dinsdag 25 december 2012

Ho ho ho!


First of all: merry Christmas to all of you!

This week was mostly about Christmas. On Friday, we had a small Christmas party at Urpi Sonqocha. The children made a lot of Christmas drawings, ate ‘panetón’, drank hot cocoa and each got a little present.

 
 
 
 
 
 
On the 24th, we first had a delicious breakfast in Cuzco. Then, we went to the Christmas market on the Plaza de Armas, where we bought a whole bunch of souvenirs (we are even starting to worry about the weight that we are allowed to carry in our luggage…). The weather was so nice that – believe it or not – we had a little sunburn on Christmas Eve!

 
 
 

We spent the evening with Merle and Fenja, our two roommates. Together, we cooked a delicious meal and opened almost 40 presents in total. At midnight, we went to the roof to watch the fireworks that went from San Jerónimo all the way to Cuzco.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

On Christmas Day, the four of us first had a nice brunch and then spent the entire day doing nothing. If it is possible, then why not? :)


 P.S. Boodschap voor Rune: Peru is zeker en vast het bezoeken waard!

maandag 17 december 2012

Tacna

Sun, sea, swimming pool, nice hotel… Last week was an incredibly relaxing one! We arrived in our hotel in Tacna on Tuesday, after having travelled by bus during about 16 hours. Our room was perfect: carpet everywhere, a giant bed, a flat screen television, a bath and a good shower.

 

Besides relaxing at the hotel’s swimming pool, we had dinner twice with Stiwar, one of Romel’s cousins. We tried two typical Peruvian plates: ‘lomo saltado’ (beef with French fries, onions and tomatoes) and ‘ceviche’ (raw fish with onion and lemon juice). Even though she didn’t want to disappoint Stiwar, Véronique had to leave almost her entire plate of ‘ceviche’. Definitely a special dish!

 
 
 

Of course, we also went to the sea. To our amazement, we were almost the only ones on the beach – except for some birds of prey and a whole lot of jellyfish. Unfortunately, the waves were so big and strong that we didn’t even dare to go swimming. Of course, this didn’t prevent us from enjoying the view immensely.
 
 
 
 
 


maandag 10 december 2012

Week 11

A few days ago, we decorated our apartment together with our two new roommates (Merle and Fenja, who come from the Netherlands and will be our roommates until we leave). We bought a beautiful Christmas tree and decorated the entire room with some of our own 'creations'. Now the place really feels like home!

 
  
Tonight, we take the bus to Tacna, a city at the seaside. We will stay there until Saturday and will be back in Cuzco on Sunday. So, during one week, we will enjoy the nice weather (about 25°C each day), the beach and our hotel’s swimming pool!

dinsdag 4 december 2012

Lake Titicaca & (Salar de) Uyuni

Hey everyone, we’re back! 

Our trip to Lake Titicaca and Uyuni (Bolivia) was wonderful, but also very tiresome. We had to take a lot of buses in order to get to Uyuni and back. Some of them were very warm and uncomfortable, but we got there in one piece :) Apart from the buses, the trip on the lake was – obviously – on a boat and the tour in and around Uyuni was done by Jeep. So you can image we are now a bit tired of sitting down!

During the trip, we again got to see a lot of magnificent things. Lake Titicaca (which is almost twice as big as Belgium) is a very special place, with a lot of authentic islanders who practically never set foot on the mainland. First of all, we visited the island of Uros, which is a ‘floating island’ (“floating artificial islands are generally made of bundled reeds, and the best known examples are those of the Uros people of Lake Titicaca, Peru, who build their villages upon what are in effect huge rafts of bundled totora reeds” (quote: Wikipedia)). Afterwards, we also visited the islands of Amantí (where we stayed the night) and Taquile.

 
During the trip to Uyuni, we saw a lot more than only the salt flat (‘salar’). We saw, for example, a ‘train cemetery’, many colourful lakes (with flamingos), a ‘rock tree’, geysers, an island full of cacti and hot springs. Unfortunately, it hadn’t rained before we visited the salt flat, so the surface didn’t reflect the sky.



And, on top of all of this, we saw a deserted bus in the middle of the desert (~ magic bus – Into the Wild)!