Hola Amigos,
Another long bus drive with another breakdown. Blocked fuel line this time out in the middle of the desert. Went from sea level to 2300m in 10hrs. The drive was dangerous and dramatic with the road hugging cliffs looking out over the ocean for much of the way. 1 person got so scared she moved from the front of the truck to the middle after a near miss with a truck driving on our side of the road on a blind bend. As we drive on the right hand side of the road this puts us on the cliff side of the road and nowhere to go but over the edge! Lots of crosses on the sides of the road...
Finally saw some snow after all the desert. Heading inland the horizon was dominated by el misti volcano which is about 6000m and snow capped.
We are staying at an old colonial mansion. Our room has 2 balconies. One from the toilet and the other from the bedroom. Both looking across the snow capped mountains. Very picturesque. Ate alpaca last night. Did not taste like lamb or beef or anything we have had before but was nice.
Still not well. Have a lingering stomach ache that will not go away. Has been difficult with long bus rides.
Spent today wandering around town. Lovely spanish architecture with the usual main square and large cathederal. Have turned up just in time for the cities aniversary and there was a large military parade. Should be good tonight. City was refounded by pizzaro in 1540 and is another world heritage site.
We visited juanita, ice princess, a frozen inca mummy found in the mountains and almost perfectly preserved. Lunch with morgan in the park then spent the afternoon looking through santa catalina convent which was opened to the public only in 1970 after 4 centuries.
One mystery from last night was why was santa claus out in the middle of the road? Only he knows...
Heaps of gringos (like us)in town. Think we will see more and more the closer we get to the tick in the box inca trail.
Long drive tomorrow with 3am start. heading to colca canyo to hopefully see the condors.
Adios,
David & Vanessa
