Tag: travel
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La Paz, not a city of angels [40/50]
The ride from Copacabana to La Paz was a short, pleasant one, passing crystalline lakes and broad vistas of snow-capped Andean mountains (and not to forget the herds of wild, fluffy Llamas). In the late morning, making good progress, I rode into a small, relaxed lakeside town, but unfortunately, the road had vanished. I have…
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Lake Titicaca [39/50]
The last stop of my two-month Peruvian sojourn was Lake Titicaca, a colossal and very deep lake high-up on a never-ending Andean plateau (the Altiplano). The lake is split between Peru and Bolivia and in case you were wondering, it is where the Sun was born. Lake Titicaca is the spiritual home and birthplace of…
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Colca Canyon with rum…[38/50]
From the shabby mining town of Mazuko in the Peruvian Amazon, it was a tough two-day ride to bucolic Colca Canyon near Arequipa in Peru’s south. It rained heavily on the first day, but it didn’t seem to matter that much as it was so damn hot. But as I climbed out of the Amazon…
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The Choquequirao trek: alternative to Machu Picchu [36/50]
The 4-5 day Choquequirao trek begins about 200 Kms north of Cusco near Abancay. Far from a little frolic in the Andean mountains, the trek traverses a broad and deep valley with no less that two back-breaking climbs of about 1500 meters each (one on the way to Choquequirao and one coming back). But the…
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Cusco, not dangerous enough! [35/50]
Some people travel forever on predefined routes (and not just geographically). It’s not that the places they go are necessarily breaking bad, it is just that there are always many more options. The herd goes to Galapagos when Manu is possibly better. The crowd goes to Rio when Puerto Maldonado has far less rabid street…
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Walking the Lares Valley trek [34/50]
About 100 Kms outside Cusco branching off the famous Sacred Valley, with it’s numerous Inca ruins, is the Lares Valley that is possibly the most pretty valley that I have ever traversed. Peru and the other Andean countries are not short of valleys, and there are thousands of them each with their own unique geographic…