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Hi everyone,
Hope you are well and getting excited as Christmas is
near approaching. I think Rich took you up until our
travels in Aguas Calientes (this is the correct
spelling due to my super good Spanish!! - not really
but we´re slowly learning new words)
We left Cusco and got the bus to Puno which is a
little town mainly visited by tourists as an access
point to Lake Titicaca. Lake Titicaca is one of the
largest lakes in south America and is really stunning.
What makes the lake so special is not only the fact
that its surrounded by beautiful mountains but also
the floating islands within the lake. We booked
ourselves on a 2 day 1 night tour to visit 3 different
islands. The first, Uros was a very special island as
the Uros people have built the island themselves out
of reeds and peat which they have to re-surface every
month, and their houses are also made of reeds! On
the second island Isla Amantani , we walked around for
some stunning views of Bolivia and then went to our
host families for dinner. It was amazing to see how
the islanders live and how basic their houses and food
is. Dinner consisted of rice and potatoes in a candle
lit room as the village doesn't have any electricity.
We spent the evening dancing the night away Peruvian
style (which is very exhausting) with our host
families having been dressed up in the traditional
clothing, you can have a good laugh at how silly we on
the photos. The following day we visited the last
island Isla Taquile and then headed back to Puno. It
was a really great 2 days as it gave us such an
insight into the lives and traditions of these people
and how all the little children seem to be so happy
without all the luxuries that Western children are
spoiled with. We met some great people on the trip
and so spent the evening with them enjoying a meaty
lasagna and some pisco sours (local drink - super
strong and super yum).
The next day we left for Arequipa which is a pretty
town with lots of colonial buildings, churches and
museums (very typical of a South American towns) We
chilled out in the square and visited a very
interesting museum and a very large monastery.
Our next stop was Nazca which is only visited by
tourists due to the famous Nazca lines which Rich and
i were a little disappointed with. I suppose it is
rather cool to think that these lines (which make
shapes of animals and plants and cover an area of 500
sq km) still remain after being created in the 7th
Century by the Parcas and Nazca people, however we
were a little skeptical and think that there may have
been some human interference to preserve them. In the
afternoon we adjusted to the heat as we have finally
come down from the high altitudes we have been so
accustomed to and so decided to start topping up our
very faded tans by chilling out in the Plaza Armas.
The following day we had a short bus ride to Ica from
where we caught a taxi to Huacachina (definitely
spealt wrong). Huacachina is a tiny little place but
its really cool as it is situated in the middle of
some of the largest sand dunes in the world. Our
sweet little hostel had a pool so we made the most of
it in the afternoon and then went sand boarding later
on. Being the complete novices at snowboarding Rich
and i are we had no idea how to sand board and so
consequently we were rubbish and couldn't stay
standing up for very long. It was however so much fun
and as the dunes got progressively bigger and we got
progressively worse we decided to lay on the sand
boards and go down on our tummies - much more fun
(although a French girl told me that she "almost died
for me when i nearly collided into the car she at the
bottom of the dune.
In the evening we enjoyed a BBQ at our hostel and had
a night of the pisco sours with a great group of
people we met, including one English girl who lives in
Harrow and knows loads of my friends - small world.
We are now in Lima which isn't a very exciting city so
we are having a lazy day before we fly to Buenos
Aires tomorrow. Ever since seeing Evita i have wanted
to go there so i´m really excited. We are planning on
spending about 3 weeks in Southern Argentina in
Patagonia before spending our last couple of weeks on
the beaches of Brazil.
Lots of love
Beth and Rich
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