From Nasca where we banked three days in stellar sales we made our way up into the mountains of Arequipa. We lived it up like the flashpackers we often claim to be, exploring an age old monastery with geranium covered streets and parsley soap, paying our respects to Sarita, the Incan ice mummy in her frozen cage, but mostly we amused ourselves with the fact that like us, soaked to the bone, climbing up from the colca canyon, Juanita, another Incan ice mummy, suffered two hours in the cold after a hard blow to the head, drugged on massive amounts of coca (she’d been chewing the whole walk from Cusco), and strongly fermented Chicha (a local corn alcohol) before her eternal sacrifice to Mountain Gods was complete. We however only chewed enough coca to keep us from killing the dogs and turning them inside out to use as hats and gloves (a fancy trick we learned from our constant inspiration Mr. Bear Grilles).
Top five let downs of the Colca Canyon
No condor sightings
The creepy guy who skeived us out so much we decided not to stay another night
The cold and the wet
The let down of the Oasis at the bottom
Not getting free menu because we didn’t give away ice cream
Lebos embroidered vest
Not paying the 35s/. entrance fee because we didn’t know any better
(this may be directly related to why we did not see any condors)
The world’s most giant Yonki (why this is not in the guidebook baffles us still)
Moraditas! (yes, only the best 1B snack to be found in Bolivia kept us fueled on the 7 hour hike)
Visiting with our fury Vicuña friends in their desolate terrain
Plus on the way out we saw this lady:
After Arequipa our journey brought us lakeshore. Lago Titicaca and Puno to be exact. Saved from the pouring rain by Hospedaje Jesus we slept too many nights in wilted beds and terrible smells wafting through the moldy room. But at 10s/. a head we couldn’t complain. Here is where we ran into some difficulty with Esmeralda. Apparently in Peru you have to pay exorbitant fees and go through lots of paper to get a Peruvian car past customs and with permission to go to Bolivia. So here we are in Puno our seventh day. While we were here we did the super touristy thing and visited the floating islands of the Uros where families live in reed houses on islands made of the same reeds (totora) and ate the freshest trout ever, straight from Lake Titicaca. We have found a place in the market where we eat daily and we have been selling ice cream as we await all of our papers. We are so close to Bolivia we can smell the salteñas and even a potential strike in La Paz and the customs officers of Desaguadero can’t keep us out (okay maybe they can) but with any luck we can talk/bribe our way across the border to enjoy that juicy Bolivian delicacy.
