Cristina74

On arrival I took a taxi and straight to a hotel and for a walk in the centre. Even though the centre of Lima is very nice with the big squares with the nice buildings and churches, I don’t think I’ve felt so unsafe anywhere else around the world than I felt there, don’t know why, so everytime I needed to move somewhere I was first asking a policeman to get me a safe taxi (not sure if that was that safe either as police are very corrupt here but it was my best bet). I only stayed one night anyway and then to the airport to finish my round the world trip. I was ready to finish this trip and wanted to get home as soon as possible to see my family and my friends ... read more

After checking in in a little hotel, Mario and I went for a walk in town, even though I had no sleep at all as I was afraid that my new camera would get stolen again. We started visiting La Plaza de Armas and its enormous cathedral, as well as many other exquisite colonial churches, convents and mansions built around the city. Arequipa is also called the “white city” for its distinctive volcanic stone-work all around. In the afternoon we took a disappointing (for me) city tour. They took us to a few places, the best one being the Mirador de Carmen Alto, a lookout where we enjoyed the views of the Misti Volcano (5822m) and the Chachani (6075m) whch were amazing. I then met up with my friend Jose who I had met during my ... read more

We arrived at Cusco at 5am so we went straight to a hostel to have sleep for a while. When we woke up we went for a walk around town, starting at the magnificent Plaza de Armas of clear colonial style and on the sides the Cathedral, La Iglesia de la Compania de Jesus and all the rest with very nice archades which were full of restaurants,shops, travel agents, etc. Cusco was the heart of the Inca Empire and now was all the coloniarl splendour which was built by the Spanish from the stone foundations of the Incas. For dinner we all went to one of the many restaurants offering a set meal with desert and drink for 15 soles. I tried Palta a la Reina (Stuffed avocado - delicious). The following day we changed to ... read more

Jose, Ceci and I took a tour to Tiwanaku Bolivia’s most significant arquelogicla site. Not much is known about the people who lived here and builded this great ceremonial place, but it’s belived that Tiwanaku rose in about 600BC and disappeared about 1200AC, with different theories, one of them being that the Inca came and took the land as there has been found evidence of its influence. There are a number of megaliths strewn around the site, including a ruined pyramid which is still being excavated as it hs been covered by sand and mud for hundreds of years, and the remains of a ritual platform. Our guide took us first to the museum and gave us lots of information about this pre-inca civilization, the most bizarre one was the deformed skulls we saw (they looked ... read more

We left early morning in a Land Cruiser with our driver, Placido, our cooker, Amelia and 5 of us (Salvi, Dimitri, Richard, Amelie and me). We drove through beautiful countryside through dirty roads, rivers, etc reaching the highest point of the day at 4800m of altitude. I don’t know if it was the altitude, the cold I had por the headache but I felt really bad that that day, even thought I was drinking quite a lot of coca tea and I even chew some leaves to help. Hopefully I’ll get used to the altitude soon. Today again we say plenty of llamas, vicunas and donkeys; one of them was so friendly that came to us in search for some food. For lunch I finally tried another of Bolivian delicatessen, the tamales, a mixture of llama ... read more