"Vacation"

Vacation was a saga. Problem after problem after problem, literally.

Alli and I both got sever food poisoning on the 10 hour bus ride to Arequipa. I threw up for the entire time and we had an A$$hole of a steward to deal with on top of everything else. We arrived in Arequipa and spent the day in bed due to lack of energy or the ability to really consume food (for me at least). The following day we took a bus to Cabanaconde which is a little pueblo next to one of the deepest canyons in the world - Colca Canyon. This six hour bus ride was once again hell. The bus had no bathroom and Julia ended up getting her purse stolen due to a brief lapse in judgment. Her purse included her credit cards, passport card (not her actual passport, thank god) and 25 USD. Clearly, the majority of this really has little use to a Peruvian because most places do not take credit cards and she was able to cancel everything when we reached Cabanaconde. Oh and I threw up again, YIPPEE. Thankfully, Carlos from our hostal in Arequipa set us up with his friend Carlos (yes, Carlos again) in Cabanaconde. Carlos took us around to the look out point to see the Condors and to other look out points for the Canyon. The Condors were probably one of the most magnificent animals I've ever seen. The pictures don't do justice. I also posted a couple others of the canyon and the three of us. I think it's pretty obvious I still wasn't feeling 100%.

We left Cabanaconde that night and headed back to Arequipa....once again on a hellish bus ride. For some reason, they decided it would be a great idea to cram as many smelly Peruvians in the aisle as possible. On a positive note - we had an entire day and night in Arequipa to do the touristy bit.

The next morning we went to Puno but not without bus problems. We arrived at the bus terminal with about 5 minutes to spare. Grabbed our "embarking" ticket and went to get on the bus but were told that we were at the wrong terminal....great. We speed walked to the other terminal, once again attempted to get on, were told that we did not have the right embarking ticket. So, we ran to buy the embarking ticket which of course took FOREVER. Went to get on the bus and it left...missed it by 2 minutes. What a nightmare. Thankfully, we found another bus for 30 minutes later with the luxurious Cama Seats. We got to Puno in the afternoon and the first thing we did was try to get to the island we wanted to stay at for the evening. We made a deal with some fisherman to drive us to a peninsula a 1-1/2 hour away and to get us to the Island Amantani for the evening. They drove us to the peninsula, stopped at someone's house in the middle of nowhere (it was dark at this point) and were told that we were going to stay at this woman's hospedaje for the evening. The woman who owned it smelled like she hadn't showered in 3 months, the rooms and beds were really dirty with lots of bugs and not to mention the cold. I pretended I had asthma and we got a taxi back to Puno for the evening and the returned to this woman's house AGAIN in the morning so she could take us in a rowboat (there are pictures for proof) to get to the island. We spent the day on the island but began to be concerned that we wouldn't make it back for our bus to Cusco because we simply didn't trust the guys we had paid. Thankfully, they showed up and we got some money back for their lack of communication and crappy service tactics.

We were on time this time for our bus to Cusco. However, we paid and expected the cama seats but received the same kind of bus we took to Cabanaconde aka no bathroom and crappy seats for what ended up being a 9 hour ride.

Needless to say, we were all happy to arrive back in Ollanta. On a positive note, we got to see a lot and learned the following:

-Don't eat salad. Just don't.
-Don't trust the bus systems - they suck.
-Don't have expectations for Peruvian vacation.

I'm heading to Cusco on Friday with my family to see my dad's dad play in a band. I think it'll be fun and interesting as per usual.

Chau for now.