A desolated Machu Picchu.

We get up at 04:45 a.m. A strike of public transportation prohibited hundreds of people coming to Aguascalientes the day before. We have the priviledge to step into the lost city with the least amount of people possible these days. Only a movie rental of the spot would have permitted less people up there. One of the goals of many travelers during their trip in South America. I remember that my father once held out an Atlas, asking me to say 'stop'. He stopped at a page. Again. 'Stop', I told him, he showed me the map, his finger pointed at Peru, just next to Machu Picchu. You will go there one day he told me.

That was many years ago. Now I am actually entering this lost city, where the Inca's had a center. I follow a guide who I met on the Inca trail and he tells his group about the incredible results the Inca's reached in a solemn century. If they would have had 50 years more, they might have never been conquered by any other people. Their system was one of spreading education and prosperity, sending teachers and builders around the country in order to spread new techniques and knowledge.

Coca was sacred to them. So much vitamines it contained, they didn't have to eat a lot of other things. It gave them the enrgy and vitamins and minirals to do all this work within only one century. I am chewing the leaves and find my tongue numb while I listen to another guide giving an even better explanation. It is definately worth the ride. At first we marvel with dizzyness because of the altitude and the possibilities to fall of the mountain that surrounds you. That gets even better when I climb the other mountain. When I get to the very top I have an encounter with a centapede. I meet a guy from Norway and a girl From Colombia: Torbjorn and Lilian.
I meet two brasilians who I remeet later at the bustop bus from Cusco to Puno. This journey has been full of remeeting people. You meet at least twice in life, they say. Would that mean I might never meat them again? (Done with those.) Although in Germany they say all good things are (at least) three. I´ve met a lot of angels on the road. People that helped me, acompanied me, were companions, light, people to share a universe with, or just mere moments, advices, wisdom and experiences. The colombian girl, Lilan, and I sit together on the train back. We meet people from Brasil and have extensive conversations about life in Brazil, Colombia, the Netherlands. We get the bus back earlier to Cusco. She is due to leave tomorrow morning, she paid all my tickets and chocolate of her coins she wouldn't be able to change back. When we arrive she takes her leave. i tell her how she had been another angel on my road. Just as the doctor had been, the house in La Paz where Cecy and her family take me in and I get sick again. I seem to find protection and good people all the way. There is good and bad on the road of life, but thank goodness a lot more good than there is bad.