31st December, Arequipa That morning we visited Museo Santuanos Andinos, home to a well known 550 year old frozen body of ´Juanitta´. It was an hour long tour and was the 1st museum Ive actually really found interesting. The tour told us the story of a 12year old yound girl who was sacrificed on a high mountain in Peru as her people thought she would be closer to the gods. They killed her, but her body wasnt found for 550 years.. but because of how cold it was on the mountain top, her body lay frozen on the snow. It was [View Full Entry]

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30th December, Arequipa We sunbathed in the Plaza Del Armas in the morningwhich was beautiful. It always seemed so busy, I wondered why people werent at work. While catching some sun, we were approached by people trying to sell us things again.. And beggars. I always feel awful to say know, as alot of them want to clean your shoes for a sole (not even a dollar)... it´s strange to watch people sitting back while these poor people clean their shoes.. Unfortunately we had to spend most of the afternoon uploading a backlog of pictures.. We took a break and I [View Full Entry]

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29th December, Arequipa We woke with Jake ill and extremely weak. At breakfast he couldnt butter his own bread (although I reckon he was taking the mick!!) I decided we were going to the hospital as it had gone on for quite a few days and I didnt know what it could be. We were seen to fairly quickly by a Dr ´Jesus´Valdez. He was really friendly and had alot of time for us. He said Jake had Gastroentritis and would have to watch his diet for the next few days... no dairy, friut, salad or anything fried!! He gave him [View Full Entry]

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28th December, Copocabana y Arequipa Our bus was setting off at 9am and would arrive at 11am at Puno, the 1st stop. The next bus wouold be at 12pm and was a 5hour journey to Arequipa. It was a really unpleasant bus journey. Jake was still ill and we couldnt drink any water as the toilet on the bus was broken! It was really hot, nobody seemed bothered about opening any windows, as usual there wasnt much leg room, and it wasnt direct with no stops as we had been told. The guide books had explained how bad the route from [View Full Entry]

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27th December, Copocabana The bus we had booked for La Paz, Bolivia that afternoon would have to be cancelled. Jake had got worse during the night and there was no way we could sit on a bus to La Paz for over 5hours, especially if the city was higher than Copocabana as it would make his altitude sickness worse. I had to go and try and get our money back, and also to go to the bank as we had no money. It was strange walking around on my own. I felt nervous wandering the markets on my own... I tried [View Full Entry]

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26th December, Copocabana On boxing day we woke with Jake feeling really unwell. The trip we had booked for the Isla Del Sol was for that morning. Jake felt rough but we thought after some tablets he would be ok, so we thought we´d go... We woke at 7am and looked down onto the beach outside our hotel window and saw large numbers of people waiting to board the boats. We laughed they might be locals who worked on the island. We had breakfast (which I thought would definitely come back up on the boat!!) and headed down to the beach [View Full Entry]

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25th December, Christmas in Copacabana We had gone to bed so early that we ended up at 4am - not by choice! We pulled open the curtains and the views onto the lake even at that time were stunning. It was very strange not to be waking up with our families and not to have any presents. However, Jake surprised me with my very own personalised selection box which consisted of 6 of my favourite chocolate bars which he´d got last minute from the market and some wooley stripey gloves as it was cold down by the lake. We stayed up [View Full Entry]

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24th December, Puno y Copacabana I was in so much pain when I woke up. I couldnt even walk to the loo. Jake had to carry me! Haha! And he was suffering from altitude sickness.. My leg had swollen up too much, so we headed to the hospital (not before hopping up and down flights of stairs for breakfast!!) The nurses were really nice and I was seen to more or less straight away. The doctor saw me and prescribed me about 5things totalling over 300soles!! (100 dollars) We couldnt afford all of it so we decided to get the cheapest! [View Full Entry]

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23rd December, Cusco y Puno That morning we got a taxi to the bus company, however, upon arrival we were told we were told that we would be travelling with another company - ´first class´travel as there was not enough people to fill our bus. We were impressed when we turned up as it was a tourist coach and jake actually had some leg room. there were 5 stops along the way, first of which was an old church. It looked odd due to a recent earthquake which had shaken the foundations making it look lòp-sided. i was soon bored! the [View Full Entry]

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22nd December, Cusco We woke up starving. We headed out for a really nice breakfast in a cozy little restaurant. Jake tried alpaca with chips at 8am! After that we headed to the laundrette where i had the embarrasing task of counting through my grubby smalls with the guy behing the counter who was wearing a mask and thick rubber gloves. We went back to the awful hostel, which looked lop-sided, and tried to get a better room. Thankfull there was a private room with a bathroom included available. Next task was to head to the tour agency we had organised [View Full Entry]

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