Miss Maps Goes Solo

I´ve done so many bus journeys recently that they´re all merging into one. So after some journey I can´t recall, we arrived in Arequipa, second largest town in Peru, at about 7am and slept for a few hours.

Arequipa is a nice enough place with a very pretty mian square but after Cusco it was nothing special. However, and this is going to sound really gringo, we found a fantastic place for falafel and ate there almost every day.

The town is worth a visit purely for the St Catalina Monastery, an amazing mini town founded by the Spanish invaders. It´s a maze of bedrooms and kitchens once inhabited by nuns. Apparently it was set up by a really well off order and they all lived pretty nicely. Then the Dominican order came in, they´re one of the most servere ones so I reckon they shook things up a bit. It closed down pretty soon after, although nuns of that order live there now (we saw them hanging up their knickers, hee, hee).

Near to Arequipa is the Colca Canyon, over 3000 metres deep it´s deeper than the grand canyon and people visit to watch the condors there early in the morning. On the way we stayed in a place called Yanque, possibly the most remote place I´ve seen so far. Our hotel was a family affair with chickens and guinea pigs in the garden (definitely not for pets might I add). The husband escorted us down to the hot springs via some fantastic scenery of canyons and ancient inca terracing. While we soaked ourselves it became dark, not something I´d thought about when he showed us the dirt track to return by later. For those of you who don´t know, I´m scared of the dark, pathetic at 26 I know. The road was pitch black and a bit treacherous what with the steep drop into the canyon on one side. As we began walking I started to suffer from altitude and couldn´t breath very well. What with that and the terror of not being able to see, I had a bit of a melt down and we had to ask the guy at the baths to help us. He flagged down a car which must´ve contained 10 people already. Unbelievably the driver squeezed the 3 of us into the boot and away we went, all tangled and foetal with me snivelling like a child. We stopped a couple of times while the driver got out and kicked the side of the car that sounded like it had no tyres. Before you freak, family, this wasn´t a silly, dangerous thing to do, there were women and children in the car too and we asked for the help of a local.

The next day we went to the Cruz Del Condor, a great look out point. The view was great but I couldn´t really enjoy it as I felt like I might vomit at any moment, I hate altitude sickness. Peru is definitely the country of dodgy tummies too, all 3 of us have had constant problems.

I must admit I´ve had a few days now of feeling like I´m ready to go home. I think it´s the constant bus trips and illness. I also feel like if my trip finished now I would´ve had an amazing time already. I need to find the extra motivation for the next couple of months. Next stop is Lake Titicaca, on both the Peru and Bolivians sides. Hopefully we´ll all have a great time and I´ll be back on track.

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