Day 72

Our Pick up by the tour company was scheduled for 0730 today, so being the good little boy i am i got up at 0600, then headed straight into the kitchen to boil up a couple of litres of water to make it safe to drink, this i did impressively in a sleepy stupor and it wasn't until it had been boiling for around about 3 minutes i realized that i didn't have a decent receptacle to put it in. settling for a two littre plastic water bottle, which pretty much shrank at least a quarter of its size when i poured the boiling water in, i filled it and left the mishapen bottle in the freezer to cool down.

I went back to wake Caz up and jump in the cold shower, then head for breakfast, the Hostel owner had just got up by the time i got out of the shower and she quickly started squeezing oranges to make sure we had juice with our breakfast.

they use their mouth to castrate

Caz to buttered the rolls we had bought as a snack for the trip, only for us to realize that it was sweet bread (tastes a little like a hot cross bun) and the cheese and ham we had bought to go with them tasted a little.. well unusual.

The bus turned up at about 0745 and we jumped on to join about 5 other people, and we carried on to another two Hostels to pick up a few more.

last person picked up, the guide introduced himself and told us  we were about to stop at a shop so we could pick up supplies to include water, sweets and Coco leaves.. yes coco as in Cocaine...... as in the Green gold of the Incas. Its a good job we did stop as i realised that the water i had gotten up so early to purify was still in the freezer, probably about to explode in the hostel. Bolloocks.

The next stop was about 2 minutes down the road to admire the two main moutains that dominate the Arequipan sky line, Cachani and Mount Misty, which is an active volcano. at the bottom of one of the slopes of misty is a much smaller version of itself.. a small volcano only a few meters high and several round. The steam that emanates from here is actually use dto supply electricity to Arequipa and to Puno via Pylons. it also serves as an early warning system to an eruption.. as it actually erupts proper before the main Volcano.

Stocked up we all jumped back on the bus and continued our journey, through surprise surprise  more desert and the foothills of the Andes.

after two or so hours, we stopped at a Cafe in the middle of no where, which shockingly enough had an artisan market outside and also sold similar stuff inside.

on the guide recommendation we went for a Mate Mixta, Mate being the word for  herb tea and mixta being Mixed. Basically what we got was a cup of hot water with different plants and leaves in, the only one i can remember was Coca, i think there was a type of mint in there as well as well as some other random plant, it was actually quite nice and is used by the locals to handle the three major problems of altitude... General Nausea, Stomach ache and headache.

it must have worked because as apprehensive as we were about altitude after our experiences at the El Tatio Geysers, we were prefecture ok (probably the fact that we were sucking back on the Coca sweets helped as well)

half an hour further on, the Bus stopped again to point out some indigenous animals, mainly a few different types of ducks, and the next stop we saw Vicunas, the smallest of the south american members of the Camelid family (as in Camel, they are all related) and the wildest and most vicious, they  are extremely territorial and move round in small groups normally one male to maybe five or six females, and they have a scary natural attack pattern.

Being devoid of horns or antlers, they only have one way to attack and defend, their mouths... and whats the easiest target on a male, being (normally) the softest and most exposed part of the body (well on animals and perverts anyway) yep, they use their mouth to castrate any other male that wonders into their zone, and whats even scarier is that; no doubt due to the copious amount of porn you can find in south america; they know where a human keeps his bits and they will attack you if you get to close in the same manner. needless to say, every bloke in the group winced and grabbed his bits once told,a dn shockingly enough, it was only the women that moved slightly closer for a picture.

The next stop we saw Alpacas and LLamas, Llamas being bigger than alpacas and the easiest way to spot the difference is to look at the tail, if it sticks up like a pony tail its an alpaca, if it sits flat against the body its a llama (main exception to this is when said animal is having a shit- they all lift their tails for that!)

after a few more minute in the van, we reached the highest altitude we have been as so Far 4900m above sea level (16,076 ft - 4076ft higher than the skydive i did in New Zealand)  to put that in perspective, Mount Everest is 8848 m above sea level (29,028ft) so about half way up everest.

we stopped there for a while surrounded by thousands of wishes represented by the small stone pyramids all around us and admired the view, feeling cold for the first time in a while we stood in awe at the speed at which the clouds whizzed past us.  and disappeared into the valleys below.

We then headed to the oh so connivently placed Artisan stalls, which were nothing more then locals piling rocks into table and hocking their goods, both Caz and i bought a Bracelet for about 2 Soles each as a memento from probably the highest  point either of us will ever be in our lives without the use or heroin.

We then descended into the town of Chivay where we had lunch at a restaurant a buffet meal for $15 soles each including our first taste of the nasty ass drink known as Chicha.. extremely traditional and very easy to make if you interested.. by corn, squeeze all the juice in a jug and a bag of sugar and drink, alternatively leave for a few days to ferment then drink and get seriously drunk.

after that we headed to our hotel to unpack and get ready for our trek that afternoon. The trek however was doomed never to be, the heavens opened in a big BIG way and it wouldn't have been safe, we waited for half and hour,  then another half hour then another until the guide came round and said, that we should just chill out for a while and that at five we would all be going to the hot springs for a swim. So Caz and i used our time wisely.. had a hot shower and slept.

Five came and we walked out to reception and then to the bus outside, only to find that the only other people going to the springs were the French couple.

we got their and got our tickets and straight into the 40'c natural hot spring, after about 30 sweltering minutes, and having noticed the raid had eased of slightly we headed to one of the much larger, slightly cooled outside springs, which was well nice.

we floated round chatting with the french couple, who had done a fair bit of traveling in their time. as we swam or actually floated in the hot pool surrounded by an amazing mountain range at sunset, the rain flared up again, and it made it even more spectacular, with the cold rain falling on your head and the warmth of the pool for most of your body, the horizon became Hazy with the rain and the top of the pool constantly exploding with each drop, it seemed like something out a dream and when the lightning started it only added to the effect.

arriving back at the hotel , we had 30 mins to shower and change before we headed to THE venue in Chivay a restaurant/bar with  a traditional show every night. With another set menu available we tucked into some top grub with Local beer and Listened to the traditional music, which believe it or not, had wicked tempo, and if wed had had the money on us we'd have bought the cd in flash as it turns out they were by far the best band we saw in South America.

Then it happened, they started dragging people out of the crowd to dance, and then the unthinkable happened.. i got dragged up, and after busting my best Justin Timerlake moves, i returned to my seat as quick as possible, ten minutes later, no one was left in their seat and a massive conga line circled the dance floor.

After e thoughrly enjoyable night, we all headed back to the hotel, at the exact moment of a power cut... on this note, several of our group with the guide went to a pub, which unfortunately we had to decline due to the lack of an atm and money in our pockets.

and luckily for no other reason than luck i happened to have a torch in my pocket and i lit the way back to our room, and a great nights sleep... until 5 am anyway...