Peru: Arequipa 2013

Arequipa
Arequipa was our last stop on this big adventure. By the time we got here we were getting a little tired so we spent a lot of time at the main plaza reading, writing in our travel journals and people watching. Honestly, I'm glad we did it that way. We did make sure to go on at least one adventure and visit some museums as well.

There were pigeons everywhere in the main plaza and it was hilarious to watch all of the little kids feeding the birds (ok, who just started singing Marry Poppins right there?) and chasing after them. We even watched one little girl grab a pigeon and hold on to it as it tried to fly away. The perimeter of the plaza was lined with benches and they were filled with locals just sitting and enjoying their day. People selling birdseed, popcorn and ice cream would walk around the plaza and there were artists sketching as well.

Another area of the main plaza

These peaks around Arequipa are the pride and joy of the Peruvians in Arequipa. Anytime we would talk to people they would always be sure to ask if we had seen the peaks.

Santa Catalina Monastery
The Santa Catalina was a monastery for nuns built in the about 1580. The nuns that resided here came from the highest classes of families in Spain. It was a very "ritzy" monastery. Today it is mostly a museum but there are still sections of the monastery where nuns still reside and live. Krista and I loved visiting this Monastery; the colors were vibrant and the decor was quaint. We felt as if we were in Europe while walking through it. The monastery was amazing because it was it's own small city within its walls. It had streets and courtyards and the rooms were like small loft apartments.

Walking through the monastery

The streets

A well in one of the many kitchens.

One of the rooms

River Rafting!
We went river rafting on a river, Rio Chili, near Arequipa. We were a little nervous about doing this because a week before we had met people, who had been in Arequipa, and they told us that it had snowed while they were there. Our reaction... "Whaaaat?!" As we were driving to the river one of the guides told me that the river's name was Rio Chili and then he said that Chili means cold and I thought to myself, "Yeah, it means cold in english too!" It ended up being a really warm day and we wore wet suits on the trip. This was a blast and we were both really glad we did it. We booked the trip through PeruAdventuersTours.

Just going down the river: I'm in the back on the left.

High Fives

Did I say how much fun this was... because it was!

Our Group

Cliff Jumping halfway down the river

Colca Canyon
Our last day in Arequipa we went to Colca Canyon. Colca Canyon is one of the deepest canyons in the world; about double the "deepness" of the Grand Canyon. We had to get up at 2am for this tour... ouch. We didn't get to see the deepest part of the canyon, which we were really bummed about (I mean that was our purpose in going there), so I guess we'll have to go back again and make sure to get a tour that takes you to the deepest part of the canyon.

This was the opening of the canyon.

A church in Colca Canyon

The biggest attraction in Colca Canyon is the "Flight of the Condors." (I kept saying the Flight of the Conchords) This is where large condors fly around the canyon but the cool thing is that they catch the wind and in a large circular motion they just float down into the canyon.

Krista just taking a break in the Canyon

We stopped to take a picture with these Alpacas. A few minutes before this picture a man had his picture taken next to them and the mom alpaca spit on him. When Krista walked over to them to take a picture they started to walk towards her and, not wanting to get spit on, she started to run away... this was the picture she got.

These were some Vicunas (I talked about them in the Puno/Lake Titicaca post) at a national reserve on our way back from Colca Canyon.

We found this is Colca Canyon and I got really excited. Anyone who has traveled with me knows that we're looking for restrooms quite frequently.

Food on this trip

This is what we called our "poor man's" lunch while in Peru. Whenever we had to pack a lunch for the day we would buy bread rolls and peach juice.

This was super cheap meal in Peru but it was very filling and delicious. It was your choice of meat, veggies, rice and french fries stir fried together.

Ok, I was obsessed with these bread rolls in Peru. They were generally pretty fresh and SUPER cheap. I could buy 4 of these for the equivalent of 30 US cents. Each day I would buy a bundle... but as the trip went on I would increase how many I bought. I think buy the time we got to Arequipa I was up to at least 8 rolls a day.

Friends
While we were traveling in Peru we made a friend every day. Here are a few we made in Arequipa OR who we had met earlier in the trip and caught up to us in Arequipa.

Ted the Dog!

Ted made our top three friends we made while in Peru (The first being Elaine in the Amazon and Wellington in Aguas Calientes). There are stray dogs everywhere in Peru, though there usually are in 3rd world countries. I always avoid them because they're dirty and have fleas and I'm sure other deseases. Well Ted found us hanging out in a town square and he just came over and started staring at me. I told him no and tried to shoo him away but he just laid down at my feet, as you can see in the picture above, and stayed there (if you look closely in the picture, you'll see that I'm not too sure how I feel about this.). We started to joke about Ted and named him (obviously) and started to take a liking to him. For the remainder of that day he followed us around everywhere we went (I felt like we had a little guard dog). When we would go into a store or a restaurant he would just wait patiently outside for us. I actually was really sad we had to leave him at the end of the night.

Ted and Krista in the Main Plaza

Lori and Larry

We met Lori and Larry on the train to Aguas Calientes (Machu Picchu) and we kept running into them everywhere we went on our trip after that. They were a couple from California who have moved to Ecuador for their retirement. This was the last time we saw them it was when we decided to better get a picture with them.

Mike from Northern California

We met Mike on the Inca Express Bus from Cuzco to Puno and pretty much saw him everyday of our trip after that. We started to meet up at the end of our days for dinner.

Getting Back to Cuzco
We took a "red-eye" bus from Arequipa back to Cuzco. In this picture we were really excited about the bus because it had reclining seats with a foot rest and comfy blankets. When we made it to Cuzco we were ready to get off that bus. All night long the air conditioning and heater would alternate like crazy. We spent the entire night going through hot and cold flashes (magnified by a billion).

Peru: Puno/ Lake Titicaca 2013

Inca Express
Our next destination was to Puno; which was about a 6 hour drive from Cuzco. We had the option of flying, taking the train, or taking a bus. Flying wasn't really an option for us; we didn't want to spend the money. The train would be more comfortable but would take longer than the bus and was more expensive. Being stuck on a bus all day sounded a bit miserable as well but it was the more economic choice, HOWEVER, we found one tour bus that would pick you up in Cuzco, make stops along the way, provided lunch and then end in Puno. It was a little bit more than taking a regular bus but not much and it made sense to have a productive day and learning more about the country rather than just sitting on a bus. So we signed up for the Inca Express Bus.

We stopped at a museum and learned about how the Incas believed in child sacrafice. To be honest, it was interesting but it also was kind of gross and there was not a good feeling there. Our faces show how we felt about it.

Cobble stones in a church court yard

Ruins of an Inca Village. In the picture on the left it shows that they left a section open down the middle of the village. It was built so that the winter solstice moon would shine directly over the space.

Kirsta and I may have started to make up our own facts while walking around the ruins. When coming up to these random square piles of rocks, Krista said, "This is where they did dutch oven"

This is me trying to jump off the wall but I did so very awkwardly because I was still super sore from all the hiking around Machu Picchu. Pretty much I took a giant step and fell down.

Just a cool bike-cart thing I wanted to take a picture of.

Tallest point on this drive: a glacier!

Behind us, the white area between the two peaks, is the glacier.

We learned about Vicunas (Sounded like Coonyas), a type of mammal from the llama family. It is endangered because of poachers; their fur is REALLY expensive (at least that's what all of our guides told us but then they all gave different estimates of how much the fur cost). Our tour guide told us we could pet them but only on the head. Krista only heard that we could pet them and then she pet it's back. I may have laughed when the museum man yelled at her. At least she could speak spanish and smooth it over with him.

A woman selling cheese on a street corner.

A neighborhood we drove through

I took this picture because it showed such a different culture than what we are used to.

Lake Titicaca
We went on a two day trip to Lake Titicaca; the world's highest navigable lake. It was so large that once we were out on the lake I felt like I was in the ocean because you could not see land in any direction (unless it was a island). For our two day trip we visited the floating Islands and then two "stationary" islands; on one of the "stationary" islands we spent the night we a family there.

The funny thing about this tour was that we were never sure if we were actually with the right tour group. When they picked us up from our hostal they stuck us in a taxi cab, with other members of our tour group, and then sent the taxi on its way. Umm... ok...  I guess we're not going to worry since we're with other tourist. The taxi showed up at the marina where two ladies greeted us and then just pointed us toward a string of boats. We walked over to the boats and then people just started telling us to get on and then away we went. Not once did anyone ask for our name and check it off from a list. We really were just waiting for a moment when they would do "roll call" and realize that we weren't supposed to be with the group. We lucked out... not once was "roll call" ever taken.

On the boat... Puno in the distance

Floating Islands

The floating islands are actual floating islands, made out of reeds, that small (very small) communities live on.

The leader of this floating island and our tour guide are showing us how they build the islands.

We learned that they have to lay a new layer of reeds every 11-15 days. We also learned that when an island doesn't want a member on their island anymore, they'll simply cut their section off from the island, haha. But sometimes two islands will merge together and create one community and they'll tie the two islands together so that they form together.

One of the homes on the island.

We asked our tour guide where the people go to the bathroom and he told us that they pee behind their homes but if they need to go No. 2 they have a small platform off the island that they go on and then cover the waste in ash.

Some of the cute kids on the island

A lot of travel gets done between the floating islands on these reed boats. We got to take a ride in one.

Amantani Island

This was the first island we went to and spent the night with a family. On the island we had home cooked meals, hiked and went dancing.

This is the home we stayed in. Such a humbling experience.

There were three bedrooms in this home; one for the family we stayed with and the other two for visitors like us. The kitchen was a small separate building, that I had to duck in the doorway to enter, with a wood burning stove; the sweet woman cleaned our dishes outside with the hose. The bathroom was another separate tiny building that was big enough to hold a sink and a toilet. Where was the shower? Oh don't worry, there was a small shower head poking out of the ceiling above the toilet. We truly have so much here in the U.S.

Inside our room

The door into our room and the view from our window

The first meal Isabelle made for us: "salad," potatoes (which I thought some of them looked like roots and/or large larva) and fried cheese.

Isabelle's Home

Sunset on the lake

Dancing in the traditional clothing. It was hilarious; after we ate dinner Isabel and her daughter barged into our room and started dressing us in this clothing (we had no choice!). The thick belts around our waists were REALLY tight; so tight we thought we were going to pass out from lack of oxygen and halfway through the dance we had to sneak outside and loosen them. Now I know how Elizabeth Swan felt in Pirates of the Caribbean.

Island of Tequila
This was just another stationary island on Lake Titicaca that we visited and hiked from one side to the other. We learned that this island is known for the best male weavers in the world; the men weave on this island, not the women.

This boy is wearing a hat that actually shows your marital status! Part of the traditional clothing worn by the men on the Island of Tequila is a hat. Little boys wear a hat like the one in this picture but they let the white part fall behind their head. When the boys reach a certain age they wear the hat so that the white part falls to the side of their head; it falls on the left when they are single and it falls on the right when they are dating someone. When they get married they wear a hat that is completely red.

Puno
Puno is the big city by Lake Titicaca. I felt like it was a mini, peruvian New York City. I told a friend this, who served his mission in Peru, and he laughed and said that the people there refer to Puno as their New York City. I wouldn't say it had the class and expensive things of New York City but it was crowded with people and cars and taxis like New York City. I didn't love Puno, there didn't seem like much to do there, but our only purpose in being there was just so that we could visit Lake Titicaca.

The church at the Main Plaza