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Mell's Travels
Hi Guys
I have now finished my tour and have had a great time. The past few days have been as follows;
1) Had a relaxing day in Cusco, weather nice so walked around a lot and visited the shops and museums. Went to an arts festival on the evening and saw the local dancing and music.
2) Early start on to the bus called Millie for our 6 hour bus ride up to Puno. Had a full buffet style lunch on the side of the road and then stopped at a place called Sillustani where we saw the tombs of the Incas. We then arrived in Puno late in the afternoon and it was absolutely freezing!!
3) Took a Tuk Tuk down to the harbour where we were going to take the boat to Amantani island to stay with our new family. We stopped off at the floating reed islands first, which were good and went on the reed boat to a larger island which had a solar powered phone box on it! We then had a relaxing 3 hour boat trip to the island of Amantani. On arriving at the island the boat sounded it's horn and all the 'mama's'as they are known came running down the hills to meet us. I was sharing a room with Michaela and our mama was called Filomena. The house was very basic and the kitchen was basically a black hole in the wall with no light or electricity. However she managed to make us some good soup and omlette, chips and rice for our lunch. We then took another hike up a mountain to watch the sunset over lake titicaca. Back down the hill Filomena had cooked us another load of food and we sat in the 'kitchen'with her, her son, grandmother and grandfather, trying to make some conversation in spanish as they didn't speak a word of english! after dinner Filomena came to our room with some clothes for us to wear to the party. She pulled the skirt that tight i didn't think i was going to be able to breath, let alone walk up the hill to the party! when we got there, all the other people were in the local dress and the band started playing some peruvian music. I was absolutely knackered dancing around, but the little old women never sat down once! After the party it was back to house to sleep.
4) Filomena woke us up with some pancakes and tea and then we set off for our boat. It was a short boat trip to the island of Taquile and the island was much bigger than Amantani island. We had another strenuous up hill walk to the main square, which was nice but there wasn't much to do or see. We then headed off back to our boat to go back to Puno. All went out for dinner in Puno and then went to a club upstairs from the restaurant. There was lots of Pisco Sours (local cocktail made from brandy, egg white and lime) drunk and lots of dancing.
5) 7 hour delay on our flight from Juliaca to Lima - enough said!
6) spent last day in Lima with Tarkan and Romana, visited the Convent of Santa Domingo which was really nice and very spanishesque! Loads of heavily armed police everywhere so i felt quite safe! Leaving to get flight back to Cusco tomorrow to start my placement. Hope you like the pics, especially of the ones of my stay on Amantani island. Mell xx
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