My last week in Peru was spent getting up to mischief with Akanksha in Arequipa, and meeting friends in Lima. Towards the end of my week in Arequipa, Akanksha and I took a tour to the Colca Canyon, to see the legendary Condors. We were lucky enough to see many soaring overhead, some even came quite close, quite a frightening experience given their massive size.
On the way to the Colca Canyon, we saw lots of spectacular scenery, including local fauna such as Vicunas (from the camelid family with hugely valuable fur), Alpacas, and Llamas. As well as local people, who I suspect were dressed in their traditional garments for the sake of the tourists, who were probably expected to pay for photos of them.
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| Vicunas grazing. |
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| Llamas (or alpacas?). With two odd ones out, sticking together. |
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| The rocks were stacked in this way in much of the rocky desert leading to the Colca Canyon. I'm not sure who exactly do it, but these rock piles are said to be offerings to the volcanoes, that ring the area. |
In Lima I met with friends on both of my two nights. One of them, Danny who is in photos from my first visit to Lima, took me to the Park of the Fountains, a park in Lima with fountains that dance to music, and in fact occaisionally show projections of dancers that appear to be moving in the water.
The second 'family friend' was a contact met through strange strange connections and coincidences. Lovely Laura took me to a cute restuarant and impressively conversed, with her friend who also joined us, in English for the whole night. Hope to see you again soon Laura!
The flight home was a nightmare that I won't go into, suffice to say it involved one leg of a solid 21 hours in the same plane and a reroute via Tahiti. Stupid volcanic ash! I arrived in Sydney (not even in the right city after all this), to find that my luggage was not with me. And still is not... let's hope that my 6 weeks worth of browsing and shopping in quaint markets in remote places will be restored to me swiftly!
But, it is still great to be home, with a warm house, HOT shower, safe drinking water, cooking facilities... what luxury. The thing I'm disappointed to have to get used to again is... prices! Why is Australia so expensive? Anyway, it is good to be back, but I'm already planning my return to Peru......
ALSO TO MY LUGGAGE: PLEASE COME HOME, MUMMY LOVES YOU!!
A boy with his llama, and my version, done last night when I found myself awake at 3am... which funnily enough also happened tonight!
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