Simmons and that can have kangaroos in Oz and i can have llamas here in peru

We went on a two day tour to the worlds deepest canyon! Set off yesterday and did some llama and alpaca spotting, stopped for a drink of coca tea as we were reaching heights of 4900m! this is were we saw the worlds highest toilet, had to stop for a photo opportunity.

We arrived in a small town called Chivay, where a huge festival was happening. they were all wearing the big dresses, including the men! The same repeatative music was being played very loud in the main plaza and everyone in the whole town it seemed was doing the witite dance. in other words bouncing up and down and twirling every now and then. looked really good!!

we went on a trip to the thermal baths in the mountains. They were like any other hot springs ive been to so not much to say about them.

Had a meal at a restaurant where they had dancers entertaining us. Very bizarre ritual dances, where the women would pretend to be poisoned by an orange then fall to the floor shaking, as she lay there shaking the man would attempt to wake her by fanning her skirt and then by whipping her really hard. he´d then try and lift her up but pretend to not be strong enough. Then it was the womens turn to hit the man and then she managed to pick him up. very strange, funny but at times it really looked like they were hurting each other.

Today got up at 5 to go condor spotting. A few facts for you, they fly at 7000m high (altitude) they can fly at 70km and have a wing span of 3mts. On the way to the condor view point we saw 3. so jumped out the van and took pictures, they look tiny on the photos but they are kms away. We then reached the view point where we saw none, but i just sat there and did some sketches of the view. went for a little walk with the tour guide then headed back to Arequipa.

For the whole 2 days not including food it cost 10 pounds. not bad hey. even though everything is pretty cheap ive still managed to over spend by sooo much. especially with all my hosptial visits and stolen goods. Hopefully get my insurance sorted out.

Off to Chile by wednesday i think. Then its nearly Christamas!!! doesnt feel like it at all here, so busy and just the fact that its hot is strange. People walking round with sunglasses on and theres tinsel hanging up.

xxxx