quite a few adventurous days lie behind us....From Arequipa we started to go up to a place called Chivay... it was a pretty scary drive as it was really foggy and next to the road it just went down really steep. Whilst I tried very hard not to get altitude sickness by drinking loads of water , having coca tea and coca candy it hit me straight away... you pretty much get really bad headaches, need to throw up, feel like you dont have any energy at all and get dizzy.... so there I was hugging the oxygen bottle.. it was not fun... I was down with this for about 3 days and could hardly eat anything... it would have been alright but we sometimes travelled for like 5 hours on the most horrible roads filled with massive potholes, crossing through rivers... not the best feeling when you are feeling sick already... but it is all part of the adventure!!! and it feels even better to feel alright again!
As we were going up the scenary started becoming greener and greener and you started to see quite a lot of agriculture as well as cattle farming. It seems like the traditional sheppard is still in use over here.. often you will see a woman dressed in traditional clothing in the middle of the field watching over cows, Alpacas, Lamas, donkeys, sheeps etc.... all of this wonderful little animals also happened to like to walk in front of our bus.. so you will have this donkey who just wont move.. quite funny.... There is still a lot of poverty.. people in these tiny villages live off whatever they produce. You see them washing their clothing in the local river...
Chivay is really close to the Colca Canyon which is the deepest canyon in the world... The drive to the canyon itself was already really stunning as you pass along this massive rock formations and mountain ranges... ( except on the way back when suddenly this rocks fell down just in front of our bus which was pretty scary). At the Canyon you can see the big condor birds flying which have a wing span of 12feet ... very impresisve little birdies.. From the canyon we hit that horrible road that I mentioned earlier but it really was worth the pain as the scenary was breath taking .. we even so some flamingos!! We only arrived at our campsite in the dark at an altitude of 5200m... pretty high up.... I was very upset that I missed 2 amazing meals that day... but hey.... When we woke up the next morning I was wowed by the beauty of the place as we were in the middle of this canyon ( I know I really ought to post some pictures but internet is ridicoulously slow over here).... we continued on from there ( the scenary now being all green , definately no more desert).... and we arrived at a little town of 80 families called Racqui wich is known for its pottery.. over there we had a bit of a different stay as we all spend the night in peruvian families... quite an interesting experience... the cook with fire in clay ovens ( the food was delicious)... and there was no running water ... not a good one as my stomach got a little unhappy in the middle of the night... They also keep their little guinee pigs.. sooo cute but they are a local traditional food... poor things. In the evening we all dresed up in traditional clothing and attended a local ritual.. haha the boys looked like lama tamers with their panchos and hats.. we girls were wearing a littl vest a big skirt and a round hat... we had quite a laugh.
After visiting some Inca ruins and a pottery workshop we headed to Cusco where we just had a wonder in the afternoon. I also met my friend Marieke who will be travelling with me until La Paz.. Cusco is really touristy but its from where all the treks to Machu Pichu start.. Tomorrow we will leave on a 4 day trek on which we will also stay in local communities and finally end up at Machu Pichu.. Very exciting but I think it will be quite hard as the altitude is very tiring and you feel like an old lady just from walking up some stairs.. we will be going as high as 4800m... the other thing is that we are in the middle of rain season.. so we bought some rain pants and ponchos which will hopefully help a little. I am really enjoying the trip although it has been extremly tiring as we tend to gtet up at 5.30 and have an action packed day. Peru is very beautiful which its very savage beauty.. beautiful mountains, valleys, and interesting plants.. will try to get some picis up soon!
