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Following our Inca experience we said farewell to Cusco and headed south for the City of Arequipa.
After a tiring overnight bus journey we arrived in Peru's second largest city, and got straight into planning our next adventures.
Arequipa as a city felt much less touristic than Cusco and without the constant hassle of street vendors allowed us to drop our guard a little.
If you visit the likes of Cusco and Arequipa, you will notice that there are about twice as many taxis as residents and they all drive around in tiny yellow Daewoo´s that you can just about fit a suitcase in!! We were highly amused to run into "El Bad Boy!" (pictured).
After familiarising ourselves with what the Arequipa had to offer we headed for one of the cities main attractions 'The Ice Mummy'. Found in 1995 on top of a nearby mountain, this little girl (Juanita) was scarificed in Inca times as an offering to calm the Gods folowing a natural disaster! Due to the freezing temperatures at the top of the mountain her body had been preserved well leaving her with hair and fingernails 500years after her death!!
As if the
Inca Trail hadn't been enough for us, we decided to book ourselves onto another three day hike. This time to the Colca Canyon, one of the worlds deepest canyons situated some five hours from Arequipa.
The tour began with an early bus journey up to the canyon. Which turned out in itself to be quite an experience. Very few buses serve the route up into the canyon from Arequpa and so the ones that do go are packed and we mean packed!!! People were standing and sitting in the aisles aswell as sitting on each others laps. You had no choice but to give up your personal space as Mike soon found out when he had a baby (which was strapped to it's mothers back) in his face for quite a lengthy part of the trip!!
We eventually arrived at the vllage of Cabonaconda on the edge of the canyon around lunchtime. After a short stop it was time to start hiking! The first days hike was relatively short compared with what we were faced with on the Inca Trail. We walked for four hours most of which was downhill. The terrain however was very different (loose gravel)
which made our descent difficult at times. We arrived at our first lodgings at around sunset. The lodge we were staying was made up of a collection of bamboo huts in the bottom of the canyon. Attached to the the lodge was its own hot spring and despite it being pitch black we ventured down with our torches to have a dip before dinner. Whilst sat in the warm bath like waters we were entertained by the most amazing night sky we have ever seen, with everyone spotting shooting stars, bar Rach who just kept spotting passing planes!!!
Next morning in the light we were able to appreciate the beauty of the lodges surroundings, set riverside in the bottom of the towering canyon. The days hiking proved to be much tougher than the previous day. It began with a gruelling two and a half hour climb which was made harder by the beating sun. After reaching the top we headed for our second lodge, where we chilled for the rest of the day.
Our final day began at 315am!!!! We started walking early as we had the toughest climb of all and our guide wanted us to complete
as much as possible before sunrise, which was the turned out to be a great idea seen as climbling the steep rock slope would have been unbearable in the heat of the sun.
The highlight of our final day in the canyon had to be the Cruz del Condor, a viewpoint on the edge of the canyon where we spent an hour watching these amazingly graceful birds glide around the canyon cliffs. We were fortunate enough to have several Condors fly right overhead (pictured).
Following our canyon expeience we returned to Arequipa, where before moving on we decided to try and give something back to Peru by volunteering at a local orphanage. Four of us spent an afternoon at the centre with the eleven orphans. We took sweets for the children, played games with them taught them a few phrases in English and they attempted to teach us some Spanish (although we weren't very good students)!! It was a lovely afternoon and the staff and children really seemed to appreciate that we had come along,especially the boys who throughly enjoyed playing footy with Mike.
After a week it was time for us to move on from
Arequipa and so we boarded yet another bus and headed for Puno, which is situated on the shores of Lake Titicaca around three hours from the Bolivian border.
We weren't overly enamoured with Puno as it didn't posses the same character the other Peruvian cities seemed to have. As a result we booked ourselves straight onto and two day boat trip of the lakes islands.
First stop on our tour were the bizarre Uros islands. Home to around forty families, the houses, the boats and the islands themselves are all made of reeds that come from the lake itself!!! The people inhabited the area around 600 years ago and have been there ever since, and why not seen as they have everything they need there; including television and even internet via satellite apparently!!
Our second port of call was to be our lodgings for the evening the island on Amantani. On arrival we were introduced to the local family we were to stay with during our time on the island. Our hostess was Agripina who lived on the island with her three children Elwin, Yedyi and baby Juan Jose. After being shown around their home which although very
Reed Islands
Lake Titicaca basic was comfortable, we joined the rest of our group and set to climbing to the islands highest point. We arrived at the 4000m summit just in time to view an amazing sunset over Lake Titicaca (pictured) and after our descent through the darkness back to our accomodation we set about enjoying our evening entertainment....
After dinner Agrapina appeared with an armful of clothes and after handing the boys traditional ponchos and hats she pointed at Rach and said "You and me will dress like sisters" and preceeded to dress her in clothes identical to the ones she was wearing!! Following our dressing up session it was time to head for the local hall where a Peruvian band were playing traditional music. We spent the rest of the evening enjoying the music and being taught local dances!!
Next morning after being rudely awoken by the local donkey it was time to say 'Adios' to our family and catch the boat back to the mainland. The whole island experience had been fabulous and staying with the family was a great way to experience first hand the local culture.
We're currently on the Bolivian side of the lake in
a small chilled out town called Copacabana. Nothing like the Brazilian beach it shares its name with, but pleasant nevertheless. Especially as you can stay in a half decent double room for two pounds a night! We love Bolivia already!!
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