Peru - Puno, Arequipa, Cusco

Day 24 The bus trip to Puno was an interesting one as it included the border crossing. This meant disembarking the bus, going through the Bolivian immigration office, walking across the border, going through Peruvian immigration and then returning to the bus to continue the drive to Puno. We made yet another Aussie friend on the bus, Caitlin, from Melbourne who was travelling by herself at the moment. We exchanged details and would later meet up for dinner along with some English friends she had made on the bus as well.

In the meantime, we walked to the hostel and checked in before having a big walk around the city. We went down to the lake and found lots of markets and a nice waterfront. Then through the city and its busy streets, main square and shops before returning home before dinner.

At the recommendation of Caitlin (via someone else) we headed to a restaurant which ended up being closed for renovations. On the door, it suggested other restaurants to try and the one we walked to was also closed so we walked towards the main shopping mall and touristic area and found a restaurant a street removed from it all. We finally ordered the 3-course set menu and each enjoyed our average meal, the best part being the pisco sour to start. It was nice chatting with Caitlin and the couple from England before walking home to our hostel.

Day 25 The next morning, we had another interesting (mini tourist) bus transfer to our next destination, Arequipa. This time there was a guide who gave some information on the area and the sights we would see, although, it was miserable weather and the sites weren't very good. A lagoon, mountains (covered in clouds) and some wildlife that you would normally see on the drive were the attractions. It included a lunch, which was good. Ellie and I went to Arequipa, while the rest of the bus to Chivas, resulting in a private car for the 2 hours from the lunch spot. In the end, we made it to our hostel which was in the historical area of the city.

We had a later lunch as well at a place called Hatunpa, which sells dishes with a variety of potatoes. With South America being famous for its number of potatoes (over 5000), it made sense. I got the special variety with 7 types and Ellie had 3 normal types and each came with our selection of stroganoff and Mexican mince toppings. I wasn't blown away by it but it's popular on trip adviser, the staff were really friendly so maybe that's why.

After lunch, it was raining and went on a quest for a massage, we felt we needed one after so many overnight buses and cramped sleeping positions that made us stiff and sore. When that failed, we opted for a rest at the hostel until we went out for a quick and easy meal for dinner before going back to bed. We ate empanadas, chicken and some chips. Not healthy, but it ticked the boxes of quick, cheap and easy so we were happy. We finished the night off by watching a movie on the laptop then dozed off in the night.

Day 26 After a lousy start as tourists in Arequipa we made up for it in the morning with the walking tour. We first at breakfast at a nearby cafe and then proceeded to walk around town with a fast speaking guide. She was a little hard to understand but got the job done. We visited a coffee and chocolate house to try a cocoa tea, the main square (Plaza de Armas), saw the cathedral, visited an old monastery/ school / marketplace, went to the main markets and ate cheese ice cream, a museum and a bar to sample another pisco sour. It was a bit annoying because we did a circuit of the city that seemed wasteful just so we could go to the bar for the drink when we could have finished the tour on the other side of the city and it didn't mention the main monastery of the city, one of the top attractions of the town.

We still tipped and went back across town to the market to have lunch and some juices. The freshly made juices have been amazing and cheap with our favourite being passionfruit, pineapple and mango. For lunch, we ate roast chicken and roast pork rolls, with a nice salad for only 5 soles. Soles are the Peruvian currency and for 1 Aussie dollars you get 2.5 soles, so our yummy lunch rolls were only 2$ each (1£).

As we were in the area with lots of shops we went into a few and found one selling discounted bags, including a good Samsonite backpack for a good price. It was a legitimate shop so we went ahead and got a new day bag as our original bag (a free one from a U.K. Teaching agency) was falling apart. Ellie was really excited and couldn't wait to get home and repacked the new bag, She even carried the day bag a bit more for the next day but I assumed most of the duties... Happily of course. The shopping area is interesting as each street has a theme or common trend. Some streets are electronics, some laundromats, some hardware, some tailors and others blacksmiths. It's hard to understand how shops next door to one another make money selling the same products or services, but they must make money to survive. Perhaps it's like the food markets in that people have their own stores they return to each time. Nevertheless, it's interesting and also makes it easy to know where you are based on remembering streets you have passed before.

We ventured around the city again but eventually returned to the hostel to relax some more as the big few weeks had taken a toll on us. Ellie booked in for a chocolate making class for tomorrow and later we went out for dinner. This time a little nicer than empanadas, chicken and chips. However, the first thing we ate wasn't so. At a taco shack we got one taco each, which we were told would easily fill us up. Wrong. Plus, the flavour was ordinary so we coughed up 20 soles and headed to Kiwi Corner. Kiwi Corner is a New Zealand bar and hangout location just 2 minutes from our hostel. Here we had some delicious buffalo wings and beers while we played some pool and had a few drinks before the long walk home to bed.

Day 27 I wasn't feeling the best in the morning so we returned to the restaurant we had breakfast at yesterday as the eggs on toast wouldn't have made me sick. After breakfast, we went for a big walk to one of the lookouts of the city in an area called Yanahuara. The hostel receptionist had told us it was a good view of the city, but it didn't live up to his hype. It mostly saw the tops of roofs in the nearby area and you could make out were some taller buildings in the city were. It killed some time and we continued walking around the area, outside of the main touristic and historical centre.

Later we returned for lunch at the markets and ate the same roast chicken and salad sandwiches. The lady working there was happy to see us again as return customers and loaded up our sandwiches with extras. We got another tasty juice and later went by some different shopping streets and watched a blacksmith repair a young man’s football boots. It appears it's more likely that people would get shoes repaired then by new ones, which is great recycling and something that doesn't happen in Australian very often.

Soon it was time for Ellie's chocolate making class and I went off to the main monastery that was skipped on the walking tour. Instead I got a personal guided tour for one hour for an extra $8 on top of the entrance fee. It made it much more worthwhile to hear the history of, and the purpose of different rooms and sections of the city within a city. It really was a city inside the walls and still maintains a section of a working monastery with 27 nuns. The youngest being 22 and the oldest 87. The way in which the monastery operated and the way nuns lived their lives was fascinating as I improved my understanding and knowledge in these areas.

While I checked in on sister act, Ellie was acting like a chef. Learning about beans, roasting, mixing, cooking and flavours in a 3-hour masterclass. The end result, one happy girl and a bag full of mixed chocolates, mostly dark. I got to sample a few so I was happy. While Ellie finished her class I made some phone calls home and relaxed in the chocolate cafe, not a bad afternoon really.

Later we ate some burgers from 'Burger Chulls', a newly opened shop nearby and had a great experience. The burgers were good and the staff really friendly in a cool little shop. We had to eat quick and then head to the bus terminal which we did in a cab with an English couple from the hostel. From there we had an overnight bus to Cusco, the capital of the Incan Empire before Spanish invasion in the 1500's. The bus left at 8:30pm and marked the end of our time in Arequipa. It's a nice city that may be looked over for places like Cusco and Lima but I'm glad we had time to relax and explore before a big few days coming soon.

Day 28

We arrived in Cusco early in the morning and arrived at our hostel via a taxi from the bus terminal. It was an absolute delight to once again be able to check into our room at around 7am and have a rest in a bed before exploring for the day. We went to an Aussie breakfast restaurant called 'Jacks', but it wasn't open on this day for a 'special' reason. Instead we went and found another place and it turned out to be a good thing as the food and juices at the next place were fantastic.

Following breakfast, we had some energy to complete a walking tour around the city. It wasn't the best tour and it wasn't the worst, some history was discussed and we moved around to some significant sites and landmarks but the guide was difficult to understand at times and held a bias to the Quechuan history. This being those before Spanish conquest of South America. The Quechuan people were ruled by the Incans, which is the name for the king. However, the Incas is a more commonly used term to describe the people. Her bias was understandable as the Spanish slaughtered Quechuan people and attempted to remove their culture and evidence of existence. The guide would have fared best to be impartial and allow us to determine our thoughts and give facts and tell the story. Then some of the tour was a lot lighter with a visit to a musician and local stores with Peruvian (not Spanish) instruments, music, materials, clothes, artifacts and ornaments.

The tour ended well with a short cooking class that showed us how to make ceviche, a traditional seafood dish. The fish is served raw; however, it is cooked in lime juice that is really acidic. Ellie loved it so we stayed for lunch and she ordered it off the menu, while I ate a saltada (Asian influence Peruvian food like a stir fry). Mine was better than hers and not just because hers was fish that I don't like.

After lunch, we had some time in the city to look around but also needed to visit our tour agency for Machu Picchu to confirm our attendance and get information on what we needed to bring. Although this was brief, we spent a bit more time in other agencies looking at a day tour to Rainbow Mountain. In the end, we must have visited 10 and found the best one for us. Many tours started with a 3am pick up but ours wasn't until 5am as we were going the day after completing the Machu Picchu 4-day hike. Once that was sorted we spent some more time looking around and then went for a rest and a shower at home.

Later in the evening we returned to a restaurant the walking tour advertised called Tinta. We shared a few dishes including the alpaca steak in garlic sauce that we sampled earlier in the day. It was really delicious and so were the 'tequenos' with avocado salsa. They were pastry cylinders with cheese inside and we also had some vegetables with it all. The food was exceptional and we got a discount from having returned from the tour. This made it a good night so we returned home and happily went to bed, an early night - the usual.

Day 29

Our second morning in Cusco saw us return to Jacks cafe and happily eat some Aussie styled breakfast, although it didn't quite measure up. We spent some of the morning shopping for hiking supplies, importantly, toilet paper as bush toilets were the upcoming trend. We also brought extra snacks, water and some coca lollies for the altitude. As we had slept in a little breakfast was late and lunch was delayed until after our afternoon tours.

The afternoon tour was supposed to be to the Sagaymama ruins and the lookout, but we were coaxed into riding horses up the mountain. There was no Darryl Braithwaite music so it was evidently, not very good and here's why. Firstly, the horses seemed malnourished. Secondly, the English-speaking guide could say 10-15 words in English and little else. Thirdly, the weather at altitude is cold, add the sporadic rain and it can get freezing. Another problem was then the mud, lots and lots of mud. We were covered in it by the end of the tour and we were on the horses. Finally, these weren't the worst parts. All of it we could agree to, however, the reason we did the tour was because the fraudulent salesman who pitched it to us said we would visit the Sagaymama ruins, it didn't and said we would visit the lookout, it didn't and also said tickets to both were included and they weren't. This left us disappointed and without the money or time to visit the things we wanted to see.

Later we had to go back to our Machu Picchu tour office for a briefing and we also needed to book the rainbow mountain tour. The horse riding took much longer than anticipated so we were very rushed to get to both on time but we made it in the end. The briefing outlined the hike, what to expect and a few more things we would need. This was a bit silly given we left early the next morning but we collected the items anyway. The guide, Felipe, gave us the run down and was bombarded with questions. In South America, you expect a bit of chaos with tours and organisation of things and we got a little of that at the briefing. We were a little confused to begin with but we knew everything works out in the end so we headed off to dinner and bed to get ready for the next day.

For dinner, we returned to Tinta as we already knew the food was great and we wanted a good meal before hiking as we expected the food on the tour to be disappointing. Once again, our food was great and we had similar dishes to the previous night. Following dinner, we grabbed some supplies, extra cash and went to home to bed, excited for 4 days of hiking.

Next up is Machu Picchu and then back to Cusco and on to Lima

#SOUTHAMERICA #SouthAmerican #Holiday #Travel #Peru