Hola from Peru

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Sorry its taken so long to write, ive not had chance to catch my breath...literally. The altitude is a bit of a killer!

So here is the latest so far....

Arrived in Lima late last thursday (wow just realised its been a week since I left the UK!). Had a day out in Lima which to be honest isnt much to write home about, so I wont 😉

Caught a bus that same evening to Arequipa. A 15 hour bus ride which actually wasnt too bad. You get reclining seats, food, films, what more could you ask for really! As it was getting light i peaked out of the curtains to see the most beautiful landscape, mountains of all sorts of colours, it was pretty majestic! We were going along the coastal desert, and I was surprised at how little I was scared knowing there was a large drop to the right of us, getting braver by the minute!

Arequipa is a beautiful little place, a central Plaza and a real nice buzz about the place. We visited an old monastry called Santa Catalina and had a very delicious veggie meal before getting on another bus that evening to Cusco, which was another 10 hours!

At Cusco bus station we got a taxi to our school were we are studying spanish for 2 weeks. Up one flight of stairs and we were ridiculously out of breath!!! Thats when i knew the altitude had kicked in. Cusco is about 3300metres high, so when we looked out from our school over Cusco we could see we were practicly in the clouds! I had trouble dealing with the altitude the first few days, felt like my head was going to explode, but after a lot of coca tea and sweets, i was fine...now i just need to cut down, think im a bit addicted to the stuff 😉

The school is great, right close to the central plaza which is thriving. You get to look out from the balcony across the whole of cusco. Its a beautiful place and some really interesting people. The uniforms are all pretty impressive, from the traffic police right down to the road sweepers! There is usually a protest every day in the Plaza, I think its just an excuse to bang some drums and hang out together though!

So the spanish lessons have started. 4 hours a day so pretty intense. The teachers speak Spanish only to you and its surprising how much you can understand. A good crowd of people here and we went out with a few last night to check out the local nightclubs. The most surreal experience, you literally get mobbed by people trying to get you in to their club (emma said it was like being a celebrity and dealing with the paps!) we basically got a free drink in every place so didnt spend a penny! Living on Pisco sour at the moment, its delicious!

yesterday we visited a local clinic that looks after mentallly and physically disabled kids, an amazing experience and makes me want to do some volunteer work along the way. ended up playing football with one of the young boys, was pretty hard to leave him!

Today its cooking classes in the evening (oh yes im attempting to learn how to cook!) and tomorrow is salsa so keeping pretty busy!

Must go, have my lessons to get to, will update photos soon hopefully and also write a bit more, this is a little rushed and ive not got chance to read it through, so apologies if its a little patchy at times!!!

Adios and muchos love

xxxxxx

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Photos

Me and my first peru hat
Hanging out in Cusco Plaza de Armas

Comments

[Pete Shuttleworth]

I should have known
So, lets get this straight. You have been traveling a week, and you are sitting on top of a mountain stoned and thinking you can speak languages? Glad to see you are in with the swing already, P x