Greetings from Peru!

Hello again dear people,

I am writing from Arequipa, Peru, an incredibly architecturaly beautiful and modern city. We have been here for two days and it is our favorite large city so far on the whole trip. There is so much to see and so much to do. But, before I get into all of that let´s flash back to La Paz.

We were there for three full days and spent most of the time just walking around the city. We did not make it out to any museums (we hoped to go to the coca museum), as our first day we spent just settling in and then the next two days happened to be a Sunday and a Monday... when all the museums are closed! The city was very hustling and bustling, and the most shocking thing to see was all of the shoe shine boys who run around wearing ski masks covering their faces and shining peoples shoes. Other than dodging the mask clad shoe shiners, we spent much of our time in the food and craft markets. The other adventures of La Paz involved a couple of things at our hostel... It was a ´party hostel´ that had a pub downstairs and a connected microbrew. The perks of this included a free home brew every evening and some great evenings playing Yahtzee, Pass the Pigs, Cribbage, and Nuscht. But, the downfall was the craziness that ensues when people have a bar in the same building as their bed. We ended up changing rooms once due to a lot of ´nighttime activity´in our dorm (I won´t go into detail) and by accident left our iPod hidden in the pillow. By the time I remembered I hustled back to our old room, to find that my bed had already been made. When I asked at the reception if housekeeping had found an iPod the slightly rude receptionist told me that if it had been found it would have been given to him. He said we were out of luck. His refusal to even look into it was slightly upsetting so we took it a level higher to the reception at the associated bed and breakfast located just next door. The woman there made some calls and had the iPod in five minutes! Not that our iPod is vital to our trip, but it was nice to have it back and to see that someone was willing to help us out.

When we left La Paz we went to Copacabana, which is a great little city nestled between mountains on the shore of Lago Titicaca. Here we sought out the cheapest accomodation in town (which was still clean and had great views of the lake and only had private rooms) and almost ended up paying for it! We went out for dinner one evening and were cold so we hustled back to our room to grab sweaters... where we met the hotel owner in our room with the door closed! He said that he was changing the plastic under the mattress, which was a lousy cover because there was not plastic under the mattress. Nathan and I had difficulty dealing with this situation because clearly he is in a desperate situation, and he is also clearly dealing with guilt about it because he pleaded to us that he really wasn´t a bad man at his core. This experience was a great chance to practice Spanish, and also practice forgiveness. We ended up staying there one more night (but not without ´boobie trapping´our room with carefully placed socks and pencils so as to detect any activity when we went out for the day) and after that only had positive experiences.

From Copacabana we took a boat over to Isla del Sol, and decided at this point it was wise to switch hostels so that we could leave our large backpacks somewhere secure for the two days and one night that we would spend on the island. The island was incredible, and the five hour hike across it was quite breathtaking! The altitude was over 4000 metres and we were easily out of breath, but the incredible views of the lake and exploring the Inca ruins were worth it completely. As we entered the town at the South end of the Island, called Yumani, there were little broods of children calling us to stay at their mothers places. We ended up going with a ten year old boy named Allan, who was thrilled when I told him that my Grandfather shared his name. He was great, and so was his mother. We felt very welcomed there and the only nuissance was the ´hee-haw´ noise of donkeys that rang throughout the whole town at all hours.

Once we returned to Copacabana we semi-promptly left for Peru, heading to Arequipa. The bus ride was only about nine hours, but it turned into eleven. As we entered Peru our bus stopped and the driver stood up and said ´you are going to have to get out, put on your bags, and walk for five to eight kilometers'. There was no explanation, but once we exited the bus we saw that the road was blocked by piles of boulders and later rows of sitting people. We had no idea what the protest was about, but strapped on our packs and started walking. We just had to be thankful that it was the middle of the day and not raining! The scenery was incredible but it was a little difficult to appreciate when the local people were hollering and giggling at us, using the classic name of ´gringo´. It was a bit of a hostile welcome to the country because we felt like the laughing stalk of hourdes of people. After walking for about an hour we met up with another bus that was luckily waiting to pick us up. Once entering this bus, and then transferring in Puno to another bus, Nathan and I were sitting across the aisle from a mother, father, and baby. They were so incredibly kind and sweet that it completely changed the mood of our day. They gave us some of the plums that they were eating and really showed us hospitality. Then, as we were driving into Arequipa, we witnessed the most incredible sunset. The sun illuminated all of the volcanoes and hills in orange and the whole sky was lit with a completely indescribable colour. Once we arrived we packed into a small taxi with four other tourists and headed for the hostel (seven adults and six huge back packs in one car was quite a site and experience). We found a great place to stay and have spent the last few days exploring.

Today was a day that felt like home! Nathan and I began the day by walking the city looking for a mass or church service to join in on, and ended up in a spectacular cathedral off of the main plaza. Neither of us have been to many Catholic services, but we really enjoyed this one. The juxtaposition of the priest in ornate robes and the young man doing collection wearing a KISS jacket was wonderful. There was also a toddling girl who kept marching up the finely marbled aisle and raising her arms with conviction. After the mass we walked around the city and wound up sitting on a blanket in a park enjoying a picnic and a few rounds of cribbage (in which I crushed Nathan every time I might add). It was a georgous park and was full of families playing and even some traditional dancers putting on a bit of a show! One woman came up to us and asked me to hold up my cardigan in front of her, and she then proceeded to take of her blouse and trousers in exchange for the traditional blouse and heavy skirt and then she promptly joined the dance! We also had many little kids running by our blanket practicing the English that they knew, 'hello'! Then the clouds started to gather and darken, so we made our way to a cafe... called Cusco Coffee. It resembled Starbucks quite startlingly... kind of eerie really! We relaxed their over warm beverages and safety from the rain, enjoying our books. This cafe also provided us with the nicest bathrooms we have used in weeks!

Tomorrow we plan on escaping the luxury of the big city and heading to Cabanaconde, which is a town of three thousand perched on the edge of Colca Canyon. We will do a trek down into the canyon, spend a night there, hopefully see some condors, and then return to civilization. We are super excited for this chapter of our trip as in just over a week we meet up with our dear Winnipeg friend Linda in Cusco! It will be great to see one familiar face, as we miss all of you loads and buckets worth.

Big big love to you back home,

Chloe (and Nathan)