Medellin, Colombia

In Ipiales, Colombia (the border town) I bought a bus ticket to Medellin which I believe is the second largest city in Colombia. I once again got really lucky with my seating arragnement becuase I spent the entire 18 hour bus ride sitting with a Colombian guy (prolly in his 40´s because he was married with kids) who ended up being a wealth of information. He had lived all over Colombia and was very educated in a variety of subjects and thus turned out to be a huge help to me - just teaching me about the geography and politics and culture of the country. Lucky me. Medellin turned out to be a really beautiful and highly developed city. This is one of the things that really surprised me about Colombia - the high level of development and westernization (especially after so much time in Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador). Its such a shame that such bad stereotypes still exist about Colombia and its people becuase I haven´t found any of it to be true. The two most impressive things about Medellin were its public transportation system and the Mueseo de Antioquia. The transportation system was soooo clean (not at all like in BsAs) and it included busses, metro and ahhh I can´t remember what they are called in English . . . . gondolas I think. The museum consisted mostly of art by Fernando Botero. I recognized some of his works but I hadn´t heard his name before, and even though I´m not usually a big fan of art museums, this one I loved. I also discovered another artist that I really like - Luis Caballero. I don´t think I´ve ever been affected by a piece of art until I saw something by him.

Also in Medellin I did paragliding. Don´t think I would classify it as an extreme sport but it was really fun and the view of the city was breath-taking. After two nights in Medellin I headed north to the carribean coast of Colombia.

Northern Peru and Ecuador

Ok so I don´t have a lot to say about this part of my trip and honestly I´m getting kind of bored writing this. So I´ll do a quick summary. After Machu Pichhu I went back to Cusco for a few hours then took an overnight bus to Lima. Lima was kind of shocking for me because it was the first time I had been in such a developed, huge and westernized city since I left Buenos Aires. Just seeing all the new cars was weird. But I did get to go to Starbucks (I´m bad, I know). Only stayed one night in Lima then did a 18 hour bus ride to the border with Ecuador. Met a really nice Peruvian guy (but who had been living in Europe for the past 15 years) on the bus named Carlos. We helped each other out crossing the border (which is a bit tricky between Peru and Ecuador) and then decided to go to Cuenca together. Cuenca, Ecuador ended up being a small town reminiscent of Sucre, Bolivia. The best part was that there was some sort of festival going on so each evening the main square was filled to the brim with booths of people selling all kinds of sweets and chocolates. I was in heaven!! The street food was good too and on our last night there was a big fireworks show. From there we headed to Quito, Ecuador (the capital). I didn´t like Quito at all. For me it was just a big, dirty and unsafe city that didn´t hold any appeal. Here Carlos met up with a friend and I left the day after I arrived. From Quito I bussed to the Colombian border (in total it takes about 20 hours in bus to cross Ecuador).

Machu Picchu, Peru

So, like any traveler who finds themselves in Peru one of my biggest - if not THE biggest - goal was to see the Machu Picchu. For those of you that may not know, Machu Picchu is a site of Inca ruins located in southern Peru. It was only discovered in the early 20th century after being abandonded when the Spanish conquered South America in the 1600´s (I think . . .). Before going I heard all kinds of stories about what its like as well as got tons of advise on how I should get there, what I should do and so on (its a bit complicated of a process and can be very very expensive). Despite my best laid plans and efforts to save money and bus all the way there I only made it to the first town from which I couldn't´t find the next bus so I had to take the train the rest of the way. I arrived in Aguas Calientes which is a small tourist town and the base camp for people who are visiting the site. Ohh my, I have never in my life encountered a place so overpriced and tourism orientated. Ehhh I didn´t like it.

The next morning I woke up really early in order to get in line at 5am for the busses that go from Aguas Calientes to the entrance to Machu Picchu (if you walk its really far and really steep). As soon as I got into Machu Pichhu I had to make a bee line to the other end of the ruins to get my ticket to walk up Wanu Picchu (a mountain that is part of the site that they only let 400 people each day climb). After that I got to watch the sun rise over the mountains surrounding Machu Pichhu and it was absolutely breath-taking. Just to see the rays of the morning light breaking over these impressive mountains - my pictures are amazing but not even close to how it was to actually be there. Machu Pichhu itself is this aww inspiring place because the architecture is so well done, advanced and just impressive. Especially when you take the time to think that this place was built on the top of a mountain over 500 years ago. I still wonder how they actually did it. This question was even more present in my mind when I hiked Wanu Picchu because it is soo steep and tough to climb that I can´t imagine how they hauled up the stones to create the structures that are on the mountain. The hike is more than worth it though for the incredible view of Machu Picchu and all the surrounding area. So incredible.

Honestly, my description of all this fails miserably at capturing what its like. Seeing pictures you can kind of have an idea but really you have to be there. After spending all day in Machu Picchu I went back to Aguas Calientes and went to the natural hot springs (thus the reason for the name of the town) with a group of people I had met in the ruins. Also tried Pisco which is a Peruvian liquor. Dangerous stuff . . . The next morning I bussed and trained back to Cusco.