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It has been an interesting couple of days. The last place we stayed didn't have a phone, let alone internet, so blog updating wasn't possible.
Our first post-blog-update activity was flying over the Nazca lines. I found it quite stressful, but was determined to go anyway, and it really was fabulous. I hadn't really grasped what it would be like. I knew that there were lines kilometres long, and pictures and had assumed that these were the same. But, they think the long lines map aquifers in the region, and the pictures are much smaller, but have astronomically significant symbols and other decorations. I've already decided that the one they call the hands is actually a frog based on the picture and the similarities it shares with the lizard. I don't expect them to change their maps though.
After the flight, we visited a local cemetary to look at the mummies and the artefacts that were found and spent a while wandering around amongst a local festival - we never worked out what it was for though.
The next day we left for Arequipa (pictured). The altitude started to get to some members of the tour, but we had quite a fun day wandering through the convent (very glad not to be nuns there - novices spent four years in their rooms only allowed out twice per day to pray to the paintings) and then seeing the frozen body they found buried on a volcano - a human sacrifice for the mountain gods in Inca times. Josie, skip the rest of this paragraph. At dinner, it was the opportunity to try guinea pig and unfortunately the local style preparation is whole. Head, legs, teeth, everything. Certainly not my cup of tea, but others on the table were braver (?) and then there was the obligatory playing with the head, which was really quite gross. I have had the alpaca though, which was really tasty.
From Arequipa we travelled to Colca Canyon. This was touted as the best place to see condors and they certainly put on a show, flying directly overhead and riding the thermals around the canyon. We also saw quite a few ohter bird species, along with alpacas, llamas, vicunas and something that may have been chinchillas - more than we expected to given that our bus broke down and we were stuck at the side of the road until the local bus passed or, in the end, we managed to hitch a ride back with other tour groups. It was a little inconvenient, as we both managed to leave our money on the bus and had to wait for the bus to be fixed and back for dinner last night before we could pay for anything. Fortunately we found someone willing to pay our way into the hot springs, so spend a relaxing couple of hours waiting for the resumption of normal programming.
Today we arrived in Puno, on the banks of Lake Titicaca. Tomorrow we are going to some of the islands, and there is talk of a soccer match at 4000m which could be challenging. So far, apart from a short bout of bus sickness, we've done very well with the altitude - it is 3800m here in Puno and the highest point we've been was just under 5000m.
Apparently, Puno is the place for souvenir shopping, so that is on the agenda for this afternoon - not that we're planning to buy much, particularly given how much of my family will also be in Peru sometime this year, but I'm sure it will be fun anyway.
We'll let you know how the soccer goes.
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