the beautiful and hot weather is enough to keep you busy for at least one day. But not long and we had our explorer spirit back and set off to get to know our district: Barranco a bohemian and arty area near the beach, some 20 minutes outside of Lima. We absolutely loved to stay in this area and in this small hotel Barranco Boutique Bred and Breakfast with the most friendly staff in the whole world. Then we went downtown and had a great but exhausting time in the City Center. Things to do in Lima: Take the Metro, it's fun and we were usually the only tourist.(Only got lost once) Climb the tower of the Convent Santo Domingo. Eat on a sort of market place behind the convent lots of choices of Latin American food. Go to the Water Park and take in the great atmosphere. Children here seem to be much more content than in Europe. There were hundreds of children on that evening and I only heard one or two cry for a short while. Will we find out on our trip why this is so? Do some serious shopping (as we left quite in a rush we forgot so many things, including the Malaria tablets, never mind I have only got 3 mosquito bites so far...) Eat cheap Chinese food at our local Chinese store (and pick up some tummy bugs), drink lots of coke to get rid of the bugs, jog along the beach (only Robert managed to do that I was trying to relax and not do anything healthy), and be amazed about how they celebrate Christmas here, with lots of kitsch and blimblim. Overall get into the holiday spirit. Not to forget of course the amazing New Year's Eve. We booked tickets for a concert at La Noche, a trendy club in our area. Just a bit afterwards we got an invite to go to a beach in the South with some local people.Never mind we stuck to our initial plan and didn't regret it. It was a wonderful concert with U2, Depeche Mode, The Cure cover band, which of course also played some Latin American songs in between. Breakfast on the terrace the next morning felt great it's a first timer: I have never experienced such a hot New Year's morning. This was indeed a promising start into the New Year. Therefore happy New Year everyone! (With an eight hour delay of course...) PS: My New Year's resolution: Post regularly on this blog:) And what is yours?

"Life starts today". We took this advertising slogan by VISA to heart and did a lot of stuff during the last few days since we left Lima with the luxurious 'Ittsa' bus (never have we experienced a more comfortable bus before). Huanchaco is the surfer's paradise and as we were quite impressed by their skills and courage we had to give it a go. Of course we chose Peru's most talented surf teacher Chico for our first surfing lesson. Who else would have given us the guarantee: Either you stand (on the surf board) or you don't pay. All I can say is that we both paid and had a lot of fun.The next day we met the owner of a very cool jazz bar in Trujillo. His father turned out to be the famous Peruvian artist Gerrardo Chavez, who lived between Trujillo and Paris. So before we knew we were heading out of town with a taxi to go to the Museum of Modern Art. Surprise, surprise there are only pictures by Gerrardo, who was also clearly inspired by Picasso and the like. The combination with Peruvian influences made his paintings an interesting discovery. In the marvelous "hacienda" next to the museum were also a few sculptures by other artists. Then we were recommended to go on a trip to Otuzco. Once in the shared bumpy mini bus sneaking up the curvy road I thought, who on earth would choose to go on such a crazy trip? Robert was busy listening to his headphones so I couldn't bother him with my sinister thoughts. But I comforted myself with the thought that it was Sunday, therefore the perfect day to go to a major pilgrimage sight in this area. My Spanish is still too basic to attend a mass. Once up there in Otuzco we quickly realised that we were the only gringos in this mountain village with pilgrimage flair (this is how it must have looked like in Europe during Zwingli's time, I'm thinking). So we joined the stream of people heading to the Cathedral to touch the virgin (not Mary, another one), who has supposedly healing power. It was a surprisingly spiritual experience, we lit our candle (never mind that the health and safety standards were certainly not met) and the men in charge even invited me to go underneath what was probably a healing blanket. So I have great hope that finally I will not die of Dengue fever (since you ask: Yes I was worried at one point as feeling quite feverish, silly me). We rounded this experience up with a long walk into the mountains (at about 2600 m) and enjoyed the friendliness of the people, the cute kittens and the scenic route. It felt a bit like being in Switzerland just with more colorful houses and less snow. So overall we had a great time in Huanchaco, also thanks to our room with view onto the sea. But we don't want to forget the main reason, why we came here, which is not surfing, nor going on a pilgrimage, but FairMail. We wanted to get to know this Fairtrade organisation, whom we are going on a trek with for the next 10 days. We have already met the teenagers, who take the pictures for the great cards they produce. Here is the link to their website: http://www.fairmail.info It is very inspiring to learn about their work and to see how the teenagers' lives have improved thanks to that project. So for the next few days we will be without internet and we will be exploring the North of Peru, which we really very much look forward to.So we say goodbye for the moment and hasta luego until we are back again in civilization with internet and cappuccinos.

Embarking on a four months long trip might seem like a ticket to never ending happiness. Unfortunately this is not always the case (although onecan definitely say that the amount of happiness is significantly higher on a Monday morning having breakfast on the terrace instead of commuting to work). But why do I mention this? One impressive experience that we had with the teenagers on our FairMail trip was the different reactions we showed to the showers in a hostel in Huanchaco. Whereas Robert and I were silently moaning about how little hot water there was and how simple and old the kind of shabby room was, one of the boys came out of his room beaming with joy, because he probably has had his first hot shower ever. In the home where he and another teenager on the trip normally live they never have hot showers, not even in winter. So it all depends on the perspective of course and when coming from a very high standard as we all do in Europe it is sometimes difficult to go back to the basics. And the trip with FairMail was kind of basic but also a happy one. We visited many places, Kuelap with its 1200 years old fortress being the most touristy one. How impressive to stand there and to take in the history of this place. In general it is fascinating to discover the history of this land and its people. The visit to the Leymebamba museum revealed 219 mummies staring at us, as if we were the odd once and not them. Who would have thought that the people living in this remote area of Chachapoyas preserved the dead bodies as well as the Egyptians, so that they didn't rot despite the climate being so humid. We discover here world of elaborate religious ceremonies, much advanced handicraft and even a sort of font with knots, which is unfortunately not accessible to us today. As most parts of Peru they were conquered twice: Once by the Incas and a second time by the Spaniards. The Incas added some tools connected with the profession of the dead to the mummies and from the time of the Spanish conquerors they found a simple Christian cross. So who knows, maybe a Spanish might be buried there as well. On the other hand we spent quite a lot of time with taking pictures or better letting the teenagers take pictures that might hopefully one day turn into postcards. At first I needed a bit of time to adapt to the rather slow pace on our trip due to that, but then I discovered that in that slowness lies beauty too. One funny experience was when one of the teenager translated the instructions for the next day into Spanish. Whereas in English it sounded like: We have breakfast at 7.30 am and then we leave at 8.00am to leave for Kuelap, where we will spend two hours. He spontaneously inserted in front of every information about time "mas o menos" (more or less), which explains everything... In the end we also had the opportunity to learn more about the art of taking pictures and to discover the possibilities my new LUMIX camera offers. One day we made a so called “stopmotion film” with the teenagers. This means to create a film by adding a series of pictures to turn them into a film. Robert had a brilliant idea to make a romantic film about two flowers (for teenagers in South America everything has to be romantic!) and could enthuse 4 of the group (including me) to join him. The result is a rather sweet little film, which we will share soon on the blog. For me too (Robert writing :) ) this stopmotion movie was a new and fascinating experience: the teenagers were really creative and we finally got in the few hours we had for it already a quite presentable result! “Chevere”! (that means 'cool' here :) ! Just a little afterthought for Kuelap: one of the highlights for me was the streneous 4.5 hours walk up from the valley to the Kuelap fortress at 3000 meters. We were rewarded for our huge effort in the burning sun by the silence of the nature and the beautiful panorama! Another chapter about happiness which Nathalie didn't mention are the warm birthday wishes she got getting out from the bus in Chachapoyas, the morning of the 10th january. The teenagers prepared a big 'Happy Birthday' banner and we sang in choir the traditional birthday song. In the evening we had for this occasion a vegetarian dinner – quite something special here where we eat normally chicken or trout or trout or chicken... For the last part of our trip with FairMail we then drove up a curvy landroad in a sidevalley south of Chachapoya, heading for Cocachimba. A fantastic 360degree panorama of high peaks surrounded us, mountains cut in absolutely amazing sharp shapes and very steep cliffs. Minute after minute we could see new waterfalls falling down from all sides. And as a final highlight getting to see one of the highest waterfalls in the world: the Gocta Falls – splitted in 2 subsequent falls with a total height of 771 meters. Really impressive! The next day, after an overnight in Cocachimba in a very basic lodge but run by such friendly people we got on our walking trek to the falls, going deeper and deeper into the valley on a narrow path. Awesome vegetation surrounding us with impressive plants and trees and a high degree of humidity – a junglelike feeling just luckily without too many annoying insects. The impressive Gocta falls coming closer and closer. Simply breathtaking when we finally arrived at the base of the falls where the endless water splashes into a small lagune creating a big cloud of vapor! Wow! I wanted actually to have a swim but I have to admit that I had to give up as the water and weather were freezing cold! It is in this beautiful scenery that our FairMail trip took an end and wher e we had to say goodbye to all our new young Peruvian friends as well as to Peter and Janneke (the founders of FairMail) and to Marlies (another participant from Holland). It wasn't easy to say goodbye as we had such a good time with them. We are now on the way to Ecuador where our first destinations will be to see the national parc Podocarpus and after that the city of Cuenca. More about Ecuador in our next post.

Southern Ecuador – The cloud forests (Robert) Our border crossing PeruEcuador was indeed a real adventure and I'll surely not forget for a while the buspushing in the pouring rain in the middle of the night on a muddy and steep mountain road! But we finally made it and were rewarded with the discovery of the beautiful southern region of Ecuador. Beautiful mountains around us with superb vegetation as the climate is quite humid. One day we hiked up to 3000 meters in the National park Podocarpus and got to know why this region is called the “cloud forests”: from a certain height we had to make our way up a steep path in a very dense, humid and cloudy forest. Quite a tough hike considered the fact that the parksupervisor did not give any warnings. We also had to conceive once again that the time estimations for the treks are considerably underestimated here. Never mind: we had a great adventure and were quite proud of our achievement! Few days later, we had a further great adventure in the south of this wonderful natural reserve: from Vilcabamba we hiked up the steep mountains on a horseride!! A firsttime experience for me which was just fantastic! I had a young and very fit horse and managed him quite well, even getting the pleasure of some "galloping" in the river and on the fields! What a great feeling! I am really looking forward to repeating that experience... Maybe in Argentina... Let's see! Kandersteg and Vilcabamba comparable towns? (Nathalie) Just one last anecdote about Vilcabamba, which is a little town that has been selected by hippies and retired Americans to be the place to spend the rest of their lives. It is a truly marvelous place, surrounded by mountains, the National park and the purest water you may find anywhere in Latin America (we drank it from the tap). But in the evenings you hear overweight Americans order pizzas and caipirinhas in English although their yellowish skin tells you that they have been living there for a long long time. The hippies came either for a vegeterian guru or maybe for some drugs and somehow stayed. Quite a few of them bringing up their blond children in this little village. All of a sudden it dawned to me that this place could be easily compared to let's say Kandersteg. Just imagine how the locals would react if a group of hippies decided to stay and buy land there and then there would be a report on television about how amazing the quality of life was in Kandersteg, which resulted in many Americans buying even more land and building villas with exotic gardens. Well I don't think we Swiss would ever be as tolerant as the people from Vilcabamba, which seem to just go with the flow. Of course the dollars keep flowing in...

Cuenca is a stunning Unesco World Heritage town. We had a great time staying at the lodge "La Cigale" and meeting up with fellow travellers. And now "la cerise sur le gateau": we are off to Galapagos for 10 days and we are extremely looking forward to that.

We can't tell much about Guayaquil as we avoided the town but the promising sign at the airport doors says everything. We heard several times that some areas of the city aren't really safe. So we just stayed 1 night in a hotel close to the airport in order not to miss our plane to Galapagos. Full of expectations about the promising adventure ahead of us. PS by Nathalie: This is also the place where my phone got stolen. So I have lost all my contact numbers etc and only have your email addresses. Please don't try to contact me via my old phone number as it is not working any longer.

The dream once to visit Galapagos has become real and I would surely recommend to anyone who have this dream to make it happen! What one gets to see and live here is simply unique and overwhelming. Most impressive is that most of the animals are really docile: they let you get really close and do not seem at all bothered by your presence. Best examples here are the iguanas and the sea lions: thousands of them live on and around the islands. The Galapagos islands are their home? we humans feel here really just like simple visitors. Unfortunately – despite this feeling – intensive tourism and growing civilization impacts the natural reserve. Indeed the islands are more and more civilized by Ecuadorian since around 1925. People grow and live up here, build houses, work either as fishermen, farmers, taxidrivers (water or car) or in tourism (hotel, gastronomy, guide). Still 97% of the Galapagos area is still considered as national parc. But the marriage of humancivilization to the exceptional fauna and flora remains in my eyes the big challenge. It is known that through humancivilization – and essentially through the import of foreign species like pigs, dogs and cats several endemic species have been strongly impacted and came close to extinction. One example among others is Lonesome George the last male giant turtle of its specie which died in June last year. Thus the challenge remains: how to get to a harmonic living of men together with the local fauna and flora? Laws are in place and this is certainly absolutely critical. In my eyes the local authorities should really try even harder to have this rules being strictly followed. I have heard a lot about the Galapagos Islands even since childhood as my dad traveled there more than 30 years ago (he went by boat from the mainland, which took 3 days one way!). So for me to finally make it there was a dream come true. And it is indeed a fantastic place on this planet. The Bishop of Lima who discovered the Islands at the beginning of the 16th century thought that God didn't love this part of the world as there was no drinking water to be found and very few things to eat. But now we look at this place as a truly blessed place where nature is unique in its diversity and beauty. After Robert's analysis I just want to give an overview on what we did and maybe some tips for other backpackers.Arrival on Galapagos: Be prepared to pay $100/person in cash at the airport for the National Park they don't accept credit card. So we used our last money, arrived at Puerto Ayora, tried to pull cash from the ATM without success, starving as we were went to the first restaurant accepting Visa Cards, only to be told that the system has broken down a few days ago and that they are not able to accept cards as payment. Well, it wasn't a very happy moment. So fellow traveler please bring enough cash onto the Islands. In the end we managed to pull money and everything was fine. Accommodation: There is a rule on the Islands that only locals can buy land and run a business. I'm sorry to say that this has quite an impact for backpackers. I think when you are travelling in the luxury category you are fine, but as backpacker you have limited choices. We first stayed at The Best Home Stay, run by an American (married to a woman from Galapagos) this was fine and he is very friendly and helpful. It is though a bit out of town. We then changed to Hotel Espana first night and morning without hot shower. But they did fix the problem in the end. We then tried the New Elisabeth Hotel, which was everything else but new, but the cheapest one on the Island ($35 a double room), but the shower gave electric shocks. So we quickly changed back to the Hotel Espana, which we thought in the end it was fine. The lady in charge even gave me a free tea and some cucumber slices to cure my burnt lips. In general there is a big difference of how tourists are being treated on Galapagos Islands compared to the Mainland. It is a normal and quite understandable thing to happen as soon as a place gets bombarded with tourists and the locals get fed up with them or try to take advantage. But in the end we were there to enjoy the amazing wildlife and nature, which was really as great as everyone says and we had an amazing unforgettable time. To explore the various islands you have basically two options: Island hopping or book a cruise. We didn't book anything ahead as this is clearly the cheapest (but also the most unpredictable) option. But once on Santa Cruz you get an impression on what you want to do. We decided to go for a cruise on a simple and small Catamaran Boat for a 5 day trip, packed our bags, went to San Cristobal and when we were there got a phone call by Jorge from Joybe Tours that the boat had a problem with the motor and that we couldn't go on the tour. Needless to say that we were really disappointed. Back on Santa Cruz we booked two other things with him and more incidents happened. So we really don't recommend the agency Joybe Tours! But despite all of this we had a fantastic time. I list some of the things below: Snorkeling on San Cristobal was the best I have ever done, better than many dives. At times there were 5 giant water turtles around us and we saw an octopus, lots of big and small fishes and Robert even swam with a sea lion.Then in another bay we could swim with the sea lions which was really great. They generally love to play and swim with human beings, but it is important to keep a good distance and not to touch them. Snorkeling at Leon Dormido, where we saw Galapagos sharks and different types of sting rays (three white ones in a row), was very impressive too. Sometimes there are hammer sharks as well. Unfortunately not when we were there. A trip to Isabela is a must. It rained all the way on the 5 hours walk to Sierra Negra, but it was still fantastic. My fist time on a volcano although sleeping it can come to life any time.:) And then rent a bike and discover the Island on your own. We found a beautiful lagoon and had a swim and of course there are always lots of birds to watch. If you want to see the endangered land iguanas and birds nesting then Seymour is a great idea. The sun was burning onto us and seriously I have never experienced a sun so strong. Although we had been warned and applied sun lotion several times we burned our backs when swimming at Tortuga bay, so one must be extremely careful. Tortuga bay is a good 45 minutes walk each way. And there is hardly any shade on that walk and no one selling water or ice cream once you get there. So be prepared to bring a lot of water and everything else you need. This is a good example of what is so beautiful about Galapagos. You get to this most wonderful beach only by walking and there are no sunbeds, nor shops selling ice cream or alcohol. Just iguanas (the real owners of that place) and a guy who rents canoes. I personally have never before experienced anything like this. Although Galapagos is of course very touristy there are places like this one. This and the unique nature is what I shall never forget.

After the fabulous stay on the Galapagos Islands we were really looking forward to discovering Ecuador's mainland and especially the mountains. Our first stop was Alausi, a little mountain village famous for being the starting point of the very steep trainline known as 'Nariz del diablo'. In the past Ecuador had a train going all the way from Quito to Riobamba, passing through Alausi and the 'Nariz del Diablo'. Today only a few parts of this route are still in function. Sad that such a big investment from the past could not be maintained! We heard that there are ideas or projects to rebuild the whole trainline but we are a bit sceptical if this really will ever happen and if that could become a valid alternative to cars? Anyway, the Alausitour was for us in the end a bit touristy but still worth it!

On our road further north, Banos invited us for a relaxing longer stay. This little city in a valley and at the foot of the vulcano Tungurahua is famous for its thermal baths, for nice walks and for the discovery of the multiple cascades along the way north especially the last impressioning cascade called Pailon del diablo. Our hostel in Banos 'Jardin de Marianne' was a beautiful place to rest. The manager Patrick is a Swiss romand from Lausanne and is so sympathic. We had a fabulous time and were happy to experience the colorful carneval festivities there as well.After Banos we wanted to live an experience in the Amazonas as we were quite close. We went to Puyo and from took from there a 1day tour into the Selva. This turned out to be a supertouristy thing with a visit to a indigenecommunity which seemed to us absolutely lifeless and simply living on the expectation of tourismincomes... After this frustrating tour we were really looking forward to the next station: the promising treks in Quilotota.

The trek around Quilotoa known as Quilotoa Loop turned out to be a highlight of our visit of Ecuador. We stayed in Latacunga in the hostal Tiana a backpacker hostel which was the ideal place to start the hike. We got all the needed information about the hike and could organize us very well. Letting our big luggage in the hostal, with just the necessary stuff for 3 days, we started our tour: - bus to Isinlivi - overnight stay (on the way there we went to the market of Saquisili early on Thursday morning, which was fascinating) hike Isinlivi to Chugchilan - overnight stay (6 hours) hike Chugchilan to Quilotoa - around the crater lake - bus back to Latacunga (7 hours) A fantastic journey! Read more details about it in the next post.

This being an honest blog we also want to be open about things that are not so easy when going on such a long trip. Recently things went a bit differently than expected and it wasn't always easy to keep up the good mood. Our new camera got stolen upon arrival in Quito (so no more flower pictures, I'm afraid) and this also gave us the first experience with the Ecuadorian police. With the camera also went sunglasses and a first aid kit. I wonder what the guys do with our precious Blistex and earplugs... since the incident we were on a mission to find new earplugs in Ecuador, where people seem to enjoy any type of noise no matter day or night. Wherever we ask for earplugs we only get funny looks like they are pitying us that we need such a weird thing. To the current day we are still not a 100%sure whether earplugs are called "tampones" or "tapones" in Spanish . Well maybe that's where the looks came from as we were pointing at our ears saying: "tampones". Then I got pretty bad food poisoning in Otavalo, which I carried with me for a few days. This definitely didn't help to cheer me up...maybe I have learnt by now that eating tuna anywhere else than in a really good restaurant is NOT a wise thing (Robert happily keeps on eating his burgers and never catches any bug). One day just after another disappointment (I won't go into details here), we were sitting in a little park in Lima, eating our sandwiches and silently I kept telling myself: You just have to think positive and things will turn round. And in this very second a huge pigeon dirt landed on my shoulder, my back and all over my only pretty summer dress. This was so comical that I really had to laugh out loud. What an insult on the whole positive thinking culture! So we decided that we need a holiday from our holiday (I know this sounds probably hedonistic, but that's how we felt). So we spent 3 days just relaxing in Lima, where the weather was simply great. One day we didn't even leave the hostel, that's how tired we were. And we went to Starbucks and Pinkberry every day. And we took no photos and even talked about our next holiday in Switzerland. And it all helped us to chill out and find back to our explorer spirit. Looking back onto our last part of the Ecuador trip we realise how much we experienced and probably that's why we are so exhausted. The highlight was clearly the Quilotoa Loop, a three day trek on which we carried a small backpack and followed a route as described by the Hostel "Tiana" in Latacunga (recommended especially if you would like to go trekking). In the two hostels on the way we were each time the only tourists, because it is low season right now, but also this is still not a very touristy route. In the Llullu Llama hostel in Isinlivi we had superb food but no water in the shower in the morning. In the hostel Mama Hilda in Chugchilan in we had a wonderful American sort of shower, and typical Ecuadorian food. So all together a good mix. We climbed in total an estimated 1400 meters of altitude difference and finally made it up to the highest point of 4200 meters to the crater of the Quilotoa volcano. What a superb view this was a real treat, which I shall never forget. At times I was struggling to hike so high up but luckily Robert offered to carry my backpack for a part of the hike, otherwise we might still be there by now. In Quito, which we experienced as quite hectic (to say the least), we went on a guided tour in the old town arranged by the tourist office and we can recommend that. From friends we heard that the night tours might even be better. And yes, we bumped into people whom we had met at the Izchcayluma in Vilcabamba and we went out with them which was really a lot of fun! By the way we stayed at a great hostel in Quito, run by a Swiss Romand, called "Auberge Inn", which we highly recommend. After Quito we went to Otavalo. A beautiful place, where we did a half day hike to the Parque de Condores to watch a bird show. It was impressive, but there remains the mixed feeling about seeing birds attached to strings. Of course otherwise we would have never had the chance to see those beautiful animals from so close. Luckily there we met two American Ladies who were great fun and gave us a lift down to Otavalo. Otherwise we would have had to walk all the way down for another two hours. So sometimes we are lucky!

And here we were about midtime of our trip back to starting point. Time to relax a bit in the nice district of "Miraflores" and also to plan the next few promising weeks ahead of us. We look forward for the mysteries of Nazca, the breathtaking landscapes of Colca Canyon, a sunrise over Machu Pichu and are full of expectations to discover Bolivia... The adventure goes on...

On the bus to Nasca we met Lisa from Germany who told us about the Paracas Islands, known as the Galapagos Islands for the poor. It all sounded fantastic and as we have been travelling for a while we have become quite poor in the meantime, so this sounded just right for us. So instead of going to Nasca as planned we hopped off the bus and went to the hostel to which Lisa guided us. What a cool place with lots of young people and a kitchen where we could cook spaghetti of course. This also gave us some extra time in the sun before heading towards the rainy Andes again. In this hostel we met another couple from Switzerland and they gave us so many tips for our future travels that we hardly have to worry about anything anymore. Paracas Islands are worth a trip, although of course nothing compared to the Galapagos Islands. We saw tons of sea lions (not seals! and now we know why, because sea lions make such an awful noise it could be lions without any sense of music) and uncountable birds. If you are short of time you can easily skip Paracas. Although you will miss some great sunsets and some wildlife. Hostel that we recommend: Paracas Backpackers' House.

Now being so close to Nasca we didn't want to miss out on seeing the mysterious figures and lines and to hear possible interpretations from an expert. But having heard that one of 100 of those little planes that fly over the lines crashes, we decided it was probably wise to opt for the land tour. Nathalie was really proud that she managed to bring down the price of the tour from 100 Soles to 50 Soles per person. That is her biggest haggling achievement so far. The lines remain mysterious and we were secretly wondering whether Peru Tourist office had painted them in a cloakanddagger operation. One of the best things we did in Nasca was to buy a ticket at a 5* Hotel so we could spend the afteroon chilling and swimming in the pool (Hotel Nasca Lines, 25 Soles/person including a sandwich). Somehow we picked up that sandboarding in the Ica desert would be great fun. Robert asked Nathalie beforehand: "Are you sure you want to go on a rallye in the desert?" and she responded: "No problem!" Only when we were racing down the sandy dunes in an open racing car, called buggy, she got really really scared and couldn't stop screaming (the VERY adventurous neighbour looked quite annoyed). But we both managed to stand on our sandboards and it felt like snowboarding in slow motion. Snow underneath your board is definitely much more fun. But the adrenaline rush is a little bit bigger in the sandy dunes. Surprisingly it also healed our stomach problems, well at least for the first hour thereafter. And the pictures from the desert are great don't you think?

At first glance Arequipa didn't seem very special to us but in the end we extended our stay and discovered some very nice restaurants/cafés and enjoyed a bit of modern citylife we had great fun doing some clothshopping. After wearing the same cloths for 2 months we couldn't stand our look any more, so this change was very welcome and made us feel like a new chapter on our trip had started (look for the blue trousers on the pictures:)) Then we headed for Colca Canyon. The route by bus was awesome: it climbs slowly up the mountains and reaches at the top a pass where we experienced the first snow here in Latin America this made us think about winter at home. And then, wow the Canyon and the terassed hills in front of us. What a beautiful landscape simply breathtaking! Also breathtaking was the hotel that we had chosen: the ColcaLodge, close to Yanque. A superbe hotel with its own thermal sources and a spa where we had a wonderful stay. (This was promised holiday from the holiday). Colca Canyon is a beautiful and spectacular hiking paradise. One could easily spend a whole week there and go each day on a new hiking adventure. We enjoyed our first hiking day a lot nearly alone in this splendid nature. Unfortunately due to heavy rain the road to the Canyon further down had been totally flooded and therefore closed for a few days. How sad! We had no other choice than returning earlier than planned to Arequipa. Sniff!! There are things in life one just can't influence. But this gave us one more relaxing day in Arequipa before we went on our way to Cusco. In the end we both agree: Colca Canyon remains a highlight and who knows we might come back one day...

Raining the day before and raining the day after, but when we climbed the steep path to Machu Picchu the sun was shining. So this time luck was on our side. And it was definitely worth getting up at 4 am, pack our bottles of water and picknick (not to forget the torch! Thanks to our Swiss sense of organisation we just happened to have one in our backpack and were really grateful for it). We made it for the sunset (well sort of sunset) and had a half an hour before Machu Picchu got crowded with tourists armed with hats and cameras. Those minutes were the most precious ones. I always feel that a place that is too touristy looses something of its magic and I freely admit that this is also how I felt a bit about Machu Picchu. Every day 2000 tourists go up there and in high season it is up to 4000. I seriously don't want to imagine how it is to be up there during high season. After the guided tour which was excellent (although a bit antiSpanish, for historic reasons racism towards the Spanish seems to be quite common in Peru and irritated us a bit) we had a ticket to climb Waynu Picchu. That was a real physical effort, which is certainly not everybody's cup of tea. On the way we "saved" three American girls from collapsing with some glucose tablets. But the view was just incredible once we were at the top. From there Machu Picchu seems tiny and if you drink enough coca tea you can see the ruins set in a shape of a lama (or was it a condor?). On the way through the Sacred Valley we also visited the Inka town Ollantaytambo, which was very cute and the ruins are beautiful too. We enjoyed the sunset and the quiet in the evening whilst climbing up opposite of the big ruins. After that we visited the highly recommend cafe La Esquina on the market place, we had the perfect dinner there whilst waiting for our train. The friendly owner even gave us paper mugs so we could take our beloved Mate tea with us on the train. On the train we then met two very sweet Japanese girls and talked about Swiss and Japanese architecture. Hopefully we are once going to visit them in Japan (by coincidence we bumped into them again when climbing Machu Picchu). In short this is probably what I would call a perfect evening. Yes, it does exist.

After Machu Picchu we wanted to go towards Bolivia as quickly as possible, because we especially look forward to visiting this country. We already had our night bus tickets, but on our last afternoon in Cusco we met Yeile in the Fairtrade shop next to the Starbucks (Plaza de Armas), where we got our daily dose of cafein. Yeile was just such a warm, wonderful and helpful person that we were completely energised after meeting her. After a not so positive experience with Andean Collection in Ecuador we were just so glad that someone actually deeply cared about Fairtrade and who wanted to help us realise our Fairtrade Jewellery Collection. Yeile not only calculated a few things for us, but most importantly she gave us the contact to Edison, someone who produces Fairtrade Jewellery in Urcos. So whilst having dinner (at La Bodega!) we contemplated the two options: Loosing our nightbus ticket whilst hoping that this contact would be valuable for our Fairtrade project or continue with our journey and getting in touch with Edison via email. I then read in our guidebook that this bus route is dangerous at night. After that we googled the bus company we had the ticket from and the first thing we read: Avoid them, there was a fatal accident last December and the drivers are just reckless (well it's a common thing over here). So this seemed like a sign and we set our cards on this contact with Edison. As it turned out he was happy to meet us in Cusco and as a result of this meeting we went with him to his studio in Urcos. After some discussions we could bring our own input for the design of his jewellery. Edison was very openminded and extremely generous and just sat with us at the table discussing and realising different designs. It was such a creative and inspiring cooperation that we didn't notice how time flew by. So we decided to come back the next day. (although this also involved two more or less dangerous rides with a minibus, during which I can't stop worrying about possible accidents). So we are very pleased about this positive turn on our Fairtrade journey. Soon we will be able to send you pictures so you can let us know which jewellery is according to your taste and which you would possibly buy. We would already like to thank you now for helping us with the selection of the jewellery.