What do monkeys dream of?

Oh, hey you. It's me again. Wait...what's that I hear? Less than a week? Less than ONE WEEK and I'm back home? Noo..that's crazy, you have to be kidding. Oh no, hold up. Yep, yep that's right. This time next week I'll be home. HOME. UK. HOME. So very very excited.

homestay mum & sister

I'm back in Cusco at the moment. I had to leave the beautiful Ollantaytambo this morning, after 3 brilliant months. I'm currently writing this from a very comfortable double bed with wifi (living the dream), but I am definitely going to miss the incredible views and even more incredible people from Ollanta. Waking up to snow capped mountains and quinua-filled chacras was something that I was very lucky to have done for the past months. I'm going to miss my homestay family a huge amount too. They kept me very happily full up on

coca tea, lomo saltado (my fave), rice and potatoes (not so much my faves), quinua and cuy. There was never an empty stomach in the house, which is what I love about the people here. They really don't have much, but there so willing to share what they have with you. The little girl I lived with was the happiest little thing I've ever met, every time I would come into the room she would scream 'Sasa' at me and then drag me over to her toy corner to play legos and barbies. The house would always be full of neighbours and 'cousins' (cousins in quotation marks here because everybody is introduced as a cousin), or random travellers and volunteers. I loved it! I'm also going to miss my Ollanta bestie, Holly, so much. Without her I would have been so lost the past 3 months, I was so lucky to have met her here! 

Okay, mushy stuff over (I can admit I blubbed a little bit on the way to the bus station this morning), time to tell you about my past month! Again, this could very easily turn into a small book, so good luck with reading it (if you get to the end you're a pure trooper, I don't even know if I can type it all). RIGHT lets start the chapters! 

Moray and Maras

So in my last post I don't think I talked about another mini-excursion me and the American did. We decided to take a little weekend trip to see some of the famous sights around where we live (because I mean, we've been there for 3 months, we should really see some things that aren't cafes and hostels). About a 40 minute drive from Ollanta are Moray and Maras, some really beautiful villages dead in the countryside. Moray is

 home to some incredible circular Incan terraces. Yes, we have had our fair share of terraces in Peru, but I still can't get over how amazing they are. The more common terraces are carved down the mountains, where the Incans use to cultivate their crops. However, the Moray terraces are slightly different. They're carved into the ground, in a huge circle. Apparently, the Incans used these terraces as a sort of experimental crop growing place. Each terrace, incredibly, has it's own mini-climate, meaning different crops can be grown at each level. For example, coca, which needs lower altitudes and a warmer climate, was grown on the bottom levels, and things like potatoes (of which there are literally thousands of types in Peru) were grown on higher levels. Yeah, it may sound boring, but I think it's amazing and a very clever way of growing things. 

salt flats!

Maras is another village. The attraction of this village are the Salineras, about 20 minutes out of town. The Salineras are huge salt flats. It's interesting here too, because they are nothing like the salt flats in Bolivia, which go on for miles and miles and are just plain white planes. No, the ones here are carved out on different levels (the Peruvians do love their terraces), and are sectioned off (look at the picture, it's kinda hard to explain). The views of these salt flats are absolutely insane - they spread quite far, and you have to drive down to get to them, which makes for incredible views. It's also the home of the famous Peruvian 'Pink Salt' which is supposed to be great for illnessess and gourmet cooking. After this, we were suppposed to go to Chinchero, a town famous for it's market. However, we arrived there after dark, and on deciding that we didn't want to find a hostel in this sketchy looking town, went for the safe option and went back to Cusco. We do love Cusco.

Bolivia (again)

on the hike

Why not go back to Lake Titicaca again? I was there in August with Steph, and it really is a beautiful place. So I went with the American again, and another girl from Ollanta! It was a lot of fun, and Bolivia really is cheap. Although the people, they're not so nice. Don't know if it was bad luck but pretty much every who talked to us was rude. But, hey ho. Also, it was freezing. And so very very windy. To be fair it is something like 3800m above sea level and on a lake, so you can expect it really. We stayed on the Isla del Sol (birthplace of the first Inca) for a night, and walked the hike from north to south which was challenging but fairly enjoyable. (More information about Isla del Sol in a much earlier blog post). The night we stayed on the island was, again, freezing. So freezing, infact, that the 3 of us got into a double bed because it was just that cold. I also had about 100 layers of clothing on. It was a short but sweet trip across the border, but to be honest we were happy to come back to Peru - nice people, nice food, nice wifi. 

The Amazon

So this is possibly the most exciting part of my past month. Me and Holly (I should start using her name really), decided that, because we're here and neither of us had been yet, to take a trip into the jungle. I thought I'd been here long enough without seeing the Amazon to go any longer. So, last week, we did it. Last

Sunday we flew into Puerto Maldonado, which is a jungle town on the Brazilian border. We stayed, for 2 nights, in a beautiful hostel just outside of town. Flying into the airport we got our first taste of the jungle - the aiport sits in between huge trees that makes it look like your landing deep in the jungle. Which, to be honest, you kind of are. The hostel we stayed in was great - as soon as we arrived, we were greeted by the lovely Thai owner, and, get this, monkeys. Baby. Monkeys. We sat on our porch outside our mini-bungalow for an hour and played with some monkeys, which was amazing. And so much fun. The baby one even took a nap in my lap which was the cutest thing ever. So we dined on Thai food for 2 nights, and then decided to do a 4 day tour across the river. We stayed in a lodge about 30 minutes down the huge Madre de Dios river, and were told that we would have a big itinery each day - which we really did. It's fair to say we were absolutely exhausted by the end of it! The first day, as soon as we arrived at 9.30am, we were escorted in another boat to Lake Sandoval, a huge lake full of amazing animal. We trekked for a couple hours in the jungle, wading

through mud, clinging onto trees and nearly falling over, a lot (well, me anyway). Also getting attacked by bugs. The lake was massive, and we were lucky enough to see otters, caiman alligators and 'smelly birds', so called because they stink. The next morning we woke up at 4am (I know...) to go and see some parrots, which again, didn't dissapoint. After breakfast, we went ziplining and canaopy walking in the jungle which was so much fun - scary, but fun, and then attempted to go to a place called Monkey Island (self explanatory). We kayaked half-way to the island, but then got pulled in by the main boat because it was going to rain. And rain, it did. Sadly we didn't get to the island (don't worry, we got to the next day), so went back and had a bit of a nap. In the evening we went alligator hunting which also didn't dissapoint. For our third day (phew, this is getting long), we visited a native community in the morning - which is a family of about 15

people living in traditional huts and living basically. They wear clothes made from tree bark, and still practice hunting techniques as their ancestors did. It was really interesting. In the afternoon we made it back to Monkey Island - which was great. 3 types of monkeys live there, and we got to saw a lot of them. They know that when the tourists come, so does food. In the evening we did a night walk through a jungle path - and we saw tarantulas, butterflies and lots of caterpillers! For our final day, we went fishing in the morning. Sadly, I was the only person not to catch anything. After that, we visited a fruit farm - a couple live on a farm which has mango trees, orange trees, pineapple trees, cucumbers and bananas. We also got attacked by ants and spiders here, my feet are now

covered in bites because I was the stupid one who wore sandals. Anyway, it was a lot of fun. Oh, also, the lodge we stayed at had a pet pig who thought she was a dog and was the cutest thing ever. One of the boat drivers also had a pet monkey, which is apparently very common in the jungle. Also I've failed to mention the heat. And the humidity. Dear lord, it was hot. 90% humidity and maybe 30 degrees C heat. Talk about sweat! But then, what can you expect, it's the Amazon. 

Right, so, I think that's about it for the moment. Sorry there's so much! So much has happened in a month. As I said, I'm now in Cusco, and fly to Lima on Wednesday morning to live with  Maddi in my beloved San Miguel until I finally fly home on Saturday! Excitement doesn't cover it. This week is going to go quickly, but I can't wait until I'm home :) 

I'll probably write another post when I'm in Lima, just to let you know I'm there! 

Hasta luego,
S x