Peruvian First Impressions

Peru is already a favorite among many group members. We arrived in Arequipa and I became instantly enamored with the landscape. A very dry city, home to almost 800,000 people, Arequipa is surrounded by three volcanos, Misti, Chachani and Pikchu Pikchu. The tallest, Misti, reaches 19,000 feet into the air. Jack, Hunter, Peter and I stayed with the Meza family. Mr. Meza is a volcanologist who studied the mountains surrounding Arequipa. While in Arequipa we studied at Llama Education Spanish school, where all ten members of our group felt like our Spanish abililites increased exponentially. When we weren’t studying Spanish we volunteered in an orphanage playing with kids. We explored Arequipa on foot and I quickly put Arequipa on the top of my ”Favorite cities we’ve visited” list.

So far, two weeks into Peru, it’s easily favorable compared to Ecuador. The food is delicious: I wasn’t in the Lima airport for 20 minutes before trying Chicha Morada, a cold drink made from purple corn, cinnamon and pineapple juice. Our group was lucky, while we were in Arequipa the annual food festival was also in town and we took great advantage of this event. I tried Anticuchos, (marinated and grilled cow heart) Picarones, (homemade doughnuts covered in honey sauce) and Queso Helado (a group favorite, light, sweet, milky ice cream, served with cinnamon.)

Queso Helado

Chicha Morada

Everything is cheap: We arrived in Puno on Lake Titicaca late Wednesday night and were famished after a beautiful 6 hour bus ride through the desert. We walked down the street from our hostel to a simple roast chicken place where I placed an order for a quarter chicken and fries. The next day I woke up and walked to the local market where I ordered one egg scrambled, one fried egg sandwich, buttered bread, a glass of tea and hot chocolate. I ate two hearty consecutive meals for under $10.

Everything is beautiful: I’ve been taken aback at how incredibly beautiful Peru is. We’ve been here for two weeks and a day hasn’t gone by where I didn’t marvel at how divine the scenery is. In Arequipa, Jack and I stood in awe as we looked up at the towering volcanoes. The drive from Arequipa to Colca Canyon was one of the most incredible I’ve ever taken. Smoke billowed out of the top of a distant volcano as the sunset died the sky shades of orange and purple for 360° around us. Our hike into Colca Canyon (the second deepest in the world) took us a kilometer straight down into the Earth where we enjoyed relaxing by a pool at an oasis in the bottom. Although this hike was the hardest I’ve ever completed the views were more than worth it.

Colca Canyon

For the past week we’ve been in Student Directed Travel, which is a pretty self explanatory concept; we book the hostels, we buy the bus tickets, we plan the activities. As I mentioned above, our group decided to go to Colca Canyon and Lake Titicaca. Our trip to Colca was beautiful. Not only did we hike for six and a half hours that day, but we woke up early the next day and watched condors with nine foot wingspans take flight over that same canyon. We drove on dirt roads through the desert under a sky full of stars from Cobanaconde to Puno on the shores of the world’s highest navigable body of water. Yesterday was Dia de Puno, a celebration for the founding of the city. This day was marked with parades, elaborate dress and street performers on every corner. Today we rented a boat and visited the floating islands of Uros. These islands are made entirely of reeds and floating sod. It was very cool to observe the lifestyle of the people who live there. After departing from Uros our group rode two and a half hours to the island of Taquille. The island had a very Mediterranean feel and had wonderful views of Lake Titicaca. Upon returning to land, Ryan, Noam and I were infatuated by a woman with a hawk. We payed a few Soles and she let us take a picture with him. We’re all looking forward to the last month of travel we have ahead of us, but also with only one month left, its hard to not hear the sound of my own bed calling my name.

condor