my travels to peru!!

last you heard, i was heading off to peru :)  here's hopefully a condensed version of my travels!  i arrived in arica and bought my ticket to arequipa, peru.  the lady at the ticket office told me the price was $30 CDN which is quite expensive as i've been paying about $5 CDN for a similar journey in chile however there seemed to be no other bus companies going to peru so i paid the fee only to discover that the international bus terminal was across the road and the whole trip should've cost me $12 CDN if i'd bought it there!  i felt a bit ripped off :( 

the bus trip to arequipa was slow and i was the only gringo on the bus.  i sat and chatted with a cute little girl who could not understand why i had blond hair!  we had some interesting discussions in spanish :)  once i arrived, i visited an old monastery and organised a tour of the colca canyon for two days. 

these things accomplished, i headed to corire which is a small town nearby to see toro del muerto which is a huge collection (close to 2,000) of petroglyphs in the desert.  i got off the bus and had no idea how to get there as it wasn't on the map so i popped into a small store and asked. suddenly, i had myself a guide to the entrance!  we walked through the rice fields on small patches of earth about a foot wide and through farmers' fields.  we arrived at a small stream and he jumped it and beckoned me to follow but i didn't think i'd make it.  he sweetly took off his shoes and carried me over the stream!  (i tried to take off my shoes but he wouldn't allow it :)  we parted ways at the entrance and i promised to swing by for a pisco sour (an alcoholic drink with a lemony flavour) before i headed back to arequipa. 

i visited the petrogylphs for 3 hours (i was the only crazy one in the middle of the desert - it was great!) and then tried to make my way back to town which wasn't as easy as expected!  i ended up walking a different way back and got cornered on a thin strip of land, surrounded by fields of rice and two dogs who weren't happy to see me on their land.  Thankfully, the lady who owned them and the land was working nearby and called them off! after that, i got myself stuck a number of times and had to jump over streams - it was a bit of an obstacle course and i was happy to be passed the rice fields.  i met a native queychua woman on the way and we chatted on the way back to town.  i stopped into the store to thank jose but he had had to head into arequipa.  i got his address so i'll send him a postcard of canada to thank him :)

the next day, i did a tour of the colca canyon which is the second deepest canyon in the world at 3,820m deep.  it was hard to judge the depth but it was beautiful to see.  they've used terraced farming throughout and so it looks very pretty with the different coloured crops!  we spend the night in a small town called chivay (5,000 people) and then got up early to see some condors.  i then took the night bus to cuzco where i'll be staying for about 10 days to see all the ruins and walk the inca trail. 

miss you and apologies for it being so long!

sarah  

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