Saturday, 16 August 2014

On Top Of The World, Looking Over The Edge


Well okay, we weren´t quite on "top" of the world, but neither was Kate to be fair.

4,900 metres up mind, although it was on a bus, so does that count?






Today´s 3am start took us to Colca Canyon and a view of eight volcanoes.

We were supposed to see condors flying majestically on the thermals above their nests on the cliffs - that was the attraction - but in the end saw nowt.


Apparently, it was not hot enough. Hmmm... It was Peninsula Valdez and the orcas all over again, this time without even a chocolate biscuit-eating armadillo to soften the blow.

However, we did see some spectacular scenery as the sun rose and set over the canyon, and bumped into a Dragoman truck, which made my day a little more, as it brought back lots of happy memories (and we´re not even home yet) of the Pampas and Patagonia.



We chatted to lovely driver Julie from Preston, who will be revisiting our Santiago-Ushuaia route in a couple of months´ time, starting in Santiago on 24 November.



(I think that may be the Smiths´ start date but, if not, I´m told they will get Vicky.)

Yesterday we watched the Arequipa birthday parade, which was a bit of a big deal, where everyone turned out to march in local dress, with lots of international and regional floats and dancers helping the town celebrate in style.






Arequipa has a very nice town centre, but the outskirts resemble nothing so much as a cement pit and combined mining town crossed with a vast, half-built but already dilapidated building site. Hence, the town centre was a nice surprise. We took a walking tour and saw the sites.

Interesting Catholic nb: the Sacred Heart is replaced in these parts with a sort of ´sacred´ sun, so as to join the Incan and Catholic faiths together.

NB Sacred heart/sun
The Last Supper: main course is guinea pig, as shown! 
Incan Baroque
Our man Pascal. Another impeccably English-speaking European.
Lovely lady, lovely banana and strawberry juice.
The Mercado Esoterica also sells frog juice and animal foetuses, for medicinal purposes.

Cuzco tomorrow on the (Sunday) night bus - Macchu Pichu approaching...


Oh. I tried Cuy - it wasn´t great.



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