Let’s talk about food. It’s about time. Enough of this running up and down mountains and canyons. Enough of this getting on never-ending buses. We need sustenance! So as we prepare to leave Peru, it’s time we had it out about Peruvian food. For Peruvians too, it seems that food is very important. Here we have consistently been informed that […]
“Avoid the ones who employ the pretty girls,” was the advice from Alexandra, the talkative Dutch lady owner of our hostel, “they don’t know what they’re talking about and you’ll end up on a bus for a day with people who don’t know better.” She was, of course, talking about tour operators, of which Arequipa is awash, and tours which […]
August 30th is a day of celebration in Peru. We’re not too sure why, but we know it’s something to do with Santa Rosa de Lima. Google it (we haven’t). What we do know is that in Arequipa, where we’re staying at the moment, this celebration causes otherwise serious military policemen to launch fireworks across the street without so […]
En Peru: The scenery is spectacular. Hot water is hard to come by. At night, any water is hard to come by . The people are lovely and very patient with our Spanglish. People drive cars as though they have no fear of death. You can get a fashion show on a train. You can play Bingo on a […]
Saturday was Machu Picchu day and after a 5am start with breakfast in Aguas Calientes we were still at the back of the queue for the bus. This is pretty much all that Aguas exists for, letting Machu Picchu bound tourists sleep (briefly), eat (warily) and climb aboard the bus to the site. It’s a shame, because, nestled as it is in between some spectacular mountains, […]
After leaving our excellent host family and week of school behind in Cusco, we have ventured out into the world of shared taxis (collectivos), the Sacred Valley and the superb small town of Ollantaytambo. We arrived here after a fairly hairy journey along the mountain roads, packed into a car alongside old ladies in traditional dress (one of whom comfortably […]
Meet our new friend, Ruben, or Señor Seguridad as we prefer to call him. At first we thought he was the local crazy, walking up and down our street blowing his whistle every few minutes. However it turns out he’s one of 3 private security guards who keep the area safe 24 hours a day. He always has a ‘heylo’ […]
As we near the end of a week of Spanish classes – we may not be fluent yet, but we have at least received praise for our advancements from many of the numerous visitors to our host family – we decided to take up the offer of a ´City Tour´from the Spanish School here in Cusco. Apparently there is no Spanish translation […]
After a week on the road, we´re finding our feet and catching our breath in Cuzco – a gorgeous old city (capital of the Inca empire) which is about 11 thousand feet above sea level. It is seriously quite hard to catch your breath at first, but we now have lungs of steel! We´re managing to make ourselves […]
Today has been a long old day. We began at 3.30am on Sunday, have travelled for 21 hours and it’s still only 6.40pm on Sunday. The flights weren’t as bad as expected (Iberia have a dearth of in-flight entertainment – H:”that was actually the worst film I’ve ever seen”) and were brightened up by spectacular views of the Amazon and […]
