Wie jede Blüte welkt und jede Jugend
Dem Alter weicht, blüht jede Lebensstufe,
Blüht jede Weisheit auch und jede Tugend
Zu ihrer Zeit und darf nicht ewig dauern.
Es muß das Herz bei jedem Lebensrufe
Bereit zum Abschied sein und Neubeginne,
Um sich in Tapferkeit und ohne Trauern
In andre, neue Bindungen zu geben
Und jedem Anfang wohnt ein Zauber inne,
Der uns beschützt und der uns hilft, zu leben.

Wir sollen heiter Raum um Raum durchschreiten,
An keinem wie an einer Heimat hängen,
Der Weltgeist will nicht fesseln uns und engen,
Er will uns Stuf' um Stufe heben, weiten.
Kaum sind wir heimisch einem Lebenskreise
Und traulich eingewohnt, so droht Erschlaffen,
Nur wer bereit zu Aufbruch ist und Reise,
Mag lähmender Gewöhnung sich entraffen.

Es wird vielleicht auch noch die Todesstunde
Uns neuen Räumen jung entgegen senden,
Des Lebens Ruf an uns wird niemals enden...
Wohlan denn, Herz, nimm Abschied und gesunde!
(Hermann Hesse)

Well, it felt a bit like running from Cusco or running out of money, but I could hardly leave without having seen Machu Picchu, could I? I got myself on a Sacred Valley tour, maybe a bit too much of a tourist shock after returning from the remote ManuNationalPark. The first place we stopped at was a town called Pisac-althrough it was sunday, there was not much left of the traditional market- the tourist market had taken over completely many years ago...well from Cusco I've been used to people dressed up in traditional clothing with lamas behind them, their first word not being "Hola", but "Do you want a picture with a lama?" - but here on the market  I saw a mother dressing up her little girl- ohh sooo cute in traditional clothing with a nice hat - , then putting a lama baby up to the girls chest, slapping the lama to get it in the right position - the expression on the girls face certainly put me off taking pictures of any of those kids. And while the kid was send off for tourist snapshots ( she was barely around the corner when the first tourists couldn't resist), the mother was dressing up her second, even younger daughter. Another woman asked me if I want to take a pic of her baby - I just felt the urge to run from this place......the Inka- ruins were impressive though, even more the ones at the beautyful town of Ollantaytambo, although the weather started to get nasty, and when I got off the train in Aqua Caliente ( the place near MachuPicchu ) that evening, all that I could do was put up my wet clothes to dry and hope for better weather for the next day. I made it to the bus station shortly before 4:30 the next morning and got one of the last seats on the first bus up to MachuPicchu at 5:30 - getting up that windy zig-zag-road revealed the stunning surrounding with every turn of the road, finally I arrived at MachuPicchu, and as there were only about 40 people who hiked up to the entrance that morning, it wasn't a problem to get one of those 400 stamps that allow you to climb Huaynapicchu, the mountain you see in the typical MachuPicchu-snapshot. Beeing at the ruins quite early, I enjoyed the view before the huge touristgroups arrived - and I can't say anything but that it's a magnificent, stunning, impressive, magic place, also I was lucky with the weather- blue skies and pure sunshine. Around noon I hiked up that mountain to enjoy the breathtaking view down on the town that indeed has the shape of a condor. I returned to Cusco and went on to Puno at the Lake Titicaca, I explored some of the islands on the lake, like the floating islands of the Uros people, the Taquile Island and the "Isla de la sol" on the bolivian side of the lake. Obviously I made it to Bolivia, from Lake Titicaca I went on to LaPaz, didn't stay tooo long in that big city before I went on to the town of Cochabamba.

From Arequipa I went on to Cusco, also a beautyful place, althrough the most touristy city in the whole of Peru. You can't walk 5 steps on the main square without at least 10 people jumping at you to offer massages or paintings. There are lovely small cobblestone streets to walk up to some higher points where you can have a good view over the city and down to the "Plaza de Armas". I was lucky to find a group to go to Manu National Park for a 8-day trip, making sure that we really get into the reserved zone instead of just lingering around the "buffer zone", as I wanted to get my share of primary rainforest. So the 3 of us + guide, cook and driver set out for a bit of a jungle adventure. First we passed through cloudforest and saw the "Cock of the Rock", the red male birds of that species seemed to dance with each other. The next day we continued to "Port Atalaya", where we boarded a little ship to continue down the "Madre de Dios"- River, spotting capybaras ( giant guinea pigs) and lots of birds on the way. After arriving to the lodge for the day, we set out to explore the surrounding rainforest, first thing we discovered was a jaguar and a tapir trace. We walked to a clay place that is known for tapirs to show up eventually, but we didn't have any luck that night with spotting one, all we saw was a oppossum that made us all jump, taking it for a rat that passed right in front of our heads. The next morning we got on our boat before sunset and went to the MACAW CLAY LICK, where hundreds of birds stop to lick the clay to help them digest the seeds they eat. It's just not possible to capture with my camera what I saw there ( with the help of my binoculars and a good telescope) -lots of macaws, parrots, parakeets, hawks and a yellowheaded vulture. On the way back to the lodge we spotted lots of different monkeys far up in the high trees. In the evening we gave the Tapir clay lick another go, and we were rewarded by even spotting two tapirs. The next day we got ourselfes back on our boat, we left the "Madre de Dios"-River, and sailed up the Manu River to get into the Reserved Zone to our tented camp where more fauna and flora waited to be discovered: one day we set out on a little wooden catamaran on the salvatore lake to watch an otter-family having breakfast, a caiman was swimming along, and of course loads of colourful birds were passing by ( tucans,hoatzens). We did a lot of walks in the rainforest, had showers with the brown water of the river and on one day got our share of what the rainforest is named after. It was really a brilliant trip, I already miss the sounds of the jungle and the silhouetts of the macaws-birds passing over our heads.