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Allillanchu (Hello in Quechua)
Just to let you know what we've been upto since we left on Saturday morning. Unfortunately Gemma is not with me at the moment, she is not feeling to good at the moment, maybe the altitude but more likely the bang to the head from the incredibley small door openings they have.
First of all the flights were a bit of a mission. 2 hours to Madrid and then 11 hours from there to Lima but we eventually arrived at about 7pm local time. Just enough to get to the airport by cab, our first experiance of South American driving, they are all crazy! Our cab nearly got hit 3 times and on a couple of occasions I just closed my eyes and held on. Luckily we got to the hotel ok.
On our first day in Lima we went down to the coast to have our first look at the Pacific Ocean (check out the photo gallery) and then met the rest of the tour group and thankfully they are all cool people.
Since then we have headed down to the tip´of Lake Titicaca, a place called Puno and from there we have got a boat out to the middle of the lake to some islands inhabitied by the natives. The lake is actually 3855m above sea level so the altitude has played a bit of havoc with some, including Gemma but the top of the island is 4150m above sea level and we both managed to reach the summit quite easily,all good preparation for the Inca trail. After this we actually got the spend a night with a local family and had to learn the local language, Quechua in order to communicate. I think we got by ok. They live so basically, they are all farmers with a little bit of fishing as you would expect, but they were so welcoming to us. They obviously get some sort of payment by the local guides to have us stay we them and the tourism supplements their day to day livelyhoods. The long and short of it is that they get cash for it and that has allowed them to progress the schooling facilities so both they and the tourists benefit... The best bit of the day and night we spent with them was the fiesta, this is a dinner/dance type affair and we were expected to get dressed up in the local attire. This was so funny, I got away lightly with just a wooven poncho and pointed hat (which I ended up buying) but Gemma had to go the whole lot with flourescent pink petticoat dress, big blouse and head scarf thingy. I would have put the pictures on but I forgot the USB cable for the camera. Ill have to put them on soon though. The dancing was both fun and knackering!
On the way back from the islands we dropped in on some other floating reed islands and these people just make islands and houses and boats out of this one type of reed that only grows in Lake Titicaca. A pretty amazing way of living, oh and I got to row the big fishing boat.
So anyways we are now back in Puno and tomorrow we head up to Cusco the ancient Inca capital and then on Friday we start the Inca Trail.
Hope all is well with you back home and watch this space for the pictures of Gemma in native Peruvian dress!
Ripushayku (Good bye in Quechua)
Leigh & Gemma x x x
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