Hola chics,

Our first impressions of Peru were put on hold, as we visited the much hyped Floating
Islands which was part of our long bus journey to Arequipa. The islands
themselves are an amazing thing, and it feels very weird when you step off the boat onto
them and you can feel how spongey they are and the way they sway up and down. They even drift
around the lake in windy wet season which must make it a tad difficult for commuting purposes.The
downside is how touristy the islands have become. We were are ferried to two squishy islands and after a brief talk find yourselves encircled by women selling you their woven wares, which is okay, you just feel like you're part of a show or visiting a human zoo. Then when you spot the cafeteria,
telephone booth and even a mini-market, it adds weight to the well spread rumour that no-one actually lives on the islands at all anymore, and all travel back to Puno after the tourists have left! Who knows?

After a few long hours crammed on a very local bus we finally arrived in Arequipa at 2am and headed straight to the Point hostel where we crashed in our little room. In the morning we all monged in the
lovely garden there and played with the two mongrel puppies that were dancing about before
heading into town for a gander at the main square.

Billed as the most beautiful plaza in South America, it lived up to its name, so with our
travelling mates, Niall, Clare, Mandy and Leisha tried some local food overlooking the
square including fried pig bits and super spicy stuffed peppers.

Also checked out the frozen remains of a body found on a nearby mountain, a 12 year-old girl called Juanita who was sacrificed by the Incas to the mountain gods more than 500 years ago. Quite an honour apparently, so everyones happy then.

A couple of days in and our irish friends left and we quickly replaced them with Ed and Jane from back home on a five month trip of their own heading the other way round the world. We had a messy night or
two with them, egged on by the anniversary celebrations of the city,including an extremely bizarre experience with a dead guinea pig during the parade when one of the floats hurled a squashed guinea, innards and all, up to us on the balcony where we were enjoying a sedate beverage.

Photo op taken care of, we then realised that the crowd on the street were calling for us to chuck the said dead beast....so we obliged to raptous appaluse and cheering. Apparently guineas are lucky or something but the crowd loved it, some people even hung around on the off chance that we found another rodent corpse to throw around!!! Surreal!
Luckily we had already sampled the delights of the World famous taste of roasted 'cuy' the night before...No prizes for telling us it tastes like chicken, and leaves you really quite hungry.

Few days later, we set off on a two day trip to the Colca Canyon and a lot of bus later,we kicked back in some hotsprings with some pisco sours. Next day, back on the bus for a few more hours and we finally
got to see the canyon. Yes, its twice as deep at the Grand Canyon, but its more of a huge
valley really with sloping edges. But the condors at "condor point", spooky coincidence eh?, were really cool and pulled in the punters who all "ooohed" and "aahhed" whenever they swooped up on the
thermals just above our heads!

Back into town and we managed to squeeze in a visit to the San Francisco convent, a colouful
labrynth of old rooms, churches and little plazas. Sadly the nuns don't come out to play
until the tourists have left...at least we don't think they do....although there was a really creepy statue of a nun in one room facing a corner. At least we think it was a statue, because it didn't move, but other fellow convent visitors apparently did not see this holy vision! Confessed our sins which killed a few hours then outta there.