Peru : Cuzco's archeological sites

En français 
We spend the next day sleeping, we just went out for dinner and walking was kind of painful. Funny how we always need an extremely sportive day during our holidays.
The next day we decided to go visit the different archeological sites around Cuzco. We took a bus tour for that, which is the only bus tour we had ever taken during our trip but that was still cool.
The tour started in the Inca Museum which is a colonial mansion build on the old Qorikancha Inca temple of the sun.
We then went to Sacsahuamán  the Temple of thunder which belong to UNESCO World Heritage. The guide explained us that the local theory of the construction of the temple is that the Inca moved stones from far away and where using some vegetation substance to shape the stones to have them fit perfectly. However those plants are nowhere to be found. The scientists think that the stone have never been move.
When the Spanish conquistadors arrived they thought that the temple was a fortress and decided to fight with their guns against the Inca's arrow. They obviously won and decided to show their power by forbidding to remove the corpses of the dead from where they had fallen. That's why the field is call as well, "the place where the condors are satisfied."
We then went to Pacaritambo on Tambotoco Hill, where a water for long life is always pouring. The legend says that there is a lake in the cave behind. 
We then went to Q'enco which is a sort of tomb where the Inca were proceeding to sacrifices.
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"Attic Mirror", part 10

Here is the last part of Attic Mirror. I'm writing slowly but I'm still writing. I can see the end of Attic Mirror coming, you will surely have more surprises reading it. I'm also thinking and dreaming a lot about more novels especially something that will fit with the new ending of Demon Soul as a sort of sequel in a sense even if the main characters will be different.
I hope you will enjoy knowing more about one of the characters that already appeared a few time in previous parts of Attic Mirror. Even if he is a secondary character, I worked so much on Antoine's background story (still not written and not planed on being written) that he feels to me like a main character. I hope to see more of him in the future, maybe in other stories even if for the moment I don't have ideas about it. He is a bit like the independent character that will appear at some point just because he feels like it.
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Japan : My first (part 2)

En français

Here is the second part of my first times of doing something in Japan. Part 1 can be find here.

My first time skating in Japan.

The students had decided to go skating during the week-end. We took the train together for Yokahama to go to the outdoor skating ring that was open there. In Yokahama you have a sort of lake, or is it the sea, I'm not too sure, with a bridge that we crossed from the train station to the skating ring. On both side of that bridge there are Sakura tree so I would like to go back when they are blooming, that must be beautiful.
The skating rink was really crowded but we still managed to get it an have fun. I'm really happy because I didn't skate for years and I didn't fall.
We went to eat something before going back to the skating ring and I also had my first ice cream in Japan that day.


My first time at a Japanese Buddhist temple.

After my seminar, the group decided that we should go for lunch somewhere. We wanted to eat sushi but the sushi place was closed so we decided to go to the temple further away and to eat there as they have a lot of restaurants for noodles. We took the bus to get there. That wasn't my first time in a bus, just my first time in a city bus. I still don't know really how to use it, I gave the money and the driver didn't bother giving me a ticket.
There was a festival at the temple to celebrate the monk who brought Buddhism to Japan. They were selling Daruma dolls as a good luck charm.

My first time in Izakaya

My friend came from Osaka and took me for diner in Izakaya. That's a restaurant where the clients are separated in different rooms and where you can find all kind of food and drinks. That was pretty cool. I really like Japanese food. Basically since I'm here I never tried something I don't like.

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Full House 곰 세 마리

Today something just for fun, let's have a good laugh :D



곰세마리가 한집에있어
아빠곰 엄마곰 애기곰
아빠곰은 뚱뚱해
엄마곰은 날씬해
애기곰은 너무귀여워
히쭉히쭉 잘한다
곰세마리가 한집에있어
아빠곰 엄마곰 애기곰
아빠곰은 뚱뚱해
엄마곰은 날씬해
애기곰은 너무귀여워
히쭉히쭉 잘한다

Peru : Machu Pichu

En français

We got up at 4am again. We really wanted to arrive at the Machu Pichu as soon as it got open to be able to have the ticket they give only to 400 persons a day to go to the Huayna Pichu. We had to climb for two hours to get there and without breakfast I was getting already really tired. We queued to get in and managed to get the ticket.
Inside the view was absolutely amazing. This is not like the usual ruins that you usually see in Europe. The Machu Pichu is a really city. It's absolutely huge. We started to walk around and decided to go to the Inca bridge. That's a little further behind the city. From there we could see the Urubamba river. We were started to lack water so we bought some. It was really expensive. I was getting sick again, no breakfast with anti-malaria medicine didn't match. You need to eat with those things. We were sitting there and waiting to get better and thinking of getting back down. But not going to the Huayna Pichu when we had the tickets was really killing me more than the rest. So we finally decided to go there. That was deadly that was climbing a lot of stairs, hot like hell, with no water, I even had to beg for some when we got down.
But the view there worth it all, but next time I'll go I'll take sandwiches and water.
And we walk back down, that shows how crazy we are. Everytime we are going on holiday we have a day of craziness that pushes the limits of our bodies but that was a must.

I waited for Sebastien while he went to the city to buy some drinks and food. After eating we were feeling a lit better and decided to go all the way back to Hidroelectrica. Then we took a taxi to Santa Teresa where we wanted to get the bus to Ollantaytambo but the bus didn't stop and we arrived in Cuzco at 4am. We went back to the hotel and awake the guy at the entrance . We slept a great deal the next day.

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Peru : Road to Machu Pichu

En français
We got up to take the taxi at 4am. It took us to Paradero de paso santiago, where we took our bus. You can take a small van, they are a bit faster but they are more expensive. When we are traveling we tend to try to save money and the travel in the big bus wasn't bad. It took us in the mountain roads to Santa Teresa and they served us some mate de Coca again for the altitude. When we arrived in Santa Teresa we had to wait the van to be full before going, that was the most annoying part as there were two vans half full and we wanted to arrive before the night. We finally left for Hidroelectrica through more mountain roads.
In Hidroelectrica we could have taken the train to Aguas Calientes but we decided to walk along the railway instead. Lots of tourists do that and we were not the only ones. It's a nice walk of 18 kilometers. We also met Peruvian coming back from Aguas Calientes. We arrive in Aguas Calientes by night, people were waiting for tourists along the way to take them to their hotels and once again we find a cheap hotel for the night after buying our tickets for going to visit the Machu Pichu the next day. I was lucky to have the student price, my student card was two days away from expiring.

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Peru : Cuzco

En français
We arrived in Cuzco in the morning. In the bus station, people were trying to get the tourists to go to their hotel. As we were talking between us and as they didn't understand us, they kept on decreasing the price without need to argue for it. That was nice and we find a good hotel for cheap. I think that being during the low touristic season was a good help to have cheap prices.After a little nap, we spend the day visiting the city and even got interviewed by a group of students in Economy.
We also figured out a way to go to the Machu Pichu the next day.

Travel table of content