Cuzco

There are different Inka ruins just outside of Cuzco. You can take a local bus up the hill and then walk down and visit them on the way.

Puca Pucara:

Templo de la Luna:

The site is open to the public but it's not a nicely restored one, and it's free to visit. Some caves were roped off with a peligroso band and as you can see, we went in anyways. There's nothing dangerous in there, only an altar like thing and some rocks carvings of snakes and pumas, or llamas. Sometimes you need a lot of imagination to see the animals or shapes.

Sacsayhuaman:

 The moon over Cuzco seemed huge.

 Plaza de Armas

One of the few streets with the real stones from the Inka times. Most of the stone work was destroyed by the Spanish to build their churches and other buildings.

12 sided stone.

Mercado Artesanal Cuzco:

Mercado San Pedro:

 Andean Cheese aisle.

Guinnea Pigs, a Peruvian specialty.

Arequipa, Peru

We made it to Peru!!!

AREQUIPA:

The Plaza the Armas was super busy at 11am on Friday.

 It was great for people watching. The kids loved chasing and feeding the pigeons.

 COLCA CANYON:
We were picked up at 3:00am!

 Native girl with her alpaca.

 Condor

 Colca Valley was beautiful with many terraced farms. Click to enlarge photo for a better view.

 Dressed up alpacas.

 Ladies selling "artesanales" at an altitude of 4910 meters (16,109 ft) above sea level. The highest we've ever been. We felt the altitude and it was harder to breathe while just sitting in the bus.

Olas!!!

We hung out in Arica for a while after my mom Inge left. It's a perfect place to chill for a few days. The set up here is great as well. Semu surfed glassy El Gringo in the mornings and I got to chatch the little waves at the beach in the afternoon.

There was a perfect beginner's spot right next to the pier, which is in walking distance from our hostal "Sunny Days". I also had a surfing buddy, a dolphin seems to live to the right of the pier and I kept seeing it every single day I went out : )

SEMU'S PICS!!!

Nice empty wave

 Semu

Semu

 Semu

Arica

Back at the beach! Thanks to Inge's good influence we scored again on a hotel with the perfect sea view location and direct access to the beach.

 We were definitely enjoying the tasty Chilean vino tinto on our balcony at night.

Colorful flowers and palm trees by our Hotel.

 Banana tree

Hibiscus

 A baby mummy at the "Museo Arqueológico San Miguel de Anza". The museum shows some of the world's oldest mummies. None of the mummies show the faces, they were hidden behind a mask.

 

 The coast south of Arica. There are some cool looking caves, tide pools and lots of bird poop. In the past, Chile used to be known for it's export. Very smelly.

A "Loki" covered in bird poop at Plaza Colon. Lots of palm trees in Arica were destroyed by the many cormorants and other birds living here.

View from "El Morro de Arica" over the "Ex-Isla Acrán". You can see "El Gringo" surf spot on the southern part of the island, which is on the left side in this picture.

Altiplano

 We were driving for 2 hours  from the beach up the sandy hills through the desert and suddenly the scenery changes to this colorful mountain terrain.

 A small, local village close to Putre.

 The edge of Purtre, the town we were staying in at an altitude of 3500m. The white cabins at the right edge of the picture were our home for a few days.

 The Chakana Mountain Lodge keeps Alpacas as pets.You sheer them once a year and the 6 Alpacas give about 6 kg of wool.

You can feed the Alpacas grass, chips and fruit. The white male guy has an attitude and tries to eat other Alpaca's food. My mom tried to teach him...but of course he wouldn't listen. If you try to skip him with the food, he simply spits at you.

In return, Semu just spat back at one point.

The little Alpacas are super cute.

 One of the cabañas we stayed in. The color of the mountains surrounding the area turned deep red at sunset.

 The next morning we drove up to the nearby Parque National Lauca. The ice crystals on the grass that morning show how cold it gets here during the night. The Park is at an altitude of about 4500 meters above sea level.

Vicuñas

 This cute little guy is called "Hasenmaus", a "bunny mouse".

They are just adorable and hop around pretty fast.

Alpacas

 Cute little baby Alpaca

 Pretty dressed up Alpaca ladies : )

 You can see Volcan Parinacota everywhere. It's perfectly cone shaped and 6432 meters tall. The volcano is at the boarder between Chile and Bolivia. According to the map, the crater is claimed by Bolivia.

 A typical white, adobe church in the small village of Parinacota.

Semu and my mom exhausted after a short hike. The altitude was taking our breath away, it's crazy how much you notice it. Luckily Semu was prepared and had a bunch of coca leaves in his pocked for us to chew on. They really seem to help prevent a headache and other altitude problems.

 This moss plant is as hard as wood and over 200 years old. We saw it on our short hike.

After the day in a high altitude environment we definitely deserved to relax in the "termas" (natural hot sporings) on the way back to Putre. A house in Putre is painted with a scene in the "termas".

 On our third day we went for a real hike into the canyon. The trail head started from our lodge which is only 3500 meters above sea level. We seem to have adjusted really well to the altitude over the past two days. On our first day in Putre, we were already dead tired after just walking down and up the very first little stretch of this treck. This time we surprised ourselves by hiking all the way to the end. It took us a little under two hours to get there and quite a bit over two hours the get back up the hill. Where are those coca leaves???

 The trail went through a narrow cave and along super steep mountain sides. A very beautiful and adventures trail.

To some ancient wall paintings. Too bad people don't show any respect anymore and just take a piece of the painted wall.

 We really liked the Putre-Lauca area of the Altiplano a lot.