Floating around | Peru
- giulia
- Jun 20, 2018
- 2 min read
Floating around Peru - Titicaca Lake - Puno - Arequipa - Cusco
After the trek to the Isla del Sol we hopped back on our Bolivia hop to head to Peru.. at the Peru border we got reproached for being too chatty in the customs office while waiting in line to get our passports stamped. Our first stop was Puno, which wasn’t much of a nice city but still had smiley people and a couple of good spots to eat ( yes our travel is much about eating and finding good food).
We took a tour to the Islas flotantes which was quite disappointing and felt like a bit of a set up. None of the 25 soles we paid went to the people that were supposedly living on the island and as soon as we stepped onto the island it felt like we were being pitched from all sides to buy something..just didn’t feel right.
After Puno we decided we needed a break from travelling and we opted for staying 1 full week in Arequipa. What a good decision that was! We really loved Arequipa; it’s a cute city full of monasteries and convents framed by mountains all around.
In Arequipa we had a sports week; we met a really friendly folk running a Muay Thai gym who let us train for free and we signed up for a week of Crossfit too. Never underestimate the difference between doing intense physical activities at sea level and doing the same at altitude. We thought we’d adapted quite well to the altitude until we were told the warm up consisted of 7min non stop of hopping over bars. I was out of breath after a couple of minutes.
The week in Arequipa went by quite fast, we both got sick, colds & food poisoning, and it was already time to fly to Cusco. Cusco wasn’t nearly as gracious as Arequipa in my opinion, and the prices reflected the tourism level, everything was doubled if not tripled. We unfortunately had booked one of the coldest room we’ve ever stayed which didn’t help with the 0 and minus temperatures in Cusco.
The whole city was on celebration for the Inca festival, Andy felt like carnival in Schramberg and they had put up a big screen to watch Peru games in Plaza de Armas. Cusco was our base to organise our visit to Machu Picchu, we booked the train from Ollantaytambo to Aguas Calientes and decided we’d hike the Machu Picchu by ourselves and bought a very convenient (hahaha) entrance ticket.
(click to enlarge)
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