This is Lindsay

Hello everyone! This is Lindsay, a happy little Canadian, from Peru. Sarah was feeling lazy tonight and asked me to write her blog post, and I agreed.

I started my Peruvian adventure early Sunday morning, and met Sarah later that day. We talked most of the night like little school girls, and had no regrets when we had to wake up at 6:00am to head to our teaching orientation. Our housemother, Sarah, is absolutely fabulous. She makes fantastic food and is extremely welcoming. (Sarah has said that housemother Sarah reminds her of her Grandmother, which makes her miss her even more!) Each day we take the 'public' transportation to Pachacutec, a suburb of Lima, about an hour and a half bus ride away. These buses are essentially privately owned and very VERY crowded. Pachacutec is home to thousands of small shanty homes, essentially slums, that do have electricity and water, as well as our school placements. Here, Sarah has been teaching a beginners English class consisting of three students - her favourite class - and a few other classes of younger students. My placements are both a bit further away, but we all teach at Pachacutec school on Saturdays, for the adults who can't come during the week. 

We have had lots of fun with the ladies at our homestay. Two Mexican girls, Macarena and Ane, are a tonne of fun, along with Johanna from Windsor, Canada and Shelby from Utah, USA. On Saturday we are all going to the Chocolate Museum (at Sarah's recommendation!), and on Sunday to the ruins south of Lima that Sarah had a miserable time with earlier in her trip. 

It's been great getting to know Sarah - for some reason Canadian humour and English humour seems to meld well together, and we're constantly cracking jokes at each other's expensive. This is truly the foundation of a good friendship. 

lindsay, shelby and sarah trying to take a selfie with the moon

I'm sure Sarah will update soon... about her lost wallet and lost bank card and lost camera. Oh Sarah.Oh poor poor Sarah. Anyhoo she is alive though, which is the important part. She may be poor, but she's alive. 

Well it was nice to meet you all - I'm sure I'll find myself around England at some point or another and you'll have a chance to meet this random girl who wrote on Sarah's blog that one time. 

Cool.

Goodbye, eh

'I survived Colca Canyon'

our walking group

...okay, so maybe the title is a bit over the top. In any normal person's opinion, Colca Canyon wasn't that hard. But this is me, so it felt like a complete mission. Basically, we went on a 2 day trek into the Colca Canyon, which is about 4 hours outside of Arequipa. It's beautiful, and full of rolling mountains and tiny oasis(es??). The tour guide told us that yeah, the trek is easy, don't worry, you walk 3 hours down on the first day and 4 hours up on the second day. It'll be fine, right?! No. No it was not. Steph loves a good trek so obviously, she was fine. However, as I haven't really been able to get used to trekking (see my previous post), it was not an easy feat for me. Don't get me wrong, the landscape is beautiful. However, when you have to walk down a 1100m descent in the sweltering heat, getting a nice view is not really what you care about. Getting down alive is what you care about. I swear there were moments when I thought, 'nope, this isn't happening today, let the mountain take me, I don't care anymore'. It was SO HOT. Eventually, I made it to the bottom, which consisted of a beautiful oasis, complete with swimming pool, bar and hammocks. Yes it was worth it! Sitting in the hammocks looking at the stars was definitely worth it. So we relaxed by the pool for the rest of the day, and laughed in the face of the guide when he asked if we wanted to do a little extra trek.

having a lovely time in the oasis

hey you condor

I've forgotten to say that before we did this mission of a walk, was took the bus to a Condor viewing point - which was amazing (the con
dor is the biggest bird in the world apparently, and is a sacred animal in Peru).

So the next day, we had to wake up at 4am to - get this - walk back up the same part of the canyon again. I know. At least it wasn't as hot though. So my group powered on ahead, and I walked at my own pace with a group of German & Polish guys (seriously, the Germans are everywhere here!), which was nice. The walk, however, was not nice. It took me around 3 hours, swear to God though there were times where I was not going to make it. I demolished the breakfast at the end, best food I'd ever eaten. After we'd all collapsed into the bus to go back, we were able to stop and see some Alpacas in the wild, drink some more Pisco Sours - made with some sort of cactus, and stand at the highest point in Arequipa (well I think that's what it was...) -it was 4900m, so pretty high, and pretty cold. When we got back to the hostel, we had some delicious Mexican food then collapsed into bed.

All in all, it was an interesting/hard/fun(?) couple of days, which did make me feel great when I'd completed it, but made me wanted to have a little bit of a cry whilst I was doing it.

Beautiful Arequipa

We're leaving Arequipa tonight, which is sad, because it has to be my favourite place so far. The buildings are so so beautiful, and there are so many amazing places to explore. Also, the food is delicious. We get a bus to Nazca at 10pm, so to fill the day we're going to do a traditional Peruvian cooking course in about an hour (yes, we do love our food). I have to come back to Arequipa, it is not a place that you can leave!

Some places I recommend in Arequipa -

• The Cathedral - we haven't actually been inside the 'widest cathedral in Peru' yet, just because of timing, but from the outside it's beautiful. Apparently its amazing on the inside too. 
• Juanita - Juanita is a 12 year old girl who has been perfectly preserved in the mountains for 500 years. She was discovered accidentally but climbers in 1995, and has since then been in a museum in Arequipa. The history of her is amazing, and she still has all her organs and blood preserved inside of her. 
• Crepisimo - food, food, food we love food nom. This place is amazing. They have over 100 types of different savoury and sweet crepes, as well as delicious salads (I have a lettuce, avocado, tomato, walnut and goats cheese salad). Steph had an avocado, chicken and cheese crepe which was beautiful too). 



casually stroking a Llama

• Alpaca World - I patted a Llama in the face. We fed some Alpacas. We were surrounded by Alpacas and Llamas and it was amazing. As you can see how the Alpaca/Llama/Vicuña wool is made and dyed. It's really interesting. And you get to pet real live Llamas. Everyone's a winner. 

So that's where I'm up to about now guys, I'm sure I'll do another post when I get to Nazca/Ica - so you can look forward to that! Yaaaay Peru!!

Hasta luego chiquitos, S xx

I'm Sarah, but you can call me Maize.

Fun fact of the day - 'Sarah' means 'maize' in the indigenous language of Quechua. 

Amantani

Oh hey again, haven't seen you for a while guys. It's been ages since I've had enough internet to make a post, so this is going to have to be one huge, book like post. Wooo! Whoever makes it to the end wins a prize.

I'm actually going to have to write this in chapters because so much has happened since we left Cusco...we've visited tiny reed islands, stared at the milky way and discovered the best restaurant on the face of the earth. So yeah, good luck with reading this one - you're going to be here for a while.

P.S - I'll highlight the really interesting bits for you lazy bums out there, because I'm just that nice.

Puno

After we left Cusco, we took a night bus and arrived in Puno. Puno is a nice town, and the fact that it sits on Lake Titicaca makes it a lot nicer. Traffic, as usual, was a nightmare, but we are pretty much half Peruvian now with our insane traffic-dodging skills. The hostel we stayed in, Marlons House, was lovely, except for the huge amount of stairs which, with my hundreds of suitcases, are not fun to climb up. On the first day in Puno we visited the Coca Museum which was absolutely amazing. The history of Coca leaves is so incredibly interesting (and I'm actually not being sarcastic). I've even decided that I'm going to write my dissertation about the fight between North and South America about criminalizing the Coca leaf (yay for having a topic). The Coca leaf is an amazing thing, and has so many medicinal properties, as well as serving as a very important part of the pre-colonial (pre-Christian) religions. The people here regard it as a kind of god, and I think without it a vital part of their society and history would be lost. Anyway, less about Coca, more about food. The museum was really amazing (as well as being able to dress up in Incan masks), but afterwards we were hungry and asked the hostel receptionist if she knew any good restaurants. Oh man, she did. We went to a grill. And it was beautiful. I had lamb. Yum. Puno served us well in the food department.

Floating Islands

on a reed boat

Puno is the prime place in Peru to visit the islands on the great Lake Titicaca. The lake is of huge importance in South America, and especially in the history. Isla del Sol is of hugeeee religious importance (but we'll come to that later). So we took a two day, one night tour to some of the Islands from Puno, and started off on some floating reed islands, which are literally islands made from reeds. And people live on them. It's incredible. We were shown how the islands are made, and told that every 15 days the inhabitants have to put fresh reeds on the top of the islands so that they don't rot into the lake. I find it amazing how people live on these places! The islands are so small, and have about 5 huts on them. They obviously make their money mainly from tourism, but I was breath taken by the whole thing. The views were beautiful as well; the lake is stunning! After the floating islands, we went over to another island, called Amantani. Oh my gosh, it was beautiful! So serene, and full of the terraces that are so iconic in Peru. We did a house stay here, so a few of us went with a local to his house, where we were fed delicious Quinoa (corn) soup, and discovered so more amazing mint-type tea. We also had a little hike to the top of two mountains, called Pachatata (father of the sky, moon and sun) and Pachamama (Mother of the earth), where we saw the sunset and just generally had an awesome time. After dinner, we were taken to a town hall, where we dressed up in traditional Amantani clothing (the COMFIEST thing I've ever worn) and had a brilliant few hours dancing and drinking with the locals. When we left the stars were out, and oh wow. We could see the milky way. Steph and I literally just stood on the balcony of the house for about half an hour, dressed in the Amantani clothing, staring at the stars. I've never seen anything like it, I really wish my camera could have taken some nice photos of it.

traditional clothing, beauts

The next day we went to Taquile, another island, and had a little wander. We walked from the boat port to the Plaza de Armas (main square), and saw some more beautiful views. In the main square there was a communal shop, which sold all sorts of knitted items. Taquile is famous for its sewing, so I had to buy something from the shop! It was a headband (which I know have waaay too many of), but it was pretty and cheap so I had to really. We then had a traditional lunch of trout (oh my gosh so good) and walked back down to the boat. All in all it was a great few days, and watching the sun set and seeing the stars really made it amazing.



Copacabana

beautiful sunset

HER NAME WAS LOLA, SHE WAS A SHOWGIRL...etc. This was sung a lot, not going to lie. So we went to Bolivia for a bit, and it meant I got more stamps on my passport so everyone's a winner. On the day we went (1st Sept), it was Dia del Peatons (pedestrian day), so getting the bus over the border wasn't easy. Luckily we only had to wait about an hour, but we did see lots of processions which was cool. Also, I like the fact that there's a day for pedestrians, that's pretty nice. We also met three Germans that we'd been to the floating island with, so we hung around in Bolivia with them. The first thing we did was go to the shops, obviously - come on guys, this is me we're talking about. Bolivia is extremely cheap, it's 10 Bolivianos to the pound, so we had a whale of a time. I bought another beautiful ring, more bracelets, socks and some legwarmers. As you do. In the evening the 5 of us sat on the lake front and had some beers while the sun set. That was pretty perfect. 

Isla Del Sol

hiking time!

We had high hopes of IDS to be honest, but when we arrived it was quite bare. The views were truly beautiful, but there's not really much there. We arrived in the North, which is the less-touristy bit, so we could do the hike to the south. It was also very very hot, so we had to take a lot of layers off and carry them. We had a little guided tour at the start, and I got to practice my Spanish some more with the tour guide (he said I spoke good Spanish, woo) and we also learnt about some of the sacred parts of the island. The IDS is supposedly the birth place of the Incan mother and father gods, so it's extremely sacred. After the guide, we started the 3 hour hike to the South. Apparently, it was a flat walk. But no, no it was not. It was a 'South American flat' walk, which means it's pretty much huge hills all the way. This was good for Steph, who loves climbing to the top of things, but not so much for me. However, it did make for some great views. We were all very tired by the end, and went in search of a hostel, which wasn't hard to find in the south. After finding a bed for the night, we needed food. Walking down to the port, where all the restaurants were, was great, but walking up wasn't so much fun. We all pretty much collapsed when we got back to the hostel, and had some of the best hot chocolates ever, which were very gratefully received!  The stars here again we beautiful, but as there wasn't much on offer at the islands, we decided to get a boat back to the mainland at 10.30am the next morning. 

Arequipa

We had another afternoon in Copacabana, and did some more shopping and ate some more food, and got the boat back to Puno. There wasn't really much left to do in Puno so we had a little walk about, and got up the next day to get a bus to Arequipa, which is where we are now. The bus journey was uneventful, and we got to Arequipa in the evening so couldn't see much of the 'White City'. We got into our hostel (Wild Rover, highly recommended by me) and settled in. So this was at about 9pm, and we weren't especially tired so we thought yeah, we can go checkout the bar and get a quite drink. 5 hours and numerous rums and cokes, beers and (god help me) tequila later, we went to bed, ever so slightly tipsy (don't worry mum/dad/nan I'm still alive and well.  This morning definitely wasn't as fun as last night was, but a bacon and egg sandwich made it A LOT better. After we'd recovered this morning, we took a walk around the city. Arequipa is such a beautiful place, with huge colonial style buildings, blue skies and backdrop of mountains. It's also really hot, which was nice for a change. Today we found a French cafe, which was so perfect for lunch and so delicious. But I really do have to stop talking about food. We also booked a tour to the Colca Canon for tomorrow, so cool things lie ahead! 

Arequipa is lovely

 And that's where I am now, Chicos. It's been a great week, and I'm slowly falling in love with Peru. I've also uploaded loaaads of photos on Facebook, so have a look if you haven't had enough of my travels!! 

I feel like I've written enough now, so, erm, yeah. That's all. Hopefully I won't leave such a long time between the next post, but who knows what's going to happen! 



Love you all, hasta luego! S xx