Happy New Year everybody! We hope that all entered 2010, with as much fun and excitement as we did!
We spend the last part of 2009 in southern Peru, leaving lovely Huaraz, heading towards gringo-capital of Cusco for New Years!

A more than pleasant stopover turned out to be the desert-oasis of Huachachina. This tiny village, situated around a tiny lake, is surrounded by massive sand dunes. Sandboarding and buggy riding is the major thing here - Understandably, cause it is so much fun to descend the hills reaching speeds of 50 mph!!! Different from the Volcano-boarding in Nicaragua, here, you actually had to break not to go too fast! We spend 3 hours in the desert racing around dunes and watching a magical sunset. The next day we felt the need for some relaxing and therefore signed up for a winery tour! The wines around Ika are not particularly good, but very strong though! It was a very "interesting" to taste all the liquors and extremely sweet wines - and of course Charlie got drunk!!

After a couple of days in Huachachina, we took a nightmare-bus to Cusco, in time to celebrate New Year with every other backpacker in South America. Cusco is the ultimate backpacker city in South America, because of the nearby location of the famous Machu Picchu! The lost Inka city is possibly the most visited sight on the continent and newly awarded as one of the 7 wonders of the world! Before seeing all the Inka ruins though, it was time for a bit of celebration, and who better to celebrate with than three Irish guys! New Years night turned Cusco into a gigantic party of colours and fireworks, and it sure did make it all a night to remember!

After a well needed hangover day with several visits to a lonely McDonalds, we then started the five-day Salkantay trek, which ends up in Machu Picchu! The three irish guys joined our group in the 50 mile trek starting in the high Andes and then ending in lush neo-rainforest! It took a lot of effort to complete the trek, which definitely wasn't for the faint hearted. Blistered feet, headaches from altitude, tired legs and aching bodies all made it a very hard five days, though the scenery made up for any discomfort! The fifth day, of course, providing the biggest satisfaction, arriving to Machu Picchu early in the morning and spending the day exploring this amazing place! A sight not to be missed on this planet!

As time is ticking fast we now realize, that we have a lot of miles to cover before Rio in March. Therefore we quickly moved towards the Bolivian border and Lake Titicaca, the highest navigable lake in the world. The blue waters of Titicaca and the islands within, are home to indigenous people, going back as far as 10,000 years. We spend a day visiting some of these communities, learning about their way of life. Some of them live on artificially built islands, made of plant roots and straw. We've have also learned a lot of about the famous Coca-plant, which has created so much international disturb. The plant itself is a cure against altitude sickness, headaches, stomach pain and so on, used by the Inka-people, and today very popular to chew on, or mix in your tea. Unfortunately the plant is also the starting ingredient in producing Cocaine, and thousand of lowland jungle farms in the eastern Amazon produce each day the vast majority of the worlds Cocaine.

We spent almost a month in Peru, which is a country with a lot to offer. Friendly people, lovely culture and amazing sceneries and history is all part of this place, and we haven't even seen it all!

Currently now in Bolivia's capital La Paz, but soon heading further south towards Chile and Patagonia.


Best wishes

Anders and Charlie

Hej Alle I Danmark!

Jeg har taget en yderst drastisk beslutning! I denne omgang er jeg simpelthen for lad og doven til at skrive et dansk stykke tekst! Men hvad, vi lever jo i en international verden, saa det skulle ikke skabe store problemer for de fleste! Jeg lover dog, at flere danske stykker, nok skal folge, men rejselivet har i dag gjort mig moer! Godt Nytaar til jer alle fra La Paz i Bolivia!

Anders og Charlie