Santiago

It was a very long trip to Santiago from Arica. 30 hours and mostly desert which looked like this:



When we arrived it was very busy and felt like we were suddenly back in London or some other big city as we fought through the crowds to get down to the Metro with our big bags. We managed to get a ticket and squeeze onto the train though You might say we were heroes to manage it and arrive at Los Heroes Metro station... ha! Our hostel was quite nice and we had a room up the top looking over the rooves:



The next day we went up to Parque Metropolitano (More climbing up steep hills to make a change) and looked out over the city. It was big!







There was a nice nativity scene at the top next to the church. Joseph reminded us of both our Dads!



We found a nice green spot on the way down:



We had a good walk round the city and saw La Moneda:



Also Placa De Armas and on Sunday a few of the museums as they were free!

Cusco to Arica - the long goodbye

After waving a sad goodbye to Beth, who was off to Lima and a long wait before getting her flight back to snowy London, we headed back into town to book our bus ticket to the Chilean border. Problems with availability meant that we could only get a bus as far as Arequipa, which was still 6 or 7 hours from the border. Still we booked it, thinking that buses in Peru are as common as packs of dogs and we were sure we wouldn't have a problem.



So with the rest of the day to kill we wandered back to the Plaza de Armas past crowds of people in heading to what seems to have been a championship match for Cusco's football team. A crowd of noisy people were parading a giant effigy of a star player (I forget his name) and throwing bangers. It was a lot like Lewes bonfire really, apart from the sunshine. We went to an Paddy's pub, an Irish bar in town for something to eat and ended up half-watching the game with a crowd of young Americans, all enthusiastic Cusco supporters, wearing shirts and bandanas.



We picked up our bags and got to the bus station, followed by yet another stray dog and after an overnight journey, we arrived in Arequipa. A strange man was hanging around our bags but we managed to shake him off and after stocking up on provisions for the journey we were heading for Tacna, on the Peru -Chile border. After a long, dull journey without much window, and shockingly, no film (!) we arrived at Tacna train station and filled our our forms before catching the twice daily Tacna-Arica train, in what was the part of the journey most worthy of a Michael Palin episode (and which was in fact an episode I think).



The train was an hour and a half journey across the desert between Peru and Chile in a one carriage train filled with people who had obviously come to Peru to stock up on toilet paper.




We arrived in Arica, on the Chilean coast, with a port full of rusted-up vessels and palm trees and eventually found our hostel where a man with terribly bad language helped us to our room...

Machu Pichu

We had quite a trip to Machu Pichu getting up at 2:30 to get a taxi then a bus to catch the train. Then starting at 8 climbing up the steps to get to Machu Pichu. We were exhausted when we got up there which was a bit of a shame as we found it hard to walk around the actual site. It was quite a sight though!

It was easier going down of course and nice to relax in the hot baths. We had some dinner before cathing the train back and arriving back in Cusco at 11pm. Quite a long day!

Cusco

We got a budget bus to Cusco which wasn't as luxurious as some that we have travelled on but got us there. We were very pleasantly surprised when we arrived at our hostel which had a lovely courtyard in the middle and a nice big room with steps up to Beth's little room.









We got there late but went out exploring the next day and to book our trip to Machu Pichu. (This actually became quite an effort going to and from the train station and bus place). We thought the man was stamping cancelled on our tickets after meticulously writing them out. Ćancelado- But apparently it just meant they were non refundable!

We went to a nice (but expensive) tea place to have our first nice cup of tea for weeks. then we had to get an early night for our 2.30 am start!

Puno, Lake Titicaca and the floating islands

We took a blisteringly hot bus from Arequipa to Puno (the temperature gauge said 42 degrees and I was willing to drop for the whole 6 hour journey. According to 'the book', Arequipa to Puno is one of the most dangeroud bus jounreys you can do in Peru, due to the altitude and driver tiredness. I don know why they should be more tired on this journey that others but I got the altitude. When we arrived in Puno we were certainly having a bit of trouble breathing, and didn't sleep quite right the whole time we were there.

We spent a bit of time trying to work out the correct title for Lake Titicaca. Was it the highest Lake, or the highest Big Lake? Apparently it is the 'Highest Navigable Lake' in the world. So we set out the next morning to navigate our way across to the Floating Islands. Opting not to go with a proper tour company, we headed for the port and were soon accosted by a man selling us boat trip to the islands. We got on board, watched by the crowd of Peruvians thronging the quayside and donned our lifejackets.

We soon looked stupid as we the boat filled up and we were the only ones wearing lifejackets. So the Ellis' removed theirs. I don't know why, but I kept mine on.

After half an hour boat ride we were there and setting foot on the floating islands. Very strange, as they are made of layers of reeds and were very spongy. We sat down and were introduced to Walter, who gave us a history of the islands and some info on their construction, before kindly taking us to his house. (I say kindly, but we soon found out why we got the invite, behind the richest-looking people in the boat). We had a quick chat about the careers of David Beckham and Frank Lampard (he was talking to the wrong people here I think), and he introduced us to his wife and little baby, before dressing us up and prising $40 from Rich's clenched fist for a hand-made wall-hanging. Which luckily I wanted anyway.

Back in Puno and on dry land, we bought our cheap bus tickets to Cusco and went to have some dinner. The lovely lady with the squeaky voice in our hostel seemed surprised when we told her we were going to Cusco, but it may have just been the natural pitch of her voice.

Arequipa

We arrived in Arequipa at about 10am and managed to get a taxi to our hostel which was very nice with 3 little beds in a row. We had a little rest after traveling all night and then went to have a walk round town and have some lunch looking over the square.

We visited the Santa Catalina Monastry where there was one particular scary nun in her room... or cell. (She is not real):











We went out to an Irish pub for a few Pisco Sours that evening and didn´t get home until late! The next day Beth and I went to the market and then we decided to save a bit of money and cook our food in our hostel in the evening:







We also cuaght a glimse of Father Christmas that evening outside Cusco Coffee!