Machu Picchu has been built from 1450 to 1540 and it was never completed. When the Spanish came to Peru, many incas fled here. The incas abandoned the sight in 1540 and luckily never told the Spanish about it. It was only rediscovered in 1911. Due to this, the site was never destroyed and still looks a lot like it did 500 years ago. more „Machu Picchu on a budget“
There were three things we definitely wanted to do in South America. Machu Picchu (or similar, we´ll get to that later), Galapagos and star gazing in the Atacama desert. more „Rain in the desert“
The Elqui Valley – a place known for its pisco destilleries and observatories from where to watch the stars.
The Great Ocean Road – one of the big highlights of the Australian east coast! We hired a car and spent four days here including one day trip to the Grampians National Park. more „Great Ocean Road & the Grampians“
However it was a little bit more difficult to pack for such a long time compared to a vacation of 3 weeks. There are much more things you need to consider and you can´t plan yet where exactly you go and what the weather will be like. But whatever you pack, in the end it needs to fit in one backpack. We thought we already had everything, but in the end we had to buy a lot of things, and travel equipment can be quite expensive. This is the full list: more „What to pack for one year…“
It is finally time to say goodbye to Hamburg. Jens left today (flying from Hamburg to Mannheim, which was a big dream as well). Yesterday we had to leave our beautiful apartment, which was very emotional as well.
After four years in this city it really feels like home. more „Hamburg meine Perle“
It is now one month left before we leave and we still can´t really believe it. There are a million different feelings coming up these days more „4 weeks to go…“