Advertisement
Published: October 19th 2008
Edit Blog Post
Seaside Picnic in Miraflores
Even in Peru you meet some surfer that has a jar of Vegemite. AS soon as you mention you are Australian out it comes.
The guy took the photo for us and insisted the Vegemite needed to be in the shot. Well we hit Lima (well Mirafloes which is the posh suburb on the coast) and instantly noticed how lovely and fun all the locals were. The little guy on the plane gave me his card and home address and telephone number and said if we hit any trouble and needed a place to stay or help with anything just give him a buzz. We celebrated our first wedding anniversary in style at a nice Hotel, where they gave us a top floor suite, and had dinner looking over the coastline while sipping on our Pisco Sours.
Not to be beaten I ordered another Lemon/Lime Slushy and survived this time. For all those who questioned why you would order a lime slushy, it is not an artifical lime slushy that you get at the service station when you´re bombing it up the highway and need the sugar rush to stay awake for another 3 hours but natural lime and lemon juice squeezed into a class and mixed with a stack of sugar and blended with ice.
Enough about me and my slushies and back to Peru and wedding anniversaries. The next day we wandered down to the coast and I
Peruvian Wild West
This is in the Zona de Vicunas on the way to Colca Canyon. Vicunas are little llamas with very very soft fleece.
This is just before I bolted off trying to catch one to make Sarita a jumper. Apparently they are protected animals and you aren´t allowed to catch them so I didn´t get far. was very tempted to hit the surf, but they were rubbish waves so sat and had a little lunch picnic on th beach and chatted with the Peruvian Pro Surfer who will be in the world circuit next year.... oops I have forgotten his name already but there can´t be too many 5 foot Peruvian surfers on the world circuit.
When then took an overnight bus to Arequipa where they give you little blankets and you have a lady act as your hostess like on the planes and throw in a free meal. Nice. They play movies at 100 decibels though for most of the night and pump the airconditioning so hard that your hair ices up, so mixed emotions about the service.
Arequipa was very nice. Again another little colonial town with Sapnish influence in design and architecture set with a backdrop of big volcanoes and lovely streams. The Spanish were clever and all by why did they keep buidling next to volcanoes. Every town history has ´the big earthquake of blah blah blah wiped out half the city and they had to rebuild it´. No wonder they faded as a world power they were too busy
El Zorro
In the little museum by the hotsprings they had this little fella. This is a bit of a private joke for Amanda, Rich and Ian aka The Fox which in Spanish is El Zorro. Apparently you are feard in these parts has you attack the nice little llamas. Can´t blame you as they were tasty. rebuilding all their settlements in central and south america!
From Arequipa we wnt for a 2 day excursion into the Colca Canyon and saw some awesome countryside, saw lots of llamas and llama related products, soaked in some more hotsprings, ate some llama and went to the second deepest canyon in the world (apparently it is still a contender as they are still measuring and comparing it to the canyon next door) and saw the condors fly over our heads.
Then after a day riding around on a bus from the canyon to Arequipa we decide to take another overnight bus to Cusco. The lady at the ticket counter assured us the bus was OK but we were suspicious as it seemed just too cheap. The bus ride from hell followed. Sarita and I are still in therapy for it and wish to discuss it no more. But needless to say it was not helped by the fact that the lady next to me starting vomiting as soon as they turned the ignition key and didn´t stop until they turned the engine off (it was like the ignition of the bus was linked to her gastrointestinal tract). And
The Flight of the Condors
Not to be confused with NZ comedy duo Flight of the Concords. These guys were amazing (the birds not the New Zealanders) they way they glide around using the thermal winds. yes it does seem that our journey is a bit gastrointestinally biased as my brother pointed out since leaving Australia I seem to atract this kind of attention in my own body or in those strangers around me?! I bet Sarita is well pleased that she now gets to experience this quirky trait of mine.... as the vows say ín sickness and in health´.
But we arrived in Cusco where we are now and it is a beautiful little town. We are just adjusting to the altitude and recovering from the us ride (which involves Sarita sleeping like a champion... hence me writing these blogs) getting ready to start our Inca Trail hike over the next 4 days.
When we first hit Peru I had one of the market ladies trying to convince me to buy a t-shirt of Guinea Pigs wearing little hats. She asked if I had eaten them yet. I said no, especially not with the little hat on and she said they are the tasiest with the little hat on. We laughed and walked on. Now last night I ate a Guinea Pig it was roasted and came out wearing a little tomato as
The canyon
Us on top of Colca Canyon doing our best Condor impersonations. Sarita would like to point out that she is not sure what she is doing with her face in the photo but it was something to do with the eating habits of the condor or something like that. She was in the zone again doing method acting. a hat. It was not the tasty treat the market lady said it was but hey at least I have ticked it off the ´wacky things I have eaten´ list.
Well Sarita has arisen and it is time to do some last minute prep fpr the trek. We´ll update you all on how it goes.
In the meatime on October the 22nd it is international Alice de Gruchy day (my mum doesn´t do birthdays so instead our family have developed Alice de Gruchy Day - it´s not a birthday!) So we hope you have a great day mum and we´ll be seeing you soon when we get to Adelaide. Loads of love from us both.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.083s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 9; qc: 44; dbt: 0.0393s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
kate o
non-member comment
Guinea pig...
That photo is hilarious and looks like it's humping an orange!! Loving the photos. looks like you are having a ball! Keep safe xx