Hola amigos y amigas!!

So we started on our one month tour through Peru and Bolivia. Unfortunately after all, Danielle, our very good friend from Holland could not join us on our trip, because it was overbooked (Danielle: we vinden het heel erg jammer dat je er niet bij bent en missen je heel erg!).

The first day we met the group in Lima. It is a nice mix of English, Danish, Canadian, South African and Australian people (and us of course). Most of the people in the group are in their early twenties, which makes Thomas for the first time the oldest guy around! He is pretty frustrated about that and Mischa has to tell him every morning that she still thinks that he is a young God.....

The next day we set off to Pisco, taking a public bus. Pisco has been totally destroyed by a recent earthquake, so there are no beautiful buildings left to admire. In fact, it is a damn ugly little town with nothing to see. However it is the town that gave its name to the famous drink that has given us such a huge headache in Huaraz - Pisco Sour - and is was also conveniently on our way to the wildlife-abundant Ballestas Islands. So it was worth a visit. The Ballestas Islands are inhabited by millions of birds, thousands of lovely lazy sea lions, and hundreds of penguins and made for a pretty spectacular albeit smelly boat ride (Thomas got pooped on by a bird!!).

We then drove off to Ica and while doing so the scenery totally changed from dry and flat to dry with massive sand dunes, making you think that you had taken a flight to Egypt or the Sahara. This provided the perfect circumstances for our next two activities: buggy riding and sand boarding!!! We must admit that both of them were among the coolest things we have ever done!!! After lunch, we sat down in the buggy (which could hold 8 persons), strapped ourselves tight and off we went. The buggy drove with speeds of up to 100km per hour up and down the sand dunes, making impossible turns and twists and losing contact with the ground on many occasions (eg we actually made jumps!!!). Yichaaaahhhh!!

At a certain point, somewhere in the middle of nowhere, the buggy stopped and the driver took out the sand boards so we could check out our sand boarding skills.

The first hills were pretty small and not too steep, to get the hang of it. Then as we got better, we moved on to more demanding dunes. By then, Mischa had decided to go down on her belly to minimize the risk of hurting herself falling down. Thomas, on the other hand, thought that he was doing pretty well for an old geezer and the photo below seems to confirm this.

And then...

...the old geezer fell down really hard...and broke his collar bone.....

When it happened all hell broke loose of course. Thomas was in soooo much pain and agony that he soon lost consciousness. Mischa, who was sitting next to him and was supposed to help and comfort him, shortly thereafter sympathy-fainted as well. So there we were, in the middle of the Sahara, both unconscious and being attended to by Amy and Jen, our favorite two nurses who happen to be traveling in our group (Amy and Jen, thanks again for the great care you took of us, we will not forget it and miss you when our trip ends in La Paz).

When Thomas regained consciousness (and Mischa too) he was hauled into the buggy and driven to the nearest (and hopefully trustworthy) clinic. Waiting for the traumatologist, the attending nurse though it would be a good idea to pump Thomas full with some heavy duty painkillers and she pulled out the biggest syringe that we have ever seen. Thomas, who has never been a big hero with syringes, first started complaining about the size of the sucker and then decided that the one way to keep it out of his arm was to create chaos by fainting once again. Of course, Mischa followed suit a few seconds later.... So there we were again, in the middle of a dodgy clinic in a godforsaken town both unconscious and being attended too by the local nurses. Thomas soon regained consciousness when people started shouting: 'antropine, antropine!!' and he had a visual of a doctor jamming an even bigger syringe with antropine straight into his heart. When the traumatologist finally arrived, he decided that an X-ray would be necessary. A guy wearing hotpants and a T-shirt with a naked woman and smoking a cigarette appeared, who claimed to be the X-ray man (really, we kid you not!). Together with our guide, Edgar, and the doctor, Thomas entered the room where the X-ray was taken. The doctor apparently did not feel it was necessary for him or Edgar to take any precautions against the radiation and they both stood next to Thomas while the X-ray was taken. The X-ray revealed that indeed Thomas´ collar bone was broken.

Thomas received a brace that wraps around the shoulders to keep them back (like a soldier standing at attention, ten hut!), a mitella to keep his arm from moving and loads of great pain killers.... and we were left to our own devices. The next couple of days, Thomas spend in bed trying to control his pain. Mischa took care of him and took advantage of Thomas´ weakness by going out shopping and spending loads of money. Furthermore, she could still take part in the organized activities of the tour and had the chance to see the famous Nazca lines from a plane. The pilot was also the guide in the air and on many occasions used both hands to point out the lines on a map. As he did this, the plane made uncontrolled (in Mischa´s view) side swings making all the passengers physically ill - some actually threw up in the plane.... barf!

The day after the accident, we were thinking about canceling the tour and either heading back to Lima or even to Holland for Thomas to recuperate. However, the traumatologist had told us that traveling should not be a problem. In addition to this, we are fortunately on an organized group travel and there are many people to help us out wherever and whenever necessary, for example by carrying bag etc. So the next day we set off on a night bus to Arequipa.

Arequipa is the second largest city in Peru and we decided to go for a second opinion in a larger hospital in town. The attending orthopedist ordered a new X-ray and when seeing the result produced a grim face. He informed us that the bones had shifted and Thomas needed plaster immediately to get things back into place again. As the group went off to Colca Canyon, we stayed in Arequipa watching cable TV for three whole days, 16 hours per day (apart from the time that Mischa went shopping in between) and are now totally hooked to all the series on Universal and Warner channel, HBO, Fox, AXN, you name it. Meanwhile we had also contacted the Dutch emergency number and spoken to a Dutch doctor, who comforted us and confirmed that a broken collar bone normally heals without any complications, especially when fully plastered, and we should just continue with our travels. After a few days, Thomas started to feel much better and we were off to Cuzco.

Cuzco was the main capital of the Inca Empire, which stretched throughout all of South America and is incredibly well preserved. Not only will you find very well conserved Inca ruins, scattered all over the region, but the historic colonial buildings are also in a great shape and seem not to have been affected so much by earthquakes as other cities we have visited. Like any other city that takes itself serious, Cuzco also has a McDonalds!!!! Time to regain some strength....

Cuzco is also the main departing point for travels to Machu Picchu and of course the Inca Trail. Obviously, Thomas was in no condition to embark on a 4 day hike through the Andian highlands towards Machu Picchu. Just imagine our frustration: the first trip we booked when planning our trip around the world was Machu Picchu, now almost a year ago.....

Fortunately, there are several good alternatives to the Inca Trail. We ended up taking a cab from Cuzco to Ollantaytambo and the train from Ollantaytambo to Aguas Calientes. There, we spend to night to take a 6.00am bus to Machu Picchu the next morning to meet with the rest of the group at around 07.30am. So there we were, totally excited that we were about to see one of the main historic highlights of the world, one of the new World Wonders, and guess what we saw.....

...clouds, cloud and more clouds!!! We actually had to ask our guide where Machu Picchu is. The first three hours at the site, we spend praying that the sun would come out through the clouds so we could get a good view of the ruins and still make some nice pics.

In the end, we had a circa 15 minutes window to see the entire Machu Picchu site, although it never totally cleared up. Nevertheless, it was an amazing experience, the ruins and the surrounding nature are really beautiful, mind boggling even and we are happy - despite all - to have been able to see this with our own eyes.

We spend the next few days in Cuzco, visiting cathedrals, churches, Inca sites, doctors (who confirmed that everything was okay) and do some heavy duty souvenir shopping. In addition, we ran into Floor & Jorn who we had met in Huaraz (remember: lots of Pisco Sours...) and spend another great night at a local pub, called Los Perros, drinking beer and sharing our amazing travel stories (Floor & Jorn: het was weer ouderwets gezellie. We hopen jullie snel weer tegen het lijf te lopen.... La Paz misschien?? Veel succes op de Inca Trail!).

Tomorrow we are off to enjoy the Altiplano region as we travel from Cuzco to Puno and thereafter: Lake Titicaca!!!

We miss you all, lots of love,

Thomas & Mischa

PS Some of you have made some remarks about the long hair of Thomas. Indeed, he has not been to a hairdresser in 5 months and does not plan to go shortly. Lets see where that goes...