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Sooo... after working at Earth Lodge we headed to Panama for a few days. Visted the Canal, saw a huge ship squeezing its way through then headed down to the national park just outside the city. Saw some monkeys and sloths hanging out in the trees which was very cool then headed for some drinks and chicken wings at the harbour. We then began our epic journey of 4 flights in one day to get to Lima (it was a lot cheaper!). Panama - Bogota (Colombia)....check. Bogota - Quito...check. Quito - Bogota....cancelled! So the airline put us up in the Hilton with a massive buffet and free everything!! So amazing..massive suite room! We were very happy to have a cancelled flight!
Up early the next day to grab our Quito - Bogota then Bogota to Lima flights. All went well and arrived in Lima in the evening to meet our group to begin the Southern Cross tour. Group seemed cool, had a good dinner and slept!
The tour began in Pisco (home of the famous Peruvian Pisco Sour) where we visited a Pisco distillery and sampled about 10 shots of Pisco... brilliant (apart from the fact this was before midday). Then headed to Huacachina and went sand boarding on the enormous sand dunes that cover the landscape. Went in a dune buggy with a crazy driver so we literally kept taking off over the top of the dunes. Sand boarding was so much fun!! We absolutely flew down some of the dunes!!
Next we headed to Nazca where the famous Nazca lines are located. We climbed up a rickety tower and looked across the tree, hands and iguana lines which were cool. Then headed to a cemetry and saw some mummies that used to be buried under the desert. Jon made a friend and spent the entire time talking about football to everybody's amusement.
Next we went to Colca Canyon and rose to 5000m above sea level. The altitude was pretty intense as I discovered when I ran towards Jon to take a photo of some snow on his hoodie... very exciting! The canyon was vyer picturesque, supposedly the biggest canyon in the world. We climbed to the top and watched for condors swooping across the canyon. Got very excited because I thought I could see one but it turned out to be a cow.. easily mistaken. Jon danced around like a condor while locals took photos of him and magically a condor appeared! So huge and ugly but good to see!! Went to some natural hot springs in the evening which was lovely....cool outside but so warm in the water and surrounded by mountains. Great setting.Our hotel had a hilarious Llama/Alpaca thing that guarded the door and spat at us when we tried to leave. I decided I want a Llama in my garden at home!
Flew to Arequipa and spent the day wandering around the colonial city. Lovely town square that we chilled out on while eating fresh mango. The city all sparkles because it is made out of sparkly stone so it's very pretty.
Then we went to Ollantytambo (or Oopmpa Loompa as we called it as we could never remember what it was called). Very cool Inca site there that we spent the afternoon climbing over. Cool views of the mountains surrounding and the old Inca town below. We also visited a village that Gap Adverntures (our tour company) sponsors and they were having the children's Christmas party with Father Christmas and Barney the Dinosaur! They were so cute and all had a metal cup that they got a Christmas present of hot chocolate in (although it was 30degrees outside!).
The next 4 days we did the Inca trail. The first day was lovely because we all stayed together as a group and really helped each other out. Beautiful scenery, and not too difficult a walk. We climbed up 300m and walked a total of 10km in the first day. The second day, which eveyrone says is the hardest, really was difficult. It wasn't helped by the intense down pour of rain which made the un even rocky path incredibly slippery. We eventually arrived to the camp site completely soaked and freezing cold and warmed up before dinner. Day 3 was a lot easier, we walked 16km, but it was dry and sunny which made a big difference! The last day we were up at 3 and power marched to the sungate so we could be the first to see Macchu Picchu. When we arrived it was totally cloudy so we couldn't see it. Eventually the other tour groups came and left but we stayed. Our tour guide started playing a flute (I'm sure it was magical) and the clouds lifted, revealing Macchu Picchu! Was very cool! The further down then mountain we climbed the clearer it became, eventually displaying Macchu Picchu in brilliant sunshine. It really was beautiful. We spent the day walking around the forgotten Incan site which really was cool as the Spanish didn't find it when they invaded so it was perfectly intact still. In total we walked 40km (28miles) over 3 and a bit days. Very enjoyable and scenic but pretty hard at times.
To finish off out tour we slept a lot and recovered from all the walking then went out and partied in Cuzco! Our tour leader atempted to teach us Salsa dancing then we danced the night away until the early hours.
Next we went to Puno and Lake Titicaca where we stayed with a family. Jon and I stayed with a mother, grandmother and son in quite a big mud brick house. They had a donkey and cow and chickens and a little lamb that followed the mother around everywhere and pooed in our bathroom to my amusement. Some of the group played football against the locals then we got the boat to the floating islands. The floating islands are manmade islands that they make out reeds. They have entire villages including a school on these islands which is pretty clever.
We sadly then said goodbye to some of our group after an amazing few weeks and moved on to Bolivia...
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