Singing our lungs out at altitude

Trip Start Nov 09, 2009

Trip End Jun 09, 2010

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Flag of Peru Arequipa, Arequipa, Peru
Friday, November 13, 2009

We arrived in a town called Arequipa....took us a few days to work out how to pronounce it correctly! It was just like a European city, we sat in a cafe over looking the main square drinking coffee, didn�t occur to me before we came away how good the coffee would be here - the home of the coffee bean....I�ve caught on now and am making the most of getting a coffee fix. Fed the pigeons in the main square which I realised after was a bit odd as I spend my days avoiding pigeons back home - must be the altitude getting to me. Anyway, after a few days of not drinking Helen and I set about corrupting the group and insisted on a proper night out. We went for dinner in a beautiful restaurant with a rooftop terrace, just to ensure we got maximum altitude, the good thing is it makes you a total light weight, after a couple of Pisco Sours the walk back down the stairs wasn�t too easy! Then we introduced the group to our incredible dulcet tones in the kareoke bar, I think we successfully maneged to empty the bar and alienate ourselves from the group during our fifteenth song which I think was a rendition of Bohemiam Rhapsody

The night of the kareoke

. They�ll learn to love us eventually I�m sure!

We had a weekend away in Colca Canyon which is a beautiful remote area surrounded by mountains and beautiful scenery, we had a lovely hotel with hammocks in the garden, a log fire and a llama manning the reception desk (I�m not lying)! As soon as we got their our guide took us for a "gentle stroll" which turned into a 2 hour hike up a steep mountain - all of us were struggling with the change in altitude so were panting up the mountain - not a lot of chat took place but I�m not sure if that was down to the altitude or the kareoke! The village we stayed in was hundreds of years old and all of the locals wore the traditional Peruvian clothes which was really nice to see after being in the cities so much. Can�t help but feel bad for staying in the middle of their village in a posh hotel though driving through staring at them. would have been nice to be able to spend more time with the locals and see how they live their daily lives.

We returned to the city where we did some more eating and walking around then we set off for Cusco which is the main city after Lima, hopefully some more kareoke bars await us!

Here is the link to my pics on bookface http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=121595&id=501483960&l=73f30a68ab

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