Where you wished a Peruvian bus driver would have had the opportunity to get an introduction to British education rules.

Time to cross another border. Which I did with red eyes and a heavy heart. Also with fury. I was feeling terrible and felt I couldn’t leave the place soon enough. Luckily, I had a bus at 7.00 am. As I had barely been sleeping, waking up early wasn’t too much of a problem for…

A deep blue cockroach – undergoing a painful metamorphosis

Back in the hotel, all of a sudden, I started to feel very lonely. It had happened on other occasions. But there, it was a bit different. I was really getting the blues. Not so much that I missed home. I think it was more the company of fellow human beings. Having someone with whom…

Girl singing on the Titicaca lake – Ain’t that just absolutely lovely?

I had planned one last stop in Peru, before going to Bolivia, my sixth and last country: a city called Puno, at the Titicaca lake, situated at 3.812 meters asl (above sea level). As usual, I had made no reservations  whatsoever, so when the representative of one of the many agencies in the bus station…

Food. It does keep you walking.

It was 22.00 when we went to bed. 4.30 a.m. when we were out of it again – I started to doubt if I would seriously ever have normal waking hours again after that. And when we left at 5.00 a.m., we were almost on the late side. What awaited us that day was ooooone…

Spending the night in an oasis is worth an 8 hours’ walk

I woke up at 2.45, took a shower… and at 3.00 sharp, there stood the mini-van in front of the hotel. My body half naked and my hair wet. I probably shouldn’t have ignored the information provided by the hostel owner – see previous post – but it started to feel weird waking up at…

The classy life of nuns

I could have stayed a few more days in Cusco. There were still plenty of things to see. But I had been there for about a week and felt the need to move on. My time was getting shorter too. I had only one month left before going back to Belgium and still so many…

Two Argentinians, a poodle and a lot of creativity in a minivan

Machu Picchu isn’t the only thing to see around Cusco. So I could use a few more days in the city. I had tried to find a couchsurfer before going to Machu Picchu but was a bit on the late side. Once I was back, however, I had a positive response from Jeremias, an Argentinian…

More stairs. More humidity.

The Machu Picchu mountain was closing at 13.00. So, at one point, I did need to move on. Back downstairs. Although it was a lot faster than going up, it wasn’t that easy either, needing to watch my step all the time. But I got back to the site without any injury. With a lot…

Machu Picchu: Stairway to heaven

If I wanted to go up to Machu Picchu on foot, I had been given the advice to get up really early, to avoid the heat. Also to be amongst the 200 first to enter, to be able to access the Huayna Picchu, the rock overlooking the site. Dorine had been able to enter that…

Rain, rain, go away, come again some other day

Going to Machu Picchu from Cusco was not as simple as I thought it would be. I knew there was a train going there. And I thought it was leaving directly from Cusco. That was the first mistake. But before I even got to realise that, I made the second one: not going to the…

American coffee to get me back on track in Peru

From complex identities back to stereotypes. You cannot dissociate Peru from Machu Picchu, the most touristic site of South America. Probably the oldest one too. Since its discovery in 1911, North American visitors have come to discover the incredible Inca ruins. Incredible by the ruins themselves but also by the environment in which they rest….

Identity does not fit in boxes

I who came to Latin America intrigued by its history and its mix of cultures and origins, I found in Edu a host that happened to be the perfect incarnation of that diversity. Afro-peruvian father, sino-chilean mother. I asked which culture he identified himself with most. Which is a stupid question, I guess. Or maybe…