Lake Titicaca take 2

Reed boats taking off from the floating islands

After taking a very cheap local bus and then a ridiculously overpriced tourist bus we managed to get directly from Colca Canyon to Puno, on the Peruvian shores of lake Titicaca.

Josh on the lookout

The next morning we headed out to the ultra touristy but still interesting floating Uros islands, a group of 70+ small islands make completely of reeds by the communities that live on them.

The view from Taquille island

The boat then headed onto Taquile Island for great views across lake Titicaca and some community tourism before heading back to Puno.

With time against us we left Puno early next morning for our final stop together, Cusco. 

Arequipa & Colca Canyon

 Arriving early the next morning in Arequipa we spent the next few days exploring this pretty colonial city and coming up with a plan for our trip to Colca Canyon.

The beautiful Santa Catalina Monastery

We finally decided to take a ridiculously early tourist bus at 3am to Cabanaconde, the setting off point for exploring the canyon, but to do the rest of the trip ourselves.

The bus stopped on the way at the condor cross, a lookout famed for being able to see sweeping condors at the right time of day and we managed to see about 6 or so gliding on the thermals.

Preparing for takeoff

We then packed up our daypacks with overnight gear and enough water for two days, dropped off our main packs at the hostel, and headed off into the canyon.

San Galle oasis at the bottom of the canyon

We arrived almost 3 hours later completely knackered at the Oasis town of San Galle, having timed our steep decent into the canyon perfectly with the hottest part of the day.

Two hours later, refreshed from food and a dip in a local pool, we started off again for the small village of Cosñirhua, where we spent the night with a lovely local family, one of two in the village who offer meals and accommodation to weary trekkers.

One of our lovely hosts

Having the opportunity to practice my basic Spanish with locals amongst beautiful scenery was a real highlight and I wished we'd had time to spend a few more nights down in the canyon.

Amazing rock formations in Colca

We set off the next morning for the gruelling 5 1/2 hike that would take us out of the canyon, climbing steadily for about 4 hours and an elevation of  around 1000m. Back in Cabanaconde that night we slept like babies but feeling significantly more confident about our upcoming Inca trail. 

Paracas & Nazca

Humboldt penguins on one of the Ballestas islands

 Our next stop after Lima was the small coastal town of Paracas, where we spent just long enough to get a boat out to the Ballestas islands, known for its sea lions and huge population of birds, and do a land tour of the peninsula, a national park with interesting geological features.

Red sand in the Paracas National Reserve

 From Paracas we headed to Nazca and next morning prepared ourselves with anti-sickness tabs for our half hour flight over the Nazca lines in a tiny 4 seater plane.

The flight over the desert was amazing (photos really don't do it justice), and the pills did their job, albeit leaving us extremely sleepy for several hours afterwards.

The hands and the tree patterns as seen from the air

That evening we finished up with a great planetarium show that explained some of the many theories behind the lines before hopping on another overnight bus. 

Lima

Chasing pigeons in Lima's historic centre

Due partly to the fact Josh arrived in Peru completely knackered, we spent the next 3 nights in Lima.

A 'luggage' of starters arrives

Highlights included a tour of the San Francisco church which contains the remains of over 70,000 people in its catacombs, and a visit to Astrid & Gaston, the #14 rated restaurant in the world.

More of a theatrical experience than dinner our meal came complete with a leather bound journal outlining a young man's journey to Peru that was told through a 22 preparation tasting menu.

Dessert arrives...

At this point I was very pleased that I'd thrown in that one wraparound dress, although I did have to team it with leggings and flip flops and was definitely the most underdressed person that night. Oh well.

The pyramid is unstacked

Chachapoyas

Our bus clearing the 'road' four hours later

The 13 hour bus journey turned into 17 hours when we became stuck about an hour from our destination at 5am due to a landslide on the road. But the road was eventually cleared and I finally reached Chachapoyas, my base for exploring the pre-incan culture of The Chachapoyas, or 'cloud people', who lived in the cloud forests of the  Amazonas region of Peru until being conquered by the Incans.

Sarcophogi of Carajia

A bus trip the next day took me to some amazing Sarcophagi up on a steep ledge in the mountains and a cave scattered here and there with human remains.

One of the impressive entrances to Keulap

The following day I headed out to the ruins of Keulap, my main reason for heading out this way. Keulap was a fortified city inhabited by The Chacapoyas and is known as the Machu Picchu of the North.
Located at over 3000m above sea level on a ridge overlooking a valley and containing ruins of over 400 mainly circular buildings, the site was pretty impressive. And with only about 20-30 tourists on the day we visited we could explore the site in peace. Definitely a highlight of North Peru.

Ruins nestled in the cloud forest

Remains of circular houses overlooking the valley

It was then time to head back to Trujillo on another overnight bus (luckily no landslide this time) for a quick stopover and day trip to the beach town of Huanchaco before heading back to Lima to meet Josh at roughly the halfway point in my travels. 

Trujillo

Although I got off to a bad start in Trujillo, arriving at a ridiculous 4.45am, waking up the poor hostel owners and then sleeping on their couch until the more reasonable hour of 7am to check in, I actually really liked it. The colonial city centre is really pretty with a fabulous yellow cathedral and I felt much safer exploring the city than I had further South.

A small part of the huge citadel of Chan Chan

Bird motifs at Chan Chan

But probably the best thing about Trujillo is how easy it is to access lots of sites in the nearby area by yourself, with 2 completely different pre-incan ruins just a few km's out of town.

In a couple of days, and with advice from the very helpful owner's of the guesthouse I was staying in, I'd taken local buses to the Chimu citidel of Chan Chan and the Moche sites of Huaca de la Luna and del Sol without any need to go on expensive tours.

The largely unexcavated Huaca del Sol

Both sites were really interesting but seeing the vividness of the colours still present in the wall paintings in Huaca del Luna was a real highlight.

Wall paintings on two storeys of the Huaca de la Luna

It was then time to take another overnight bus journey (13 hours
this time) inland to Chachapoyas.

An outer wall at Huaca de la Luna

Huaraz, North Peru

In my first few days in Peru I took 2 overnight bus journeys broken up by a night's stay in a lovely hostel in Arequipa and a night in a pretty horrible hostel in Lima before finally arriving in Huaraz, a very small city nestled in the mountains in North Peru. Exhausted, I spent two days recovering before I felt ready to tackle the day hike to laguna 69 in the Cordillera Blanca which started with a 3hr bus ride at 6am.

The start of the trek to Laguna 69

The stunning Laguna 69

At high altitude (~4000m) the 3 hour trek up to the lake and 2 hour return was sometimes hard work but completely worth it for the amazing copper sulphate blue waters surrounded by snow capped mountains at the top.

The following day, in need of a later start and a bit of a rest, I took a very touristy bus tour to the Pastorori glacier. The glacier itself was great, standing at 5000m and less than an hour's walk from the road.

The Pastoruri glacier

Unfortunately a bus tour with 30 other tourists, many Peruvian families, wasn't the best way to see it but with a 3.5 hour journey from Huaraz and very limited public transport there wasn't much choice.

En route to the glacier

Back at my hostel that evening I grabbed a shower and dinner before taking yet another overnight bus further up North to the coastal city of Trujillo.