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Published: November 10th 2008
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arequipa is another high altitude, permanently sunny and light feeling city. i found it quite beautiful, there is a lot of colonial buildings and really old cobbled streets too. i was really lucky with my hostal, it was up on the hill looking down over the city only a couple of blocks from the main plaza. the hostal had 3 storeys and i was on the top , all the rooms had outside terraces and spectacular views. i was there the week mangoes came in to season here aswell so i spent a couple of hours sitting in the sun looking down over the city stuffing my face with mango! near to arequipa is the colca canyon, it is very deep and at one point people were arguing over whether it was the deepest in the world but i dont think it is! i went there and intended to camp in the bottom of it so i carried all my camping stuff on my back down in to the canyon! whe i got to the bottom i changed my mind and climbed back out! it was very dusty and hot and dry and i was really knackered! it felt really good
though and top marks to my rucksack, although it was heavy it didnt hurt at all, 4 hours of climbing! (thanks foxy!) i found a place to camp at the village at the top and got stuck in to the food i brought, much to my annoyance i must have picked up the only non ring pull tin in the shop so had to hack it apart with my leatherman that i obviously dont know how to use properly!! the next morning i stopped at a condor viewing platform and waited but saw nothing!
from arequipa i was going to go to cusco but there was a strike on and no one could enter or leave cusco, so after wasting another day n arequipa i abandonned the idea of cusco and headed for puno on lake titicaca, puno is the capital of folklore in peru and everyone is dancing all the time, it was really funny. i went to the market when i arrived to buy some fruit and a woman tried to sell me her baby, i think she was joking but am still not really sure. the next day and i wandered down to the lake, it was
just beautiful, the quality of the light around that area is unreal, i booked on to a tour because i was feeling lazy although it turns out t wold have been easy to go by myself. the next day we went to the uros islands which are floating islands inhabited by the uros tribe and who have lived there for centuries. the islands are made of reed root cubes tied together then piled up with reed on the top, their houses are also made of reeds, it was like walking around slightly drunk in a clean stable. from there we went on a reed boat to another island and then to a natural island. here we were given a host family and hiked up a massive hill to their house and fed and boarded by our host mum!! my family had a 10 yr old boy and the grandparents there too and in the evening we had to dress in their traditional dress and go for a slightly staged dancing with the locals. we all looked ridiculous in our outfits, which included 4 skirts (over trousers and boots of course) and blouse and scarf.
the next day we went to
another natural island where we learned about the pompom rule! the hats that the men wear have different meaning attached to them including which side of your head you wear your pom pom, one way means you are single and staying that way for now, one way with a decoration on the top means you are interested in someone but she doesnt know it yet, and the othe way is you are attached to someone and she knows it, different colour hats for married men and birthdays, and similar system for the girls except with pompoms on their scarves. i think it could all get very confusing on a friday night at the disco!!
getting back to my hostal i met a dishevelled frenchman who had just escaped from cusco! he was desperate to get out because it is so expensive there so he waited for 3 days to get a place on a tiny bus full of chickens etc and he said it had taken 16 hours to do a 5 hour journey on a road that was too samll for the bus. every corner they had to do several turns, peole were throwing rocks at the bus and
a few times they all had to get off to clear the road of rocks!!
i had just about resigned myself to not going to cusco when the strike was over and normal conditions returnes so i went......
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