Peru at a glance

I didn't spend as much time in Peru as I wanted. My impetus was to get to Bolivia economically and the way to do that was to go to Arequipa, Peru and travel by bus all the way to Copacabana ,Bolivia. I had places to go and people to visit in Bolivia and with my newly acquired Bolivian passport I was eager to get there. I admit I did Peru an injustice and will just have to come back, especially to Cusco!

Arequipa is the colonial-era capital of Peru’s Arequipa Region. Framed by 3 volcanoes, it's filled with baroque buildings constructed from sillar, a white volcanic stone. Thank you Wikipedia!

I stayed just a few days and had a chance to tried out the local cuisine and do a nice walking tour. Peru is known for it's great food. My taxi driver from the airport turned me on to a very local picantería restaurant. So much food!!

I decided to do a tour of the famous Colca Canyon about 3 hours from Arequipa. This canyon was on the way to the border town of Puno, Peru and I took the opportunity to take a 2 day tour through the canyon. I've been at some crazy elevations during this trip and Colca Canyon was around (3,400 m or 11,155 ft). Tours are pretty much a must unless you rent a car and that wasn't part of my plan. I have admit, sadly this tour was not good value for money. I don't do tours very often and this one validated why. I made the best of it , got some great pictures and chalked it up as a "meh" experience. The canyon is impressive though and I was glad to have be able to see it.

To this day, farmers in the canyon still use this tiered method of planting their crops

Flight of the Condor

After a few days in the canyon, I traveled 7 hours on the bus to the border town of Puno, Peru where I experienced my first ever altitude sickness at 3,827m (12, 555 ft). Hopefully it will be my last. I drank copious amounts of Coca tea and even chewed on some leaves to alleviate the effects or is it affect? I am so confused by the two! It lasted a few days but it was the days I was traveling again by bus to Copacabana, Bolivia. Not the most pleasant bus ride but it wouldn't be the last bus ride that wasn't so pleasant! More on that in the Bolivia blog to come.

The floating villages of Uros on lake Titicaca. Peru side of the lake.

Beautiful Lake Titicaca. In the indigenous language of Quechua. Titicaca translates to (Titi) = Puma and Kaka meaning rock or mountain. So the lake of the mountain of the puma. Just a little bit of trivia incase you find yourself with this question on Jeopardy!

I need a do over for Peru, so much more to see and to eat! I will have to put it back on my list of places to revisit.