Dear friends,

(michal) First of all sorry for not writing for a while, unfortunately the Peru experience is so intensive that there is simply speaking not a single moment that we can sit and write something, but we promise to put a big packet of pictures next time!

Last time we wrote we just arrived from Costa Rica, through Lima to Arequipa!
Arequipa, turned to be on of my favourite colonial cities, nevertheless after having a short break we decided to go for a two day trip to the Colca Canyon!

Together with a group of eight Americans we started a long trip that lead through the amazing landscapes, vulcanoes and endless fields where you could see countless llamas, alpacas and vicunias (alpacas and vicunias are very similiar to llamas, the amount of fur is the only difference)

A very important aspect of our trip was the high altitudes. Since we had no time to adjust to the local altitudes (cities are situated on 2600-3600 m.a.s.l) we had to climb even higher where it was almost 5000 meters high. What can happen to you, well, some people get dizzy, the others get a headache (like Silvy), as for me I experienced this annoying feeling when you want to take a deep breath but you cannot due to the lack of oxygen in the air !

One of the very common remedies for these kind of annoyances is chewing of the coca leaves. Yes, yes coca leaves! But, no, you cannot get high from that, I even tried to, by chewing around 30 leaves and drinking a couple of coca mates (teas) the same day, but apart from running to the toilet every 10 minutes, there was no booze.
Well, they say that these leaves help to free the oxygen from your stomach in the hights, but I am not quite sure what do they do to you, one thing for sure both me and Silvy got some weird dreams the same day we were chewing them so there has to be something about it.

Coming back to the Colca Canyon – it is said to be the deepest Canyon on earth! The most characteristic feature of the canion was for me (since I come from the farmers´ family : ) ) the way that Inkas so many years ago managed to irrigate and cultivate their plantations on the slopes! What they were doing was creating special terrasses on the slopes, thanks to which they could use all of the surfaces of the Canyon (well it will be much more obvious once we post some pictures from the canyon). It is also shocking that the Inkas somehow knew how to collect water, how to preserve it and then direct it in such a way that in spite of the fact that the Colca could be easily compared to the frying pan, it was always green!

We have also seen real Condors! It was a really great and stunning view, Codors sliding inside the canyon..! Condors are concidered sacred animals by the local population, since they are not predators but eat dead meat and some dangerous insects, so they mae the whole canion and environment cleaner and safer.

The best part of the whole trip was that we were actually in some touristless place. Well apart from our group there were only a few tourists. This is so great. Actually by now I am convinced that the less tourists and the more rural place where you go is, the more you can learn about the country itself, its customs and its culture. The pretty dificult part was waking up at around 5am but imagine how much time you can gain thanks to waking up early! The mornings here are really stunning, full of fresh, cold air, you dont even need a coffee to wake up..!

Ok, we have to run right now for a bus to Cusco, we promise to put a lot of pictures next time !

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Dear family and friends –

(silvena) Firstly we apologize for not writing for a couple of days but it seemes we did not time our trip well and we gave ourselves way too little time in Peru and as i said earlier, we both think it is the most amazing part of the world we have seen by now. After spending one night desperately trying to change our tickets for a later departure to Venezuela, with absolutely no luck, we had to accept the fact that we will be on the road every sigle day if we want to see everything that we planned. So it has been a round the clock pack, carry, unpack and pack again our backpacks and we are constantly travelling and the evenings are hard to put ourselves together and find a place to write.

Anyway, enough of an introduction. You have already read from Michal¨´s entry about the absolutely unforgettable trip to the Colca Canyon. No need to bore you with more on my part, but i would just like to say that this trip made me not only enjoy the thrilling beauty of the finest (and we were told the oldest in the world – from the 6th century) terraces carved by the pre-inca civilizations who lived in the Colca Canyon but the most amazing thing is the way the current inhabitants of the canyon have captured this knowledge of living in harmony with nature and enjoying every gift that the Colca river offers them (even though the Spanish colonizers did quite well in trying to obliterate this amazing cultures of farmers). Everything is impecably clean, tidy and beautifully designed and you look from the top of the mountains to miles and miles of arable land, small fields of all colors of green, yellow, orange and red somehow amazingly put togehter as in a big puzzle divided by beautiful low rise stone hedges. Really stunning beauty.

I got carried away with this and my assignment for today is actually to tell you about another mesemrizing part of Peru – Lake Titikaka. We travelled to the lake yesterday and even though the journey was very beautiful, the altitude and the 6 hour bus ride (not counting the 2 hour delay) really took their toll on us. Neither the coca leaves (which we constantly chew on becuase supposedly they help to release oxygen from your stomach and make the altitude easier to bear), nor all the beauty outside helped much. We arrived in Puno (the biggest town on the lake of about 150 000 inhabitants) totally beat. We stayed in a hotel in a some small village near Puno called Chukuito. Believe me there is nothing happening in Chukuito. Their major attraction is the so called temple of Fertility of which however are rumors that it is fake. We did take a short walk at 6am in the morning (yes, we now are so pressed with time that we wake up so early J and mingled J with all the local grandmas and grandpas in their colourful costumes which they wear every day as if they are going to a carnival. The mere nothingness of this vilage made it so so great and i was tempted to believe the legend that the Temple of Fertility is build in this very stong energy field and gathers cosmic energy.

Lake Titikaka (supposedly meaning Grey Puma in pre-inca Aymara language – we were told that in those times people climed some peaks in Bolivia and saw that the lake had a shape of a puma) is the highest lake with passenger boat service at 3820m. And you can really feel the thin air here but the beauty of the lake and its islands under the burning sun (even though it is supposed to be the rainy season in Peru for once we are lucky and have enjoyed the clearest blue skies) made us forget our altitude sickness. We took a trip around its Floating Islands where Uros people live. We were told that the Uros people centuries ago tried to isolate themsleves from the war-liking Incas and Collas and later the Spanish, by building floating islands in the lake using reeds that grow in the lake. The islands are build by many many layers of reed, and they are constantly replenished from the top as they rot from the bottom. Quite a concept!!! When a new couple gets married, they can build their own island and start living there (and respectfully when people get divorced or there are family feuds, there were instances when islands were cut in two and separated... It is one type of a solution, i guess... J The feeling on those islands is very strange because you can feel that it is floating (islands are usually about 1.5 meters thick), and the gound is spongy and soft. The people on them were extremely friendly, and their houses and boats (also built from reed) seemed to me like some miniature version taken from a fairy tale. We took many pictures and with some luck in Cusco tonight or tomorrow we will post some.

All from me for now. We are now continuing our journey to Cusco (to capital city of the Inca civilization). Another 6 hour bus ride J

Cheers,

Michal and Silvena