Machu Picchu, from ‘machu pickchu’ in Quechua: ’old peak’
I’m overjoyed we trekked in the Cordillera Blanca - purest nature, feelings of infinity, love and the cosmos. All of that! And now, my tourist thing. There’s a light buoyancy in the station and on the train to Machu Picchu. Windows in the roof of the train show the majesty of the Andes mountains as we meander through the Sacred Valley. Awe in all of us tourists, anticipation, many local people, we ‘ooh’ and ‘aaah’ without any inhibition at the sheer beauty of it all. The Urub
Qosqo, Cuzco, Cusco - it’s all one city
It’s a slightly surreal journey back to Lima from the Cordillera Blanca. In another zone completely, touched by purest nature, thinnest air, highest heights and long, slow walking we drive slowly and a little unwillingly. A crazy ice-cream vendor dressed in bright yellow flies past us on his bike, ringing his bell hectically. Crazy because it’s one of those endlessly long, downward sloping roads at a degree I can barely look at. No problem for him, and he seems like a portal
Peru’s Cordillera Blanca - awe, sheer awe
Some experiences don’t have words. They are not supposed to. The Cordillera Blanca is Spanish for ‘white range’, part of the Andes, extending for 200 km northwest of this amazing country. The Santa River separates the Cordillera Blanca from the Cordillera Negro, ‘black range’ with dark, haunting peaks and little winter snowfall, due to the warmth from the Pacific Ocean which it intercepts. We trek a tiny part of the Cordillera Blanca, in the Santa River valley, encompassed by
Encountering Huaraz
Yep, magic happens here. Things are not what they seem. Yesterday morning very early we zoom to the airport. Annecke’s are early for flights. It’s just kind of who we are. So we are way in time, and stroll over to check in our bags. Oh, she says, your flight left an hour ago. No, there is no other flight until a few days time. Ashen, my first born shows her the tickets - yes, we are to leave in two hours time. No, she says. Not rude or anything. It’s just how it works. The fl
Hello, Peru
So, a whole new adventure…somehow, I’m at a long table in a nurturing nook in a city on the very edge of the Pacific Ocean. If I hang over the balcony, lean my head out skew and peer through the cloudy mist, I can actually see the sea. I’ve flown 18 hours to get here - my very first visit to an entire continent on which I’ve never stepped foot except so many times in my imagination. South America. Peru. Lima. Yesterday, I wept goodbye to my 92 year old mom in Joburg. She is s
