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Published: October 16th 2008
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Arequipa
Rob's first overnight bus journey was a particularly pleasant experience - sat next to a fat, drunken, snoring, personal-space-invading Peruvian, so he wasn't in the best of moods when we arrived in Arequipa. Got some yummy eggs and cardboard for breakfast at the bus station and had the pleasure of being gawped at by a very weird man. So now there were three grumpy people. Then we arrived at our hostel - La casa de Tintin - worthy of a mention because it was so wonderful - ensuite bathroom, hot shower, yummy breakfast, cable TV, electric heater, and......a hairdryer.....yes, an actual hairdryer. Bliss.
Spent a couple of days in Arequipa. Visited the Santa Catalina convent, kind of like a mini city complete with streets and plazas. The nuns' apartments were actually quite nice - mostly ensuite with a lounge area and a back courtyard with an outdoor kitchen. Lovely. There was also a communal kitchen and dining room, bar, restaurant, disco, chill-out room........not really. Still, it was a very pretty place. We also went to see Juanita. Juanita was a young girl who was sacrificed by the Incas around 500 years ago on top of a mountain during
Orange tree cloister
Santa Catalina convent one of their rituals. She was killed by a blow to the head but her body was soon after covered with snow, frozen and preserved, until the recent eruption of a nearby volcano melted the snow, exposing her body. She is now housed in the museum for eight months of the year in a freezer (-40 degC), so we can all have a look. Very interesting to see - the skin of one of her arms and most of her face is still intact. It did get the conversation going of 'if that was you, would you want to be on display like that???' Hmmm. On our last night we decided to sample one of the local specialities - alpaca (similar to a llama). The boys found theirs a bit hard work, but then they did pretty much order a whole alpaca each.
Colca Canyon
Not wanting Rob to get too relaxed on his four week holiday, we decided it was time for some more trekking - the Colca canyon. It was a three-part trek: part 1, 1300m downhill (always preferable to uphill, but harder on the knees); part 2, 100m uphill (sounds reasonable) and part 3, the
Plaza de Armas. Arequipa
prettily lit up at night killer, 1200m uphill. We chose to do parts 2 and 3 on the same day to avoid a 3am start on day 3.
So, day 1. Harder on Rob because he'd left his stick in the Amazon. Doh. Excellent views, though seemed more like a valley than how I'd imagined a canyon. Day was ended with a hot spring (well, warmish) and a cold(ish) beer and what had become our staple meal over the last few weeks - soup and rice - all cooked on a little fire. No electricity, which meant no artificial light, so the stars looked beautiful.
Day 2. An early start - lot of distance to cover, though the first part should be relatively easy, right? Cue evil laugh. Woohahahaha. The tour operator failed to mention that the 100m ascent was actually an 800m ascent followed by a 700m descent. It was scorching by about 9am and I was exhausted. Unfortunately my chocolate purchases (Peruvian Nestle) were not up to scratch, but luckily Rob had some bitesize milkyways. We arrived just before midday to our Oasis - big shady tree to lie under, pool, lunch (soup and rice of course) - but it was
all shortlived. At 3 o'clock it was time to start our gruelling 1200m ascent. I should point out that somebody (mentioning no names Rob) wussed out and got a donkey up. You may also be interested (or disturbed) to know that the path up the canyon twisted no less than 147 times - literally a zigzag up the side of the canyon. Excellent views again - looked more like an actual canyon at this point - and I had to keep reminding myself to stop and look around and forget the pain for a minute or two. I think I exceeded my limits of physical fitness that day. Felt like death when we arrived - couldn't even face a beer, shock horror. As we all went to sleep in our little dorm room, there was a sudden burst of song 'Robin Hood, Robin Hood, riding through the glen.......'. Remember that one? Sleeping in our thermals we all resembled the merry men, though I think extreme fatigue was making us a bit delirious.
The next morning we caught the local bus to the condor lookout. The bus was a little packed - imagine your worst South West trains/tube/<<
insert train company of your choice>> journey. Add another 30 people. Half of these are slightly plump Peruvian women wearing very large skirts, and about half of these have large bundles tied to their backs, often containing small children. Then add a very annoying Peruvian man who keeps prodding you to move further down into a mythical space. Most enjoyable. Only an hour though.
Nazca
From Arequipa it was another overnight bus to Nazca to see the Nazca lines - lines sketched into the desert many hundreds of years ago by the Nazca people, resembling shapes such as a monkey, spider, tree, whale, dog, and many more. Theories as to their purpose, include maps of the constellations, maps of their underground waterways used for irrigation, and my personal favourite - messages to aliens from outer space. The trip was a little rushed but it was good to see, as much for the little trip in a six-seater plane as for the lines themselves; the pilot swooped and swerved so that everybody had a decent view out of their little side window.
Lima
Last destination in Peru was Lima. First day - boys were sick so I had a lovely
day all to myself - bit of a wander, popped to the local legwaxing establishment, nice dinner and a glass of wine....... Back to full health the next day so after a spot of sightseeing, where do you think we ended up? Hooters. Of all places, because Rob wanted chicken wings, which turned out to be the worst chicken wings he's ever eaten. We treated ourselves to an Erdinger (my third favourite beer) and a game of tenpin bowling (yes, Rob actually successfully persuaded Russ to play a game), then it was bye bye to Rob, hello to Ecuador, and my turn to be sick. At least you get free sick bags on aeroplanes.
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Caroline
non-member comment
Wooooooooooohahahahahahahaha!
That's all I wanted to say