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After amazing surf all along the northern coast of Perú it was time to see some of the cultural highlights, here the cathedral of Trujillo.
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Casa Urquiaga
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A variety of civilizations evolved before the time of the Inka Empire. One of them the Moché culture which created the temples of the sun and the moon, Huaca del Sol and Huaca de la Luna, containing some faszinating detailings.
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| The adobe city of Chan Chan was built by Chimu, which evolved about 900AD. It covers an area of approximately 20 square kilometers and is the largest pre-columbian city in all South America. |
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| Detailings at Chan Chan |
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Earthquakes and El Niño did their share to the originally up to 5m high adobe walls...
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Looks good, it´s actually a fake...
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Enough culture, back to surf! Punta Hermosa, 2h south of Lima.
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| Punta Hermosa on a bigger day. Pick a wave and try to survive... |
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After a couple of days rest in Lima I finally headed to Cuzco. Getting some healthy vitamines from the fruit juice lady at Mercado San Pedro. In case the vitamines get too much, beers are in the right lower corner...
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Plaza de Armas in Cuzco
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| Cuzco by night |
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Pretty much everbody who visits Cuzco does the famous hike to Machu Picchu. I opted for the four day Inca Jungle Trek, which includes mountainbiking, rafting and ziplining. Amazing scenery and a bit of action too.
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| Day 2: this part of the trek was Inca Trail |
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Rio Urubamba unleashing it´s fury! We rafted this river, though obviously not this section.
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| Occasional landslides were on the agenda. This one went off half a minute before we reached the scenery. We saw the guys pulling back that motorcycle in distress and had to wait for half an hour before running across the debris. |
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| The power of nature... and a bit of human influence. Drain of the Hidroeléctrico-Powerplant close to Santa Marta. |
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Day 3: Getting close to Aguas Calientes, the small village in the valley below Machu Picchu. From here we could already see glimpses of the ruins on the mountain ridge.
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Bungle in the Jungle
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| Reaching Aguas Calientes on the end of Day 3. |
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| Early morning at Machu Picchu! 400 people a day get admission to the Wayana Picchu and so reaching the ruins early turned into a little race at 4:00am. I won and got to enter Machu Picchu first on the 4th of April 2011 and was pretty stoked about it! |
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| I guess everyone knows this picture! Andrew chilling hard after three days of hike and an early morning run. Wayana Picchu in the background. |
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| Machu Picchu, a life- and namechanging experience. |
I´m in La Paz, Bolivia now and have three days left in South America! The last eight days felt as long as the last eight months. I´m ready to go home, feeling that I used my time here to the fullest and by now I´m saturated with experiences. I´m looking forwards to seeing my family and all my good friends back in Innsbruck again! It´s been way too long!!!
