Picking away at Peru

I realized after looking through my pictures, that llamas occupy almost half of them now.

Jas trying on some of the locals garb and terrifying them at the same time.

If only they knew how stupid they looked.

The terrible highs and lows of travelling.

Please get this thing off my arm.

Beautiful Peruvian countryside.

Little did I know the horrible sunburn I was receiving while contemplating the world's problems.

Mmmm...guinea pig head! I ate his left cheek then began to gag.

A random Peruvian girl with her pet llama, moments after receiving a $1 American bill from yours truly and having no idea what it was.

Lil' Jas is all tucked in for another comfortable bus ride.

The hummingbird, as seen from the cockpit of our little suicide plane. Major props to the WWII spitfire boys after experiencing this hellish roller coaster of a ride.

Our one full day in Santiago was spent doing a whirlwind tour of the city. We managed to visit a whole whack load of the old sites around the city plus some little parks that they have sprinkled throughout the smog. The presidential palace was quite nifty, and we were there just in time to see some sort of changing of the guard, composed of a company of infantry, a number of mounted cavalry, a marching band, and a battalion of stray dogs. As this came to a close a man was being rushed out of the palace hounded by media, we're not sure who he was, but after googling the Chilean president it would seem that it is either him or some kind of body double brought out for assassination attempts.

The next morning we got on a 28 hour bus up to Arica. Passed some awesome landscapes as we made our way through the Atacama desert, with the ocean pounding on one side and endless sand dunes on the other. We stayed in the beautiful city of Arica for 25 minutes before crossing the border in some random guy's car and grabbing a 5-6 hour bus to Arequipa, Peru. Arequipa is Peru's second biggest city and a sort of travelling hub for the area. Spent a day there recovering from the buses and trying to get the bellhop's CD player that he had just stolen to work.

Following morning we joined a two day tour to see some of the Peruvian country side. Lots of beautiful scenery and culture, reminds me of a mix between Canada and Southeast Asia (from what I've seen of SEA). Each village had scores of traditionally dressed little girls dragging llamas around looking for donations. Also managed to get up to the Colca Canyon, which is apparently the deepest canyon in the world at about 3500 metres or so and home to a flock of massive Andean condors. On the way back from there we stopped briefly on the side of a mountain to take pictures at 4910 metres altitude, my head was spinning by that point but luckily I had Dr. Coca-leaf there to ease my woes.

Coming back from the tour we grabbed another night bus to Nazca, where we are now. Bus arrived early this morning so we entertained ourselves with Argentinian soccer highlights until it was time to make our way out to the airport to see the famous Nazca lines. Nazca lines being the mysterious designs and shapes in the desert that were "discovered" by commercial airliners in the 1920's. No one is positive who made them or exactly for what purpose, the reasons currently range from star constellation maps to alien landing strips. There were 6 of us in this little suped up crop duster and the pilot did a great job of giving us spectacular views of the most popular designs. Unfortunately this also meant that we were almost continously banking at about 75 degrees to the ground, then flipping to the opposite side so that those people could get a clear view. By the 12th figure I was so close to vomitting that I was actually reaching for the little baggy when he said it was time to return home. Three hours later and Im still queezy, but it was worth it.

In an effort to completely tire ourselves out, we booked another 14 hour bus to Cuzco for tonight. Plan is to spend a day figuring out how to get up to Macchu Pichu, then hopefully do it on Wednesday. Still unsure if we're going to hike up or just do the day trip. The hike may sound cool, but we've been told by different people it's actually quite dissapointing, with huge waiting times and a paved trail. Lots of photos, mainly due to us having nothing else to do and a whole day to do it!