La Pais de los Incas

Hola Señors y señoritas, muchachos y muchachas,

Well we have been in Peru for 8 days, and it has been pretty eventful so far. We are sitting in an internet cafe in Arequipa in the South having yesterday come back from a three day hike in the Cañon de Colca. Unfortunately Scottito´s astomago infermio (dodgy stomach) added another dimension to the hike which was already full of excitement. We started with a 900 meter vertical decent on the first day into an amazing canyon surrounded by mountains 5-6000 metres high, absolutely stunning with beautiful coloured earth, cacti galore and mules cruising up and down the mountains carrying the local villagers and their goods. The accomdation for the trip was little villages built on the steep sides of the Canyon and filled with the happy wizened grinning old quecha in the colourful hats and clothes that the brochures make you believe are everywhere in Peru. So far it could be true. The next day was a hike along the side of the canyon through a couple of villages and the final day the inevitable 900 metre accent which had to be completed and breakfast eaten prior to 7am (ouch) when the bus arrived. Hard work, and not a lot of places on trail for a pit stop (as Scottito and his astomago infermio can attest to).

Before Arequipa we spent a day in the lovely desert oasis of Huacachina, a ideallic little lagoon and a few buildings surrounded by miles and miles of sand dunes. We went for a trip out onto the sand dunes in a dune buggy and had a go at sand boarding (albeit not that successfully). Here we met up with a local craft seller, who would spend his time scouring the desert for fossilised shark teeth from a time when the deserts of south west Peru were ocean and crafted these into necklaces for turistas. We had a great night with Megaladon (Julio Casar) who we will always be greatful to for the spanish translation/lessons and his good humour and company.

Working backward further we arrived in Lima after managing to shorten our flight from LA - Lima - Santiago - Lima to just LA - Lima (long story that we will tell you when we have a little more patience for airlines) and saving ourselves 10 hours travelling time. The accomodation in Lima was gratis in the Sheraton hotel thanks to Aaroncito and his good friends at the Starwood group of hotels. It was nice to have a good bed again after the long haul flight and internet access to sort out our onward travel issues (part of the same long story). Lima is a big bustling chaotic dirty monster of a city with traffic quantities and lack of order that defies belief. We spent some time at the beachy surfy resort Miraflores and around the Plaza de Armas (center of the city) before getting set for the trip south.

So far it has been an awesome trip filled with constant amazement at these wonderfully friendly, warm, but incredibly poor people, the conditions that a lot of these people live in are amazing but their desire and efforts to get ahead certainly give you a kick up the bum and put most of the western world to shame.

We are both happy and healthy (mostly, grumble, oh ooh, here we go again) and looking foward to travelling tonight to Cuzco - the heart of the Incan empire with Machu Pichu and other Ruinas galore. Hope you have all been enjoying yourselves. Speak soon.

Hasta Luego mi Amigos

P.S. Milly please feel free to correct our crap Español.

P.P.S Click here for photos from Lima, or here for photos from Arequipa and the Colca Canyon