Hi all!

JUANITA

Well after over two weeks spent in La Paz and surrounds, it was time for a change of scenery- to a whole new country. We awoke early one morning to make our way to Arequipa, Peru. No problems crossing the border and before we knew it we were in a taxi in the streets of Arequipa, marvelling atwonders we hadn't seen in our month in Bolivia, such as supermarkets! Arequipa is the second largest city in Peru and as our taxi driver explained is filled with old buildings made from a special kind of volcanic rock called Sillar which is only found in this region. It's a very beautiful city and especially famous for the mountain rising up above it- El Misti! We settled on a place to stay called Koala Hostel (they had pet puppies which were only 8 weeks old- so cute!) and got an early night to prepare for the next days sight seeing. One of our main goals for our time in Arequipa was to hike the (kinda) near by Colca Canyon. SO the next day we organized a3 day tour with our hostel as well as tickets to Cusco for the night we returned- tight schedule but we have a lot of things to see in Peru! That left the rest of the day free for sight seeing.We took a walk in the beautiful main plaza, where we experienced some Peruvian entrepreneurship- a lady simply pinned a badge on us both then asked as to pay one sol (Peruvian Nuevo Soles are the currency here) each. Ok! We then headed to one of the best museums we've visited so far. It's run by the Catholic University of Peru and centres around the finding of three ice mummies one a mountain near Arequipa called Ampato. These were mummies of two young girls and one young boy which were sacrificed in Inca times and buried at shrines on the Ampato mountain. Soon the area froze over and the bodies of the children were perfectly preserved in the ice. Many yearrs passed until 1995 when an archeologist was able to climb the mountain and excavate the bodies due to the fact that a nearby volcano was erupting, the ash and the heat causing the ice to melt and the ground to be soft enough to dig. The museum includes some fascinating artifacts including pots and dolls representing the children, the shawls they were wrapped in and even the milk teeth and umbilical cord ofone of the girls, buried with her along with other charms and gifts. But the centre piece of the museum is Juanita herself- the most perfectly preserved of the mummies, who is kept frozen in her display case, with her legs curled up in the same position as she was found. Recently when the mummy was on loan to a museum in Japan they were actually able to discern the contents of her stomach- only vegetables as she was fasting before the sacrifice, as well chicha a type of fermented alcoholic corn drink, still taken here in Peru (the chichi was thought to have been used to deliberately intoxicate her, making death easier). The story goes that all of the mummies found probably would have been chosen when they were very young to live apart from their families in Cuzco and train for their possible sacrifice. Then when it was perceived that the Incan gods needed to be appeased(for reasons such as bad weather (El Nino was cited as a possible reason), an Incan king dying, bad crops etc) a child was taken to Ampato mountain (this journey would take two to three months by foot) with a whole entourage of carers and important citizens. Once they reached the mountain top, the child would be dressed in fine garments and given alcohol and a ceremony would be performed. In Juanita's case we know from her cracked skull she was then hit over the head to kill her and buried ceremoniously with many tokens, dolls, jars etc. A very fascinating tour all in all!

NUNS ARE FUN!

Next we ventured up the street to a huge old monastery Santa Catalina. This "city within a city" is made of the Sillar rock and is still a functioning nunnery in parts while the rest is now a musuem. The original nunnery was founded in 1579 and expanded over the years. Inside there are many examples of religious art from the 15th and 16th centuries (including a life size sculpture representation of the Last Supper) and some very beautiful architecture including many little courtyards and stairways. We were quite surprised to see that many on the nuns quarters included their own kitchens and the sign which stated that each nun should have no more than one servant! We later found out that the nuns were rather aristocratic in their behaviour and tastes when the monastery was first opened and it took a Dominican priest coming to take over many years later before they would give up some of life's luxuries. Interesting! Santa Catalina's most famous resident was by far Sister Ana de Los Angeles who lived their till her death in 1686. She was proven to have performed miracles (including curing cancer!) and in 1985 was beatified by the Pope during a visit to Arequipa.

CANYONERO!

The next morning we got up very, very early (actually it was during the night, 2.45 am!) in order to board a bus to the Colca Canyon and our big trek. It was a bumpy 4 hour ride before we reached our first stop, the Cruz del Condor, a look out. There we (and about 100 other gringos I might add!) were lucky enough to see three condors resting on a rock. Condors are related to vultures (yes they also eat dead things) and have an average wing span of three metres and no feathers on their heads. Kinda creepy but beautiful! We then continued on to the small town of Cabanaconde, dropping off some passengers to do ashorter trek and leaving the 8 toughest of us who were completing a three day canyon trek! In our group was a French/ Yugoslavian couple, Toma and Ann-Claire, an Italian girl Laura, an American guy Bryan, a Dutch guy John and another French guy, David. First on our schedule was to have lunch where the lucky meat eaters got to taste Alpaca! Tasty apparently and kind of like mutton. While we ate there was a sudden series of very loud explosion (which we could also feel!) and we looked out to see a huge amount smoke coming form the church. Don't worry though the explosions were just to signify the beginning of celebrations for the Virgin del Carmen, which were going on the weekend we were in town.After we had finished lunch and were beginning our hike we actually found ourselves caught up in a colorful parade of worshippers and a brass band following a statue of the Virgin which was being carried from the church to another part of town. Amazing!

THINK TWICE BEFORE EATING THAT RED CANDY…

But the party couldn't last and soon the hard work of trekking was upon us. We approached the canyon and were given a short explanation by our guide Luis on the flora and fauna of the area. He also pointed out the town on the other side of the canyon which we would stay in that night. It was unbelievable how the scenery changed from fairly dry and desolate at the top of the canyon to green around the towns and river at the bottom of the canyon. Then began a long down hill trek for over two hours which made my knees feel a little shaky but once I got a rhythm going was quite easy thoughit was hot in the sun!. We rested at the bottom near a suspension bridge crossing the river and gazed down the length of the 50 km canyon. Some smart locals were selling cold coke and water to the tourists who frequently came panting down. Once we had all gathered again we had a slight up hill (nothing compared to the next day!) and then a really pleasant walk through one small village where it looked like people were living in paradise, surrounded by lovely tropical plants andflowers. We stopped many times for explanations of our surroundings. At one point Luis began gathering small white things from the surrounding cactus plants as we watched, trying to figure out what he was doing. He then held his hand out and we realized they were small dead bugs. When he squashed one it produced a red substance and we were told this was a cochineal beetle which companies have and still occasionally do use as a natural red dye for clothes, make up and even food products. Apparently the locals farm and make quite good money from the selling of these beetles. It was quite funny as me and Ryan had been discussing Cohchineal a few months before and he couldn't believe that beetles were ever used in food (well at least not until I looked it up on wikipedia!) and now he was seeing them with his own eyes! :P We also were shown an Agave cactus which they use for making Tequila in Mexico- no samples unfortunately! The last section of our hike was definitely the hardest- we had to walk up switch backs for about 30 minutes before reaching our lodging for the night in a tiny canyon town (in fact the hostal belonged to our guide's uncle!) The place was basic but comfortable (though I would have slept anywhere I was that tired!) and we enjoyed a meal of soup, rice, vegetables and tea before a thankfully early night.

WILSON!!!!

The next morning we woke quite early, checked out the guinea pigs in the kitchen (yes they eat them here, they call them cuy and these stupid ones were running around the kitchen some even sheltering directly under the stove!) and started our easy morning walk. We descended towards what they call Sangalle or the Oasis- a green patch at the very bottom of the canyon where some enterprising Peruvian has installed some swimming pools and bungalows. Here we were allowed a wonderful 5 hours rest, swimming, playing cards and just lying in the sun. We had a carb-tastic lunch of soup (soup with every meal here!) pasta and rice pudding and at 3.30 pm we began the much dreaded climb out of the canyon (guess it had to happen some time!) At first it was fairly steady and we felt very revitalized after our rest however as it got higher, it got steeper plus it was getting quite dark. However much we though we might not we did make it back out of the canyon, to the cheers of our guides and those who had made it out before us. We quickly walked back to the village of Cabanaconde and a MUCH appreciated hot shower. We all went for dinner together (alpaca AGAIN for the meat eaters) and the night quickly turned into a celebration of our triumph over Canon de Colca as well as the fact that it was a festival night in the town so all the locals were out to party also. There was much dancing to Michael Jackson, drinking of Pisco (national drink of Peru AND Chile- liquor fermented from grapes)and shouting our guides a few too many drinks considering they had another hike to start the next day! All our newly made Peruvian friends kept telling me how funny Ryan was and weirdly enough how much he looks like Tom Hanks! Can't say I see it myself!

The next morning we woke up VERY stiff from all that uphill climbing and had a painfully long wait for our bus out of there, helped only by the fact that at one stage some ladies came dancing down the street, grabbed some local men in cowboy hats and continued dancing, still celebrating the religious festival. 4 hours and one viewing of The Departed in Spanish (incomprehensible!) later we reached Arequipa and were almost immediately on a bus to our current location- beautiful Cusco!!

Hope everyone is well!

Lots of Love,

Hayley and Ryan

p.s. Quick note to say we will be back in the wilderness again from tomorrow, trekking for four days to the famous Machu Picchu!