¿Sup fools?
I hope everything is well with everyone. So Arequipa is a city of outdoor activities. When we arrived there, we spent the day walking around trying to find legit soccer jerseys. Everywhere we went sold replicas, and when we asked for a store that had authentic ones, they would send us somewhere that did not even sell clothes. Just sending the ole tourists on a mouse-hunt. We didn’t end up finding them this day. I decided that night to sign up for a 2 day trek through the Cañon del Colca. I had to be ready for pick up at 3am that night. So I had a whiskey and went to bed.
I was piked up along with 2 other people from my hostel. One being a dutch girl, Daisy, who i briefly met at Huacachina. For the two day hike, we trek 6 hours the first day, and 3 hours the second. Doesn´t sound too bad, right? Well, having lived at sea level my entire life, breathing at 2-3000 meters about sea level is fucking hard. THERE IS NO AIR TO BREATH. I was exhausted, i was sore from an over packed bag, and to make matters worse, the other people who were with us were these German machines who were basically running the whole trail.
But for every negative, there is a positive. Because i was walking slower and taking my time, i got to enjoy the scenery. It was breathtaking - HEY OHHHHHH! We are in the middle of this green covered canyon, surrounded by greenery, rock formations, and snow in the distant mountains. Below us is a raging river, and along the mountain sides, you can see villages. These villages are where we would go to eat. After 4 hours of trekking, we arrived at the village. The only way to get to these villages is either by walking or mule. They have nothing but what they can carry there. Yet wireless internet was available if i had a laptop, so that was strange. We walked past a church that was built there in 1530, and they had a small piglet tied to a tree. On December 31st, they will kill this pig and eat it. Every living thing must die at some point. We made it to the bottom of the canyon which is where we would sleep. No electricity, natural spring water as a pool and shower, and all by the raging river. Everyone else on my tour group slept together but there was no bed for me :( Typical bad luck. So i slept in another room across the premises. I hung my clothes to dry from the sweat and rain, and as i flash my flashlight across the walls, there are fucking bugs everywhere. I´m talking small scorpions, mosquitoes, beetles, centipedes….etc etc. I was flipping out, hiding under my cover like the 24 year old man that i am, turning off the light, knowing the insects are there waiting for me in the dark. I passed out around 7pm and awoke sometime later. We had to be ready by 530 am so i was thinking that it must be around that time now. I check my watch - 930pmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. I died a little that night. I couldn’t sleep the rest of the night. We awoke the next morning to climb 5 km straight up the face of a mountain. My legs are still sore. We got back to the hostel, i passed out and awoke the next day to get a authentic jersey of the club team Universtario from Lima. they are an OK team.
So we went out hard our last night in Arequipa. It was a lot of fun dancing with everyone from the hostel and local Peruvians. Joey and I took a 12 soles bus (aka 4 dollars) from Arequipa to Puno - 5.5 hrs. The second we get on the bus, this guy is standing over us looking at the map we are looking at with his kids standing around him. He began asking us where we came from, where we are from, and where we are going. his kids were moving around like crazy. Kids are known to sneak under your seat and take shit from your bags. This guy was distracting us until we caught one of his daughters fondling with joeys bag. We tried not to sleep for the rest of the trip. Then when everyone got off the bus, i found a gun near where this other young guy was sitting!!!!!!!!! Joey grabbed it, but it was plastic. Probably used to scare people into giving them money. The landscape coming to Puno was incredible. Vast open fields of farm land and Alpacas with mountains and rivers everywhere else. We arrived in Puno and went to our hostel. It happens to be carnival here so everyone was hanging out in the streets. Some girls threw a water balloon at me from an apt and knocked the map out of my hands. Tomorrow we go to lake Titicaca and see the floating islands. Time to rest. love you all.
Robert
PS - I dont know if you guys heard but a plane crashed in the Nazca lines killing all 6 passengers and pilot. I did that same flight 4 days ago. I have the chills but am thankful everything is ok.
