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