Blogs from Arequipa, Peru, South America - page 3

Suzanne here... More lovely scenery made the five hour journey from Cabanaconde pass quickly, and we saw loads of wild vicunas (much like llamas). However as we neared Ariquipa the landscape changed. Suddenly everything was more built-up and industrial. I could quite easily have fled back to Colca. We arrived at Terminal Terrestre, inconveniently out of town. But at least it meant we could buy our onward bus tickets to Puno. Once this was achieved we agreed a price of 10 soles with a taxi driver (the colectivos all looked rammed) and despite the terrible traffic we were soon at our hotel. Hotel Bubamara was a plain, locked door with a small sign to indicate we were in the right place. We rang the bell and were welcomed inside. It was actually much roomier than we ... read more

Suzanne here... The colectivo from Chivay dropped us off in Yanque's Plaza de Armes at about 10am. It was a bit early to check into our B&B. Yanque is tiny, but luckily we found one cafe, Coca, near the church. It was a nice place so we stayed for a couple of cappuccino's each. By the time we'd finished it was a more reasonable check in time and we got to Miskiwasi B&B at 11.30am. First impressions were good - a lovely garden and nice resturant area. Our room wasn't quite ready but after a bit of rushing around we were shown inside. We'd been given the family room, which had a massive bed on the ground floor as well as a second level with two more double beds. Not much use to us, but nice ... read more

Feb. 24th, arrived in Ica around 7pm and jumped in a tuktuk to Huacachina. It was about a 10 minute ride and pretty dark. I stayed at a hostel with a pool and also a very good bathroom. At sunrise I took a walk around the lake or pond really. The town is surrounded by huge sand dunes. Its like a movie set or something. It was hot and explored the tiny town. Took a sand dune buggy trip at sundown. There was some romping around and we hit jumps in the buggy I was pretty scared, and thinking about how my friends husband Jens had almost died doing this and what the hell was I thinking. Then we stopped to ride snowboards down some big dunes.I did the first set but skipped the second set ... read more

Arequipa is a beautiful city built in volcanic rocks. I just walked around to admire the beautiful architecture with mountainous backgrounds that looked like paintings, really did not look real! There is a very high volcano called Misti that is also visible from the city, it goes as high as 6500m at least so I did not hike that, I have reached my limit hehe. The only museum I did was one that shows how the llama wool is extracted, sorted and turned into jumpers, it was basic but interesting. This stop was mainly a resting time before reaching Chile. (where I am writing from already)... read more

Floating islands and Puno Crossing the border into Peru was really straightforward, once we finally left a busy Copacabana in Bolivia. We headed for Puno, maybe not the most attractive of cities but great food and of course has the Uros islands, floating islands. Which we headed straight out to the following day. The floating islands are made with blocks of soil which are tied together with rope and held down with sticks. The top of the islands are layered with reeds which are from the island and have to be replaced every two weeks. Standing on the islands is interesting as they are pretty bouncy, with the reeds having to be around 2m in thickness. We were shown round 2 of the islands and visited people's homes, they even showed us how to eat the ... read more