Cusco, Carnaval and Carnage!
We made it!! The 'first class' tourist bus was still running despite the strikes and so we enjoyed a no problemo 9hour bus journey to Cusco. Stopping at 4300 meters this is the highest we have ever been and your head told you that it was about to explode! At this altitude we were not thinking properly and Jonny bought an Alpaca jumper! Dosen't even look good on him - Brucester you can have it! There were lots of other sites we stopped at and were given little history lessons along the way. Very interesting!

Cusco is beautiful but wet! We are really in awe of the Plaza de Armas (the central square of S.American towns) and the gorgeous buildings. But ... its carnaval here. This means they throw around water bombs, buckets of water, squirty foam and (fortunately for us, not experienced yet) eggs, flour, manure and rotten veg.
It's quite fun for the locals but as tourists without 'ammunition' we feel quite 'got at'. On the way Nat was hit by a water bomb and we all got covered in some foam although Nat took the brunt and got some in her eyes. A mother with her 4 children beckoned us across the road from their car and then pulled up and soaked us! Not the best way to welcome the tourists!
Arriving at the restaurant today, having taken a taxi for just two blocks, we found we were in the wrong place and so dashed, commando style, to the correct street only to find that if you wanted a roast dinner you had to book the day before! Do'h!! So after some more commando style peering round corners we ended up at a very western restaurant and ate a grogeous lunch. Now sat in an internet cafe we are contemplating the best route back to the hostel. We may stay here and creap back under cover of darkness!


We've got a tour of Sacred valley planned for tomorrow. Having learnt our lesson in Puno we did a lap of all the tour operators and chose the most expensive (5pounds instead of 3pounds) because they had an excellet English speaking guide, had a posh bus and would give us the best service.
Yeah right - we've been done again!!! Our two british friends here did the tour yesterday (we were going to do it with them but had "tummy problems") . When they arrived they were put on the same bus as all the other tour operaters that were going to charge 3pounds. The other ammusing thing is the guide would rattle of reams in Spanish and then turn to our friends to say "look at tree on left". Ohhh a tree!!! Wow - we got them in blighty tooo!!!

Altitude puff here puff is puff .... .... ..... ..... better than puff Puno puff. Are managing to climb one set of stairs before passing out and gasping "ox..x....gen". Even moved hostel (at an expense of an extra 1pound50 per night) so we only had to climb three steps rather than puffing up 100meters of alley-way steps.

Ok here we go .... waterproof jackets donned .... we are going to brave it!
Are tactics are going to be, take taxi, hide behind old women or fight back!!!! The latter is going to be difficult as we only have a takeaway chicken sandwich as ammunition!

Puno and Lake Titikaka
After a short bus ride of 5 hours we arrived here in Puno. Jonny and I were struck by the scenery. It was a wonderful change to see green mountains, llamas and lakes, from the desert landscape we have been seeing for the last few days. We were also struck that the Peruvian traditional dress is very much worn here. It was lovely to see ladies out working on the field, wearing vibrant coloured shawls to hold children in, black bowler hats on their heads, and wide bustled skirts over trousers.


Unfortunately the journey made Jonny and I feel fairly rough as we ascended to an altitude of 3800 meters. We have been told about the effects of altitude by fellow travellers during our travels and so were a little apprehensive.
Jonny woke in the night to discover his heart was beating very fast, it felt like it was going to come out of his chest. This was slightly scary! This is fairly common though so don't worry. Apparently, at this altitude there is 20% less oxygen than at sea level, so when your breathing slows down at night the body doesn't get enough oxygen.

When we arrived at our hostel, a slightly snazyish one, we were pounced on by a tourist tout. Having not really learnt our lesson from Nazca we purchased a ticket to the local floating islands from her. Lake Titikaka is the highest navigatable lake in the World and we thought it would be really interesting to see it, especially as we had heard from others and our guide book that the families that lived on these many islands have rich traditions and a very interseting history.
The next morning we were picked up from our hostel and boarded our boat. Instead of the promised reclining seats on the boat, there was a wooden bench with foam on. Woo woo woo we had struck gold! Some of the islands we visited were floating reed beds. These are not rooted to the lake bed and so float. So hence funnily enough they're named 'floating islands'. Periodically after limited rain the lake level drops and so the islands can self root to the bed. To prevent this the inhabitants cast off from the eucaliptis pole that the island is anchored to and tow themsleves to another part of the lake. Prety ingenious, we thought!
The islands are really soft under foot and would make a great place to sleep. We enjoyed the trip to the islands although it was very touristy. One of the islands we visited was the size of a large roundabout in the Uk and had 9 families living on it. It was really awesome that not only their island was made of reeds, their houses, their tables, their chairs, their boats and many other items were too.


Something else we found interesting during our trip was at the way that the young girls would whisper to us. We later discovered that until these girls are married their opinions and place in society is not valued, hence why they speak so quietly. Quite sad really!


We were told on our way home that there was a bus strike the following day so our planned journey to Cusco looked bleak.....

Arequipa
We arrived in Arequipa early yesterday morning. To get here, our journey was a little stomach rocking. I think this was due to the road surface which we have heard is one of the best in Peru. It makes us grateful for the continual digging up, resurfacing and road works of the roads round Cheltenham. Sorry we moaned mr digger upper!
Arequipa is really lovely. Although my first opinion of it was not so positive. We arrived at a place recomended by our taxi driver as a cheap place to stay. We understood pretty quickly as to why it was so cheap (The footprint guide suggested it was in an unsafe area), but being budget concious, stuck it out for one night. We are now staying in a lovely little room with its own powerful shower, (No its not a Mira!) and intend to do some serious relaxing before we travel to Puno. I think that the place we are staying in is our first 'mid range' accomadation. Woo woo woo!
We have just got back from a delicious lunch, seated on a balcony looking out over the Plaza De Armas. We were seranaded by 3 young boys and a gecko, playing the pan pipes, a little guitar and a bass drum. The Gecko was particulalry good on the pan pipes!
They were very talented and their singing was very harmonious. I know my colleague, Mr Webber, would have loved to have had them in his orchestra!

Here in Peru we regularly eat from the budget "menu" (pronounced men-oo). This means that we get a 2 course meal and a drink for the bargain price of 2 pounds. It is always exciting to see what arrives, as we usually forget to take our dictionary with us! Some of the dishes our very colourful and we hope that when we arrive in Cuzco later on in our trip, that we will learn how to cook these!
Tomorrow we are taking a lazy day to look round the convent which will be good for Nat (the lazy day bit!) and Jonny may go to see some dead people! Somehow Nats not too keen on the latter!

Update ...
The convent was beautiful and very relaxing although Nat got slightly stressed when we got lost in the labyrinth maze of rooms. We had to jump a barrier to find the exit much to the disgust of some passing tourists! Even Jonny declined going to see the dead people!

Nazca, Peru
Sometimes we get so behind in writing this blog, that it is easier to type about where we are now and then work backwards. That is what we are going to do today.
We are here in Nazca, a humid town along the south perimiter of Peru. As we travelled here on a very posh bus from Lima we were intrigued to discover what Nazca would be like. Our journey lasting for 6 hours was along a sun bleached and arid land. We arrived in Nazca to be surrounded by Touts recomending accomadation and tours. Thinking ahead for once, we had utilised our new friend Luke's Spanish and phoned ahead, booking a night in a hostel. The hostel is lovely, yet another reason to write to lonely planet! Jon and I have enjoyed having broken spanglish conversations with Fernando the owner, using our photographs of our family and friends as a conversation starter.
Nazca is famous for the Nazca lines, a discoverey made in recent years (1939 actually), a series of lines that can be seen when flying over the head. These lines form pictures of creatures and other objects. There has been much debate as to why these pictures in the sand have been made, and who it was that constructed them.
Jon, this morning went on an early flight to see these really interesting pictures.

Amazingly these lines include one of an Astronaut ....


Tonight we head off on, hopefully, another posh bus to Arequipa. These buses are very impressive. You have the option of having a fully reclining bed, a 3 course meal, and on bus entertainment (admitedly a very unexciting film in Spanish, but we aren't complaining!) I think badgerline ought to take note.

Lima, Peru
Whilst we have been travelling I (Nat!) have felt particularly homesick when we have gone through the baggage collection and had no one to greet us. In fact so much so that ocassionally Jon has pretended to be meeting me by saying 'Hey, Nat! I haven't seen you for ages!' We flew to Peru, arriving at the airport to be picked up by our friend, Jono. This was a real treat!
We got into a taxi, and realised that if a Peruvian took a driving test in England their style of driving wouldn't pass the test! For the first few days my eyes were firmly closed for most of the journey, the swerving in and out and constant honking, and very near misses slightly unnerved me! I got the hang of it though and actually found it quite fun. Like we mentioned a few months back, when we were in Malaysia, some of the taxis wouldn't pass an M.O.T. (most actually!) It makes our car look in perfect condition!

We planned to stay with Jono but Jono's house was having some building work done, so we spent our first week staying with the lovely couple Kevin and Sarah. We felt so welcome in their lovely home and really enjoyed having a chance to relax. They have a gorgeous son of 5 months who was great fun to play with, we wished we could have taken him home with us!
We sampled some local chinise food which is very popular in Peru and unfortunately it upset my stomach, but this was something else I realised quickly about Peru, there is no embarasment heald about dodgy tums, details are discussed regularly! This health problem came in handy as it allowed me to have an excuse not to eat chicken foot soup. MMMmm scrummy!

I did however sample the local delicacy of frogspawn ...

Only joking! This is a fruit called grenadilla which was extreamly yummy and helped with my tummy. Not only did it look like frogspawn but had the consistancy of it too!

Settling into Jono's building site was fun. The builders did not seem to view priorities highly and were frequently redoing jobs. In the second bathroom the toilet had to be installed twice, along with redoing a batch of tiling when it was discoverd that a rag had been left down the soil pipe. Despite the garden being bare, the kitchen unfinished, the windows lacking blinds and few other rooms being complete, they decided to fill the pool! Thats prioritising for you! Oh and then they dug up the dusty garden covering the surface of the pool in a nice film of mud. You've got to be here to understand but you soon learn not to let it rile you. I heard someone frequently say ... "Its the Peruvian way".

Summer clubs, fixing Pc´s and Jonos personal secretary!
Our purpose in Lima was to provide some support for Jono in whatever way would help him.

We were involved at the Iglessia where there was an EBDV (Escuela Biblia De Vaccacion) running for the youngsters of the La Tablada shanty town community.
Each day there would be some fun and games, a Bible study with memory verses and some more fun and games. We were amazed at how well the children remembered the verses throughout the week, although we were told that the most common teaching style in Peru is rote learning.
It was much fun trying to converse with these kids. Some of the younger children were quite shy and giggly at first but after I had done some crazy facial expressions and silly noises they began to relax. By the end of the time with them they had picked up a few english words like "monkey" which they used with much ammusement to rib each other. They were all really friendly and were quite sad to see us leave at the end of our stay.
We were struck by how happy and care-free these children were. They appeared to have so little compared to a British kid but actually I think they have so much more.
Jono gave some great little talks and we were very impressed with his Spanish.



Getting up to La Tablada was a task in itself. The kombi buses (or electricians vans) had less legroom than the length from your hips to your knees. So it meant sitting "side-saddle" or scrunching up. On one count there were 24 in our kombi which only had official seats for 13, including driver, although there is a rug for another 4 placed over the engine block behind the front seats.


We also helped with various PC problems. On one occasion a family came running asking for help with their monitor. I was expecting a major fault but found that somehow they had rotated the screen image by 90° and had to crane their necks round to view the image. Fortunately this was easy enough to remedy, unlike Jesus' PC which had no earth, and whilst trying to install a cd burner, gave me a belting electric shock and blew the motherboard! The electrics here are very dodgy!

To earn a little pocket money some of the youth have set up a jewellery making project where the items are sold through Latin Link contacts in the UK. The items are really pretty, just don´t buy one of the ones that Jon and Jono had a go at making ...