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21/11/2009 18:30
Today I am in Arequipa a beautiful mountain city with about 1 mill inhabitants. It old city is dominated by characteristic white buildings made from the local stone and the background is a dramatic landscape dominated by several volcanoes with peaks over 5000m. I arrived here early this morning from Nazca where I saw the famous Nazca lines (photoes will come later when I find a computer which accepts the USB interface to my camera). The Nasca lines are huge drawings depicting animals and geometric figures made on the desert floor. They are hundreds of meters tall and and were made by the Nazca culture 1500-2000 years ago. We saw them by taking a 35 minute flight in a small 6 person propeller plane. I must admit that all the twists and turns made my stomach turn a bit but the view was phantastic. After that we took a trip outside town where we visited an ancient Nazca graveyard full of mummies, it was surprising to see hoe well preserved they were and how detailed the weavings and textiles they were wrapped in were. Finally I took the night bus up to Arequipa at 2800m where I am now. On the way to the Cermentery we also saw the worlds biggest sand dune which was over 2800 m high and was located a bit outside Nasca.
To day I spent my day seeing Arequipa and shopping a bit. I had accidentaly broken the sun glasses that I had bought in Lima, but I managed to get another frame that fit the prescription glasses here so I got the new frame, the fitting of the glasses and a case for them for about 80 kr. I must say it is somewhat different from visiting and optician in DK.
Tomorrow I meet up with Caroline, an american girl from the language school and we plan to go trekking in the nearby colca canyon on Monday. It will probably be a 3 day trek in which we should get a good view of the volcanoes, see condors, see cliffs which the incas covered in agricultural terraces which are still in use and visit a hot spring. After that we will probably head up to lake Titicaca. In the colca canyon the trekking is generally below 3000m so I hope to avoid altitude problems this time. At least I have not felt anything here in the city at 2800m and this will be good aclimitisation before we go up to Titicaca at 3800m.
At least My health is now better, I only have a bit of a cough, but I am just waiting to see if the clean mountain air will clear that before I take the pills I got against it.
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