La Casa de los Pinguinos Arequipa

Today I headed up to Alto Cayma for the first time – what a trip! One of the girls from Alto Cayma met me at my house to show me the way. It is just one bus, so it is pretty simple. However, let me attempt to give you a sense of this bus. Have you ever seen one of those soap box derby cars that kids used to race in way back when? Ok, just increase the size of that to about the size of a small van, but still using the same materials. Now pile about 20 people ...

... flights. Normally we woudl have done Cuzco and the Inca Trail after Copacabana but as we cant change the date of the trek (13 August) we have to do most of the rest of Peru first and then backtrek to Cusco and back to Lima and then back up north..<br><br>We also booked a 2 day trekking trip to Colca canyon nearby starting tomorrow at 3am!<br>

... habitat. I took a 2 day tour to the canyon with 12 other people. despite having just said that there are Gringo´s everywhere I managed to end up on a tour being the only non Spanish speaker on the bus! We had 4 Spaniards and the rest were all rich locals from Lima down for the long holiday weekend. Fortunately 2 of the Spaniards could speak English and were great in helping me out. It was good practice with the Spanish though. We reached the town that leads to the ...

... front of a band. As the music rolled, we browsed through the menu and decided on chupe de camarones, cuy chactado, rocoto relleno, cevice mixta and of course, rice. Chupe de camarones is made of fresh water shrimp (which actually looks like supersized crawfish) in a creamy sauce (which reminds me of ginataang shrimp, but not that creamy) mixed with a huge chunk of squash (with the peel on) and a chunk of corn , still ...

... We rang the bell numerous times but nothing happened. I called the number again, let it ring three times, hung up and continued to ring the doorbell. Luckily we got in... I'm all for security but this was a little over the top!<br><br>When we got up in the morning we ran into Lena and Chris who we hiked with in the Colca Canyon. They were the only other people staying there. We spent the day shopping sightseeing before getting our bus to Cusco (finally).<br>

... displayed in a glass refrigerator-like case. The case is preserved at a consistent cold temperature so that the mummy could be well preserved. Unfortunately, we couldn&#8217;t take photos, but I was fascinated by how so well preserved she was &#8211; she still has her dark hair and clothes in perfect condition as she must have been wearing them when she had died. I found it very fascinating &#8211; even though I still find the whole concept of human sacrifice disturbing.