From South to North in One Go

We completed a southern sweep of Peru by first going to Puno. This was on the Peruvian side of Lake Titicaca, the highest navigable lake in the world, but is not as scenic as the Bolivian side. We did manage to see some of the festivities of Puno Week, and the very commercial Ouros floating islands, before moving on to another of Peru’s jewels, Arequipa.

Arequipa is in the far south west of Peru, and is its second city. It is a lovely city with perhaps the greatest main square we have seen so far in South America. It is a lovely place to wander around and enjoy the squares, cafes and restaurants.

It has a wonderful Cathedral which gives great views out to the surrounding volcanoes, in particular the iconic cone-shaped Misti. The Monasteria Santa Catalina is extraordinary, as this sixteenth century restored convent covers five hectares, and has its own streets and gardens inside the walls.

The final “attraction” is the museum to the child mummy, “Juanita”. Only found twenty years ago, she provided the missing link that finally proved that the Incas sacrificed young children, with a sharp blow to the head, to appease the gods. These ceremonies were carried out at the top of mountains in extreme conditions, and it is believed that there are hundreds of young children still mummified in the snow-capped mountains across South America, all sacrificed after earthquakes, drought, ill-health of nobility etc.

After a few days in the city, we departed at 4.30am for the delights of the nearby Colca Canyon. Stopping on the way for great views of condors soaring above the Canyon, we then descended into the deepest canyon in the world (although it does depend on how you measure it).

We trekked down over one thousand metres to the base of the canyon and stayed in a homestay in a small village. We then trekked through the canyon for another day, before another 4.30am start to climb the kilometre out again before the hot sun came out. It was a great way to experience village life in an area unknown to the outside world until rediscovered in 1981 by Polish scientists trying to find the source of the Amazon.

Our stay in the south over, we then flew across the whole of Peru to the far north east and the most remote city in the world, Iquitos. Only accessible by boat and plane, we arrived in the frontier of the Amazon Rainforest.

The place did have a bit of edge to it, especially as we emerged from our hotel to a loud commotion. Apparently the locals were upset that a Colombian had come across the nearby border and was wielding his gun a bit too much. We quickly proceeded in the opposite direction for our dinner.

We were in Iquitos for one of the two things it is famous for. Setting aside the retreats where people go to “find themselves” by taking incredibly strong halucinogenic drugs and throwing up regularly, we decided to do the second thing and instead to go deeper into the jungle.

We found a lovely lodge three hours away by boat down the Amazon, that was about as remote as we could get, and spent three days exploring the jungle. We saw five types of monkeys during our jungle treks and boat trips. There were lots of sloths in the trees as well as spiders, scorpions, large frogs and plenty of birds. It was topped off by seeing a five metre anaconda on our last morning.

We finished our trip to Iquitos, by visiting the Belen market. We did this with Roger, the guide from the jungle, who advised us against taking anything with us from cameras to money, as it was a bit more dangerous there. He showed us the community in Iquitos, by the Amazon River, where everything is sold in the daily market from fruit and vegetables to bush meat, turtles, live, dead and dried fish and live grubs. It was an amazing insight to how the community lives by, and from, the Amazon. There are so many things, even simple fruit, that we have never seen elsewhere; and was a great end to a great trip.

We have now ”finished“ the western side of South America. We spent six weeks in northern Chile, four in Bolivia, seven in Ecuador and eight in Peru. It has been an absolute delight and incredibly we have barely repeated anything in almost six months of travel. Our Spanish is now passable, and we now look forward to the next stage in Brazil in a few weeks time. In the meantime we are off home for a couple of weeks, and the blog will return later.