Peruvian Wonders

CARAL

Before leaving the capital for good, I decide to travel north and visit the oldest city in the entire American continent: Caral. Dated to 5000 years ago, it makes for a place that rivals Egypt and Mesopotamia in age and mystery. A beautiful spot: the remains of the city lie along a valley surrounded by one of the most absurd natural landscapes I've ever seen. Mountains of sand that form a veritable desert just a few kilometres from the sea, and peaks that exceed 3000 metres in height. Truly incredible. The downside: the journey. I convince a poor Frenchman and a young Dutchman to follow me.

3.5 hours on a local bus, meaning with animals and plants on board, along the incredible stretch of the Pan-American Highway that runs along the coast, or rather, two carriageways carved into veritable mountains of sand overlooking the ocean, where, always constantly without any side barriers, buses and trucks speed along at full tilt and overtake each other like madmen! I felt sick about forty times! After that, lost I don't know where, another hour by taxi on a road that is, to say the least, unpaved, with 8 or more assorted species of plants and animals…arrived at our destination and visited Caral...the return trip! Same vehicles, same roads and same hours....I arrive exhausted at 9 in the evening but alive…

HUACACHINA

...a person comes to Peru and, rightly, expects to be cold, to climb up into the Andes and put on a jacket...and where do I end up?!? In a desert oasis, at 40 degrees, doing sandboarding (translation: throwing yourself down steep slopes with a snowboard, but on sand...) up and down dunes of more than 2000 metres...this is the Peru I found. Incredible country! Everything so far is unexpected, the beauty and enchantment of this part of the world... A former destination of the rich and affluent Peru of the 60s and 70s, today Huacachina is a popular destination among young foreigners travelling on reduced budgets. Anyway, everything surprises in a positive way…except the sweat, since here I've brought hoodies, long trousers and hiking boots...damn ignorance... I keep endlessly taking the inadvisable buses.

At night these madmen go at 200 an hour, overtaking in narrow canyons without, I believe, even looking at the road...and what can you do?..well, close your eyes and hope...I'll later opt for the so-called "safe" buses, but aside from the higher price, I'll notice there aren't any great differences…

NAZCA

Finally!...Nasca... How many times have I leafed through books looking at and touching, almost as if I were some kind of maniac, all those lines traced on the arid ground of this remote part of the world. Drawings impossible to see, and therefore only to imagine, unless from hundreds of metres up in the hot, dry air of the pre-Andean desert.

The monkey, the whale, the hummingbird, the tree, the spider, the "semi" human figure known as the astronaut, and trapezoidal shapes that, the craziest ones recognise as landing strips for fanciful contacts with extraterrestrials......honestly the mystery is great and fascinating, how could those who drew these lines themselves appreciate them if they were only visible from the sky?!?...and then if you consider that we're talking about a civilisation that inhabited the area in a period between 900 BC and 600 AD?!?...honestly you set the problem aside for a moment since you're more worried about having to fly on a propeller Cessna for 40 minutes. Obviously I volunteered to fly alongside the pilot. Here you really fly! Your stomach twists since, to appreciate the figures better, the pilot doesn't hesitate to bank the small aircraft, practically turning it upside down... This was Nazca.

One of those dreams that since childhood you hope one day to touch with your own hand....otherwise the little town where we're staying is nothing special. In fact, it serves decidedly only as a base from which to fly over the lines. In the evening, bus. A night journey to save time and money, but also to avoid having to look at the road that climbs up to almost 2500 metres in altitude, where the white city of Arequipa rests…

AREQUIPA

Finally we start climbing up into the Andes and feeling the air turn crisper... The journey from Nazca to Arequipa wasn't among the easiest. The bus was of excellent quality, the route less so. I arrive safe and sound in the morning nonetheless and the tiredness makes itself felt... We stay in a lovely hostel converted from a former colonial house. There's even a rudimentary foosball table where I remind my improvised French travel companion who won the last World Cup... Arequipa. 2350 metres in altitude and almost completely surrounded by volcanoes nearly 6000 metres high. An enchanting spectacle. They rightly call it the white city, since all its historic buildings are constructed with the typical volcanic stone that abounds here. Quiet, pleasant and on a human scale, I spend several utterly relaxed days wandering around, visiting colonial-era churches and monasteries...

An unexpected surprise for its beauty and interest is the visit to the Monastery of St. Catherine, a place that truly transports you some centuries back in time with its visit…I discover however, unfortunately, that a sudden strike by bus drivers has cut off and occupied the road that reaches Cusco…

LAKE TITICACA

The local bus takes us in about 6 hours to Puno, a city dozing on the shores of the highest navigable lake in the world: Lake Titicaca. I'm at just under 4000 metres in altitude and 5 minutes after my arrival I notice it right away. The famous altitude sickness makes itself felt immediately. An impressive headache, drowsiness and a physical exhaustion that is, to say the least, violent. We wander around the centre of the small city and right afterwards I have to lie down on the bed to try to recover...a shame that the hostel where we're sleeping is, and will be, the worst over the entire course of the trip: no hot water, no towels and no toilet paper! (but on departure I stand my ground by paying for only one night and not two...) The next day we sail this natural marvel for the whole day. I burn my face because of the aggressive sun, but it's worth it...

We visit the Uros islands, (where you can't quite distinguish the difference between fiction and reality…) where for millennia indigenous peoples have been building artificial floating islands (but with natural products...). It's incredible how, just a few hundred metres apart, they speak totally different languages...we then climb the cold island of Taquila and there too the indigenous people make this already incredible place something unforgettable!...in the evening we discover there are again problems reaching Cusco because of a strike along the road connecting the two cities...so we quickly take a night bus that in about 7 hours should get us to our destination, but unfortunately......but unfortunately it takes us 21 hours! Arriving about 150 km from Cusco, we're forced to stop for about 5 hours. The road is blocked by protesters, stones and fires.

Discovering that there are buses and people stopped for three days, daringly, we grab our suitcases and decide to continue on foot and somehow reach our destination. We get past checkpoints, we walk with suitcases for 20 km!!!!!...we get pelted with stones, or rather the taxi that accompanies us for a stretch...even though people then, after talking, treat us with respect and kindness...twice we're forced to flee the car and run through the fields...but in the end (for a stretch even escorted by police in battle gear...), with a delay of more than 24 hours, we arrive in Cusco safe and sound, even if in pieces…

CUSCO

...after the odyssey of the journey, finally in Cusco, the ancient capital of the Inca empire and an important city of the Spanish colonial period. The hostel where we're staying is by far the nicest encountered so far. Right away I start wandering the city without a precise destination... Cusco is without doubt a very beautiful place. It starts from the valley in which it rests, but over the years it has grown immeasurably, perching on the surrounding mountains until it covers them like a tablecloth covers the kitchen table. The food is excellent, though unfortunately the boundless quantity of tourists makes it expensive compared to the rest of the country and too Western in its ways...

It remains nonetheless an unmissable place on a trip to Peru...also because from here you set off to visit the incredible archaeological site of Machu Picchu, the jewel of any trip to this country and to the whole of Latin America!

MACHU PICCHU

...after the odyssey of the journey, finally in Cusco, the ancient capital of the Inca empire and an important city of the Spanish colonial period. The hostel where we're staying is by far the nicest encountered so far. Right away I start wandering the city without a precise destination... Cusco is without doubt a very beautiful place. It starts from the valley in which it rests, but over the years it has grown immeasurably, perching on the surrounding mountains until it covers them like a tablecloth covers the kitchen table. The food is excellent, though unfortunately the boundless quantity of tourists makes it expensive compared to the rest of the country and too Western in its ways...

It remains nonetheless an unmissable place on a trip to Peru...also because from here you set off to visit the incredible archaeological site of Machu Picchu, the jewel of any trip to this country and to the whole of Latin America!