El Lago Hotel Arequipa

... search of a bus that´ll take us somwhere near the lake. We jump on a night bus to Puno and should arrive early the next morning where we can jump on another bus to Copacabana. Great, we hop on the bus and yearning a good nights sleep I opt for a load of antihistamines to knock me out...which they do. Phil wakes up at 4am to find the bus stopped and we are the only people on it, we are on the side of the road. The bus has broken down....bad news. Good news....we are on the ...

... had a tyre blow out as we were navigating the twisty roads leading down into the city. Luckily it was the inside tyre of one of the back pairs, and so the bus was ok, to the point where we actually didn't stop untl we reached a garage on the outskirts of the city (obviously they either couldn't be bothered o change it, or they didn't have a spare - that's what you get for picking the cheapest bus ...

... take you through and show all the things that were discovered with the bodies and their significance, and finally you get to see poor Juanita the ice maiden. She was only 12 and tiny compared to Franchesca. It was kind of wierd as she still has her hair and skin, creepy. Sun going down now and getting chilly so head back to the hotel had take away and an early night off to the colca canyon tomorrow.

... The music seemed to specialize in latin america style covers, with a soft voice and jazzy backup, of songs that included Staying Alive, Get up Stand Up, and Hey Jude. Very nice, but not at 7 in the morning! But especially in the morning, but bus ride was quite lovely. The land around here is mostly desert hills, with pockets of green in valleys. <br> Once Toni and I got to our hotel and settled in, and tried to have a bit of a npa after our sleepless night ...

... joy to be had when you look around the bar at your fellow travellers and realise that they are genetically and socially inferior to yourself, and thus you´d rather not be stood within a mile radius of them, let alone bother to communicate. Combine this sub-standard mix with the antics of the ever-more-intoxicated-gypsy ****-up, and we simply could not be *****. We decided to go back to our room and had lot more fun by ourselves.<br><br>That was, until I tried to ...

... flock of tourists wandering around, nor the hostile hawkers trying to get you into their tour shop or to buy a cheap painting out of their folder on the street. Here was far more relaxed, and still had the historic and colonial vibe of that of Cusco. The clean streets are cobbled; there are many large cathedrals, monasteries and convents; there are 3 snow capped volcanoes, with an altitude of greater than 5000m above sea-level, watching over the city. It&#8217;s also much cheaper ...

Last night was a lot of fun. We had dinner and went cheap craft shopping with friends we met on the boat tour- 3 japanese, 2 germans, 1 french, and 1 belgian. We all joked about how people from different countries take pictures, like japanese always doing the peace sign. We also had hot pisco drinks with cinnamon, OJ, and grenadine- went straight to my head. And I had pizza which I was craving after too many meals of quinoa, soup, rice, and ...

... a bike and enjoy the scenery as gravity pulls you downhill. Hmm...not quite. <br><br>We were driven (for 2 hours) up Mount Chachani to about 4800metres, handed a mountain bike, a helmet and some very sexy bike gloves, and were pointed in the direction of down. So on the bikes we hopped, and down we went. We were following the road that we had been 4wdriven up, and it looked easy enough to head back down, but we quicky learnt it wasn´t so. Uneven ...

... much ruled out) for $50 because it´s in fancy schmancy hotels. I should mention that another option is for me to travel independently to the canyon on public buses and book my own hotels, but I won´t get to see as much...for example stopping to see the rock forest or the vicuñas. I would basically get to see the canyon from it´s rim and visit the most popular place in the area: the Cruz del Condor. This is an overlook where people congregate in the early morning to watch the Andean ...

... couldn't meet with him immediately. The delay of only a few days has me itching for the road again, so I think I'll skip it. Mi español es muy malo...and will stay that way! <br><br>A few more days here because it's a good, chilled place. I may even stay through the weekend and get my drink on. <br><br>Adios! <br><br>OH - received my package from the US a day late &amp; now have full access to $$ again. All is good.