Gran Hotel San Ignacio Cajamarca

... Latin America. They're cheap but with more than one person in the back they do struggle quite a bit and make you feel guilty about that piece of cake you had at lunch...<br><br>And in other news... I've now been in Latin America for six months! I was due to fly back to the UK a couple of days ago and it's a little surreal when I think of my original plan for this trip to now be in Peru. Still, it's all good. Though my Spanish is not... <br><br>Ciao for now!<br>

... Each window is like a coffin, carved into the wall, where people were placed in the fetal position post mortem.<br> After this we headed to the Banos del Inca, volcanically heated thermal springs. There are several pools at the Banos, most of which are so hot that loads of steam rises from the sulfuric water. A security guard patrols the pools as they are at sub-boiling temperatures and those who jump in aren&#8217;t jumping back out!<br> We entered the Banos building complex which ...

... for it. And for greed, of course. And I can't think of anything uglier than cloaking ones greed behind the name of god. The rest of the day was spent strolling around the city and admiring the colonial architecture (Damn those Spanish for their beautiful buildings!) The buildings here are known for their doors surrounded by stone archways. In the center of the plaza is a fountain dating from 1692 - marking ...

... Marañon (which flows into the Amazon) and up again over a 3085 meter pass and on to Celendin and Cajamarca. There is public transport on this route but not every day so it would take a few days that I didn't want to spend. I asked Egnar, the very amiable owner of the tour agency that took me to Kuelap, if he could arrange a car for this trip. Another reason to take this route was that it passes through the town of Leimebamba where there is a ...

... town, visited the local highlights, then took a bath in the Banos Del Inca, a location said to be where the last Inca emperor, Atahualpa, was bathing when Pizzaro and his Spanish conquistadors stopped by to say hi back around 1540. Cajamarca remains one of my favorite places in the world, but there are now six times the population and twenty times the traffic than there was at the time of my first visit. The ...

... both buildings have original paintings on the walls, and must have been very cramped when used as hospitals. as you wander higher up the streets you climb the cutest little stairs which meander in a fan shape up a hill, lined with small stalls selling peruvian bags and gifts. as you get to the top you are rewarded with a lovely view across the town below. i treat myself to a new day bag, and the two of us sit and have a drink as we look down over the valley. over the next ...

We arrived in Cajamarca which is a lovely town that is famous for its cheeses, Inca baths and Inca tombs. After a good night sleep we decided to cram as much sightseeing as we could in a day. First stop was a little walk uphill to the Inca tombes which have been built into the hillside- a bit eerie but fascinating. Next we went to a wonderful garden full of orchids which was magical ...

... looking for a replacement jacket, then joined the guys for breakfast. After that Wojtek chased a hat vender down the road and bought a red Nordic beanie for 4 sol, and the seller had led us to right outside a coat shop I´d missed and where I found a nice semi waterproof jacket, in rain cloud grey for 120 sol, with a free t'shirt thrown in. Cool. We then had a small quarrel whether to go to Cumbe Mayo, the place that had ...

... menus and this, you would think would be the low point of it. All I can say is more to come. Ewa ordered well. Some delicious fish pieces in batter, and I had a strange chicken dish in a blood red sauce (that I hope wasn´t actual blood). Even Wojtek couldn´t eat it. By this point he´d given his heart to a 8 year old girl. Literally. They come up to the table sometimes, to sell lollies, and I´ve never seen ...

... a traumatic experience when she was young, involving a dog, and has been petrified of them since. This initial experience rattled her a bit, and it was to be that all the way up the mountain, at every other house we came to, we were harassed by the local pack of hounds or worse, the ballsy lone wolfette. At one point Ewa almost ripped my arm out of it´s socket as some sort of spaniel darted out of the bushes with no warning. A sneak attack ...