Cusco was nice for some downtime and shopping, and less nice for constantly being harassed about getting a massage, taking a tour of Machu Picchu and fraudulent banking machines. Pretty place though.
And fun times were had!
My journey for beer continued in Arequipa!
Worst presentation but by far the best quality beer I’ve tried. Congrats Melkim! 🙂
We took in the local culture and saw some sites. It’s very cool here.
No caption neededThat’s right.The square is beautifulThey have decorated it for Immaculate Conception day!Buenos Noche!Feliz Navidad!
AND we did a trek into the mountains to see the aforementioned Condors…
On our journey we were excited by the prospect of Condors!We arrived at a place referred to as the Condor Cross!We were IMMEDIATELY greeted by Condors OMG OMG OMG! Then we realized they were men in Condor outfits.So we did the next obvious thing and took endless selfies of the view!More selfies. And starting to wonder “Where the Condors at?”Then we sat and waited for Condors…I tried making the Condor Cross signal, but no Condors could be immediately reached for comment.And then, miraculously, it happened. Condor.A single glorious Condor. He did a fly by. Twice! What a treat!And I got at least 1 amazing photo!
We were also promised some Vicunia viewing! These are the finest of the cameloid family! If you want one of their sweaters, they’ll charge you no less than $5,000USD! These guys are cute, but really hard bargainers! Needless to say, I left chilly this day…
Vicuña? More like Vicuteña!They really liked running around.And bathing.Then we came across this Alpacoasis!And some curious llamas!Como se llama??We saw this black bird (not real name)And some blue-billed ducks (not real name)And the illusive Peruvian Flamingo! Way to go! Miranda also expertly spotted this super rare Guanaco (and baby!)
After all the wildlife spotting we did some hiking because why not?
We hiked to that house on a hill! It was apparently supposed to be a market???There was some horny action along our route #morespottingThe elevation made this “quick trek” feel quite substantial.But the view was 100% worth it!
FINALLY after a long day of trekking and wildlife spotting we did some springing, of the hot variety!
All told it was a long journey – and we rose 4980M above sea level! Some were more up to the challenge than others 🙂Then we went for a lovely dip in the custom designed hot springs! We met the architect who was quite impressed with himself!The path to the hot spring was only mostly terrifying!
We slept in a small town called Chivay where they were getting ready for Immaculate Conception Day, happy happy!
Welcome to Chivay!The land of curious statues.Very curious…Happy immaculate conception day!Religion is so special.A few wrong turns, but at least we were rewarded with a nice view!We touched some space rocks and learned about colonization. Odd combo, but it was cloudy!
When we got back to Arequipa after our tour, it was nice to get a little extra time to sleep in and take in the city. It was the perfect end to the Peru portion of our trip. Adios!
Fun beverages for some!Didn’t think any waterfronts were worse than TO!Went to the Monastery!It was hot, but also cool!We went to a market!Browsed the wares..And tried new things.Our final stop was helado and city views
