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Tuesday 21st August
In the morning Nicole and her Mum, Angela arrive. They are from Orange County. Genevive is from Seattle. Then finally Michael appears. He´s originally from New Zealand and it turns out he was neighbours with the Atchisons while growing up in Auckland. What a small world! He´s currently living in London working for Elle MacPherson as one of her aides. Nice! So that´s all 9 of us. A great number.
We fly from Lima to Cuzco and stop to refuel the plane. We´re told to sit with our seatbelts undone just incase the fuel catches on fire and we need to make a sharp exit! The view over the Andes is stunning. The mountains are jagged, barren and stark with some snow on the upper most peaks.
We take off again and fly on to Puno which is the highest city in the world at 3,800metres. We´ve been told to take it easy as even walking up the smallest hill will seem difficult due to the altitude. When we reach the hotel I find out what they mean when walking up to the 2nd floor - we all find ourselves out of breath!
The hotel is lovely and I´m delighted at the quality of the places GAP have us booked in. I feel like I´ve really made the right choice with this tour. Everyone is like minded and the ages range from 21-45. A good mix.
Puno has a small square in the centre where the locals hang out. We go for lunch and I try the Alpaca which has a texture like a cross between liver and stewed beef. Somone else tries guinea pig which is cooked with the head still on and split down the midde!
It turns out that Jose used to be a chef so this is going to be a bit of an eating tour of Peru too! Fantastic. He tells us that Peru is world renowned for it´s food - so much for the diet.
In the afternoon we go shopping and wander around the pretty streets of Puno. Jules speaks great spanish and mine is good enough to get by so we have a great time chatting and haggling with the vendors. The children here are beautiful with skin like tanned leather. The old women walk around in traditional dress which involves around 7 layers of skirts that are tied just below the bust and a dusty bowler hat at a januty angle.
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