Lake Titicaca and beyond...

Hello there. It has been a little while since we have updated, we have been pretty busy here in Peru! We are really enjoying being back in the mountians and nature.

The First stop that we had in Peru was Arequepa. This city is the jumping off point to see the famous Colca Canyon, The deepest canyon in the world... so we were told! We took a 3 day trek down into the canyon, staying the first night at a tiny little home and the very bottom of the canyon, right near the river. It was so dark and quiet during the night, and so peaceful. There is no electricity in the canyon, so it was quite an experiance! We had a awesome guide, his name was yohan, so informative and really funny!! The second day was pretty tough, we walked up, up, up out of the canyon, but we were able to see Condors which was a real treat, they were pretty far away but it was really cool, they are massive birds, up to a three meter wing span!! The are like vultures, only eating dead animals, an interesting thing we learned is that, if they are really hungry and they have not found food for a long time they will prey on llamas. What they do is fly right up to the llamas on the cliff edge, as the llamas are walking, and spook them. When this happens the Llamas will usually fall of the cliff, and bingo the condor has a dead animal to eat! Over all the trip to the Colca was well worth it, the area was so breath taking, seeing the terracing and the way of life, way high up in the Andes was really something else!

From Arequepa we left to go to Puno. Puno is on the shore of lake titicaca. We were able to see the reed islands and the people that live on them, it is pretty amazing, that in todays world there are pèople who survive completly on thier own, on a floating island, litteraly living off the reeds. The Islands are made of them, thier boats are made of them, thier houses, thier hats, they even eat the reeds! Jeremia and I both tried them and they taste pretty good!! We only stayed one night in Puno, to see the islands, then we made our way to Copacabana, Bolivia. A beautiful town also situated on the shore of lake titicaca. Copacabana is a great jumping off point to get to isla del sol, or island of the sun. This island is really important to the people of the Andees since it is where the Sun was born. There are also some pretty impressive Inka ruins on the island. We were able to spend one night in copa and then one night on the island, in the best little B&B! We had quite a hike from one side of the island to the other, and I even was able to get us lost... oops, we ended way up in some farmers terraces... but all worked out ok and we were able to get back before dark! The island is situated at 4100 meters, so the air was a little thin, and hiking in that was a challenge, although it was good practice for the trek we start tomorrow!

We arrived in Cuzco last night, after a long day on the bus, we are thankful that our bus trips are coming to a end! The buses get so full, since any pax that the bus driver picks up after leaving the station are under the table, which means the money just goes into his pocket... needless to say, even if you buy your seat, it doesn´t mean you wont have the entire asle packed with men, women, babys, guinny pigs, chicks, ect.... it truly is an experiance.

We are enjoing Cuzco, we are getting ready for the trek that starts tomorrow, we plan to meet with our guide tonight to get most of the details sorted out, we are both really exctied about it! Last night rained the whole night, so we are hoping for better weather!

Well thats all for now, a little update as to what is going on in our world, we only have 21 days left...its going by sooo fast! so we'll see ya soon!

Lots of love,

Anya and Jeremia