Yesterday morning Juliet and I were so chilled thanks to our lie in and amazing hostel breakfast of banana pancakes with dulce de leche (South American caramel) sauce. We then headed into the town to go to the post office, and ended up in a busy and bustling plaza mayor. It felt like something from the olden days with men in suits reading the newspaper while getting their shoes shined in the middle of the park, families with bread feeding the millions of pigeons around and the cutest old man with a little ice cream stall around his neck. It was actually all very picturesque.

At the post office we bought our stamps, (to get a postcard to the uk it needs three stamps!) posted our postcards… Fingers crossed they arrive everyone… And then headed back to the hostel through the sun, to get our belongings ready for the bus.
This bus was definitely not like the others we’d been on, with a hole for a toilet, a broken tv, non existent air conditioning, and every single person on it asking us what seat we were. Luckily we were 1 and 2 and so had leg room again, however when the bus started moving we realised this might not have been the best option. Arequipa is a beautifully sunny town and the sunlight was beaming in through the windows into an already absolutely boiling bus, with absolutely NO air conditioning or windows. It was so hot I thought I was going to pass out. AND to make matters worse, for the first two to three hours of the journey, we had a speaker (or a shouter if we’re being exact) who was standing in the middle of the bus shouting to everyone about illnesses and diet, he even had flash cards. Juliet and I put our iPods in so loud and prayed that it would get cooler…
Eventually the shouter finished his talk and the sun started to fade as we travelled further South and the desert surroundings were replaced with beautiful lakes and hills and the journey got a lot better – we even arrived early for the first time in South American bus history!
All was good and our travel company for the lake had arranged to pick us up from the bus station and take us to our hostel so we didn’t need to worry about anything. As we were early we waited, and waited, and waited for then to arrive. Forty five minutes passed and it was getting ridiculous considering the hostel is only ten minutes away. We then used a pay phone and rang them to find out that we weren’t on their system but they’d double check and call us back. Calling us back wasn’t getting us out of the bus station so Juliet and I decided to just get a taxi… Over an hour after we arrived at the station. It was 9.30pm by the time we arrived at our hostel which is actually a hotel! (Although if everything had gone to plan we could’ve been there much earlier) Juliet and I have our own (tiny) room, with two double beds and so we’re extremely happy this morning after a much needed sleep, for once not in a bunk bed!
Today when we finally get out of bed we’re planning on visiting the travel company to confirm our tour tomorrow… Fingers crossed we’re on their system for this!

This morning at 3am… Yes 3am! We were picked up to begin our tour of the Colca Canyon. The Colca Canyon is a canyon of the Colca River in southern Peru. It is Peru’s third most-visited tourist destination with about 120,000 visitors annually, AND with a depth of 13,650 ft (4,160 m), it is more than twice as deep as the Grand Canyon. It was about a three hour drive there from Arequipa, the town we’re staying in, and so obviously we fell asleep as soon as we got on the bus! When we arrived at our first destination, we were all happy to hear the words Desayuno! (breakfast) and hurriedly went into the warmth for hot tea and warm bread… With a view.

After this we travelled into the Canyon to explore! Our first stop here was the Cañon del Colca, the most famous viewing spot in the Colca Canyon as it is home to the Condor bird.

The Condor bird sits at about a metre tall, it has a wing span of 3 to 4 metres and it is the heaviest bird in the world… And we were looking into a valley filled with them swooping within the canyon. The were unbelievable, so graceful for such big birds and so blissfully unaware (either that it they didn’t care) about the thousands of tourists reaching out to them and taking photos.

At the canyon there were also market stalls and walk ways so that you could explore every possible view of the colca.
Our next stop was a look out point over looking pre inca ruins, which are now fields for corn, wheat, maze and quinoa.

It also had a small Peruvian market with the cutest stall lady who let Juliet and I try the sour cactus fruit (absolutely delicious) and showed us all of her handmade creations.

We then went to a huge Peruvian market where Juliet bought a poncho!!! (Atlast) I just need to buy one now and then we’re set for our inca trail! At the market we also tried a Colca Canyon version of pisco sours (pisco sours are a Peruvian alcoholic drink made with pisco, lemon juice and egg whites) the colca version, colca sours have the sour cactus juice (that we tried before) instead of lime juice.
Then we went to the thermal baths, however it was so hot that we didn’t feel like actually going in. Instead Juliet and I found a spot on a rock over looking the river, the canyon and the beautiful sunshine – it was so peaceful and absolutely perfect.
Our next stop was lunch (thank god, we were so hungry from our early breakfast!) and it was an all you can eat buffet before our second long bus journey of the day, back to Arequipa.
On the way back we passed a massive field filled with Alpacas and Lamas, all grazing in herds. All the way back to Arequipa we passed Peruvians working in the corn fields, walking along with donkeys as mules carrying the corn and herding cows. It was a real working environment in a beautiful canyon and we had a great (if very very full day) tour of it all.

Two days ago Juliet and I started our depressing journey away from the beautiful Mancora. The South American timing actually started before we even left when the time on our bus ticket said 4.30pm departure and on arriving at 4pm we learnt that this was actually 4.30 from Tumbes, a town about two hours away, meaning our bus wasn’t till 6.30. So at 6pm we were back at the bus station watching the Peruvian version of Gladiators (I actually got really into it) and at about 7.45pm our bus finally arrived. Already over an hour late, our 18 hour bus soon turned into a even more delayed bus and 21 hours later we arrived in Lima. Thankfully for that very long journey, Juliet and I had booked the front seats of first class meaning we had bigger, more reclinable seats, with no one putting there’s back into our leg room. After a three hour wait at the bus stop we then piled onto our next bus (this time not first class… Booh, but still at the front) for a fifteen hour bus ride. Unfortunately the traffic was so bad getting out of Lima we knew we’d be delayed. Once we’d been travelling for 16 hours we stopped in a tiny run down town in the middle of the desert – we’d been driving through desert land practically the whole journey. We thought we’d arrived and actually got off the bus with all our stuff, only to find out this was a chemical toilet stop (incase the bus toilet was driving you crazy) and a place to buy some food (if the bus food was also driving you crazy). We were told we had another two hours until our destination and the rest of the journey was actually really pleasant. The desert, run down buildings and junkyards covered in dust were substituted for amazing greenery, fields of corn and flowers with people working in them, and roads on the edges of huge canyons overlooking villages placed inside. Three and a half hours later.. (Seriously South America) we finally arrived in Arequipa! So just so we can get a grasp of Peruvian timings. 4.30pm leave actually means 6.30 which actually means 7.45. 18 hours are actually 21 hours. 15 equals 18.5 and 2 equals 3.5. But who cares, we’re here and Arequipa is a beautifully cute town. It actually took our bus driver so so so long to find our hostel as it’s down a tiny street which no one seems to know (we were first turned down by two taxi drivers when we told them the address) but we’re swiftly brushing over that detail. We went to the super market which is right next door and made ourselves a delicious dinner of salmon in soya sauce and vegetable fried rice and have booked ourselves two great tours for the next two days. (Two days and two nights on a bus have made me so happy about everything that’s not a bus)
We have a 3am start tomorrow, for a very very full day touring and hiking the canyon and then the next day we’re canoeing in the canyon!
After five days relaxing by the pool, and two days sitting on a bus, we’re ready to be active again! Bring on the next few weeks.

After a wonderfully early night, half a day of sunbathing, packing and then a huuuuuge platter of sushi (a huge delicious platter), it is now time to say good bye to the beautiful Mancora and the amazing Loki hostel. I really needed these few days in the sunshine (I was beginning to feel anaemic) to top up our tans but also to relax and do absolutely nothing after three months of doing absolutely everything! It’s now go time again and after our two over night, 18+ hour busses (kill me now) we have a lot of exciting adventures planned. Hiking in the Colca canyon, lake Titicaca, the inca trail and volunteer work – it’s time to be busy again and we’re definitely ready after our early nights and lazy days.
We just need to survive these two unbelievably long busses first… Wish us luck!

This morning when I woke up (actually ridiculously early) the hostel was empty, no music from the bar, no one in the pool and no one on the sunbeds and it was absolutely beautiful and so peaceful… I’m really going to miss this place when we leave tomorrow.

At 2pm, after a morning on sunbathing, it was time for the England v Uruguay game. With our hostel being mostly English staff and mostly English guests, the atmosphere was always going to be great.

That with the fact that our hostel has the biggest screen in the town so people from all over come to watch the game, and the big screen is right above a huge open plan bar with loads of seats… AND happy hour happened to be right while the game was on. Safe to say there were a lot of drunk English men ready to see England win.
The funny thing about South Americans is that even though there are feuds and have been rivalries between countries, the support each other massively. This means that the handful of Uruguay supporters watching the match earlier, screaming and shouting, head to toe in paint and Uruguay outfits, might not have actually been from Uruguay. They could have been from any other South American country but the fact is that they’re South American, and they want South America to win. So when Suarez scored his first goal, they went crazy, banging their fists on the tables, screaming, running around and shouting in whatever language they could at the screen. (Which to our delight, had English commentary today so we actually knew what was going on).
When Rooney then scored making it one all, I literally thought the bar was going to explode, obviously our English celebration had to be bigger than the Uruguayan but it was ridiculous! The English avid football fans were ridiculously drunk by this point and had spent the most part of the game swearing and shouting curses at the screen but now they were ecstatic. One of them (the most drunk by far) even jumped up onto the table, started pouring all of his three massive beer bottles of beer all over everyone and himself, screaming and chanting, until he slipped (idiot) and fell onto the floor, smash onto the concrete on top of his three beer bottles which subsequently smashed everywhere too (it’s surprisingly that he wasn’t actually injured after it… Bloody English).

Just before the game finished (a quick reminder for those who didn’t see the game) Suarez scored again and I don’t know who I was more scared of, the Uruguayan fans who now went crazy slamming their fists and bodies and heads on the tables (honestly I thought the table was going to break), OR the English fans who we’re fuming, swearing about the ref, the other team, the fact that someone somewhere was off side, kicking things. Anyways Juliet and I found if absolutely hilarious, and scuttered away back to our sunbeds before anyone noticed we were actually laughing hysterically about how terrible England were and how much everyone seemed to be over reacting. All I can say is GO CHILE (incase anyone doesn’t know I’m a newly converted Chilean fan and I’m backing them to win the World Cup).

This evening Juliet and I went out for pizza before enjoying our last night in Loki hostel, and in Mancora for that matter. The next two nights are going to be spent on busses and so tonight (as usual) we’re having an early night and making the most of a nice place to sleep!

When we do absolutely nothing all day (except relaxing) the vast majority of my blogs end up being about food… Well that and the fact that Juliet and I were doing our 7 minute indoor workouts (trying to slightly prepare for the inca trail) when our new roommate walked in and actually laughed at us… (Obviously in envy at how impressive and athletic we looked doing press ups in our pajamas.)
Today I spent most of the day on FaceTime, catching up with friends and family from home, which actually gave my sunburn a chance to relax and I’m now ready for a full day of hard core tanning tomorrow.
Now for the food blog…
This evening Juliet and I decided to try our luck at the local sushi restaurant. It was delicious and we were so happy with our choice, I had California rolls with tempura shrimp instead of normal shrimp, and then tuna maki with cream cheese, avocado and Japanese spicy mayonnaise… So good!

Being our usual selves when we saw a sushi desert on the menu, we just had to have it and this time it was Choco Maki.

The chocolate fudge sauce with pecans and prunes would be enough but it was combined with sushi rice and seaweed to make a proper sushi roll and it was… Dreadful. Absolutely disgusting. We actually had trouble keeping it down but forced ourselves to eat it so as not to offend the sushi chef.

The pictures actually do it a lot more justice than it deserves but oh well… It was hilariously undelicious, a weirdly interesting end to the night and who else can say they’ve tried chocolate sushi ay?!

Today Julie and I were first out on the sunbeds, they were all lined up ready to be used but no one was on them so we decided someone had to be first, and today it would be us. We picked the only two in the sunshine but within an hour they had all filled up and we were so happy we’d made claims to ours early on. Being first in the sun also meant that we were in the sun for a very long time today, it was an absolutely beautiful day, about thirty degrees, not a cloud in the sky and of course I got burnt. If I was any one else in my family (especially my sister) I would be an amazing bronzed golden colour right now, but instead I am lobster red… It’s quite a good look, especially when a random American man comes up to you in the street shouting OH MY GAAAAD, you are SO red, yes thank you I already knew that.
Apart from the slight suncream mishap (it’s also just my chest and tummy that are burnt so with a high neck top it’s really not so bad) it’s been a lovely, relaxing day by the pool, enjoying the beautiful Peruvian sunshine.

This evening we decided to try our luck in a vegetarian restaurant, it was the only one on the street with actual customers and the menu did look quite appetising. The food, just as the menu suggested, was actually really yummy, especially considering I was eating food mostly consisting of lentils, however everything else was vegetables which, ofcourse, I was extremely happy about and Juliet and I have both decided we will be going back there. (Plus it was super cheap and healthy which is always a bonus for backpackers).

It’s 8.20pm and once again, at this amazingly early hour, Julie and I are ready for bed. Lying in the sun all day really is exhausting and after being on the go, none stop for three months already, and having the next month filled with exploring, hiking and volunteer working, we really do need these five days to just chill and do nothing… And that’s exactly what we’re going to do!

Yesterday Juliet and I went to the bus station at 11.30am ready to buy our tickets and get on the 1pm bus to Mancora. Unfortunately when we arrived we found out that this bus was cancelled and the next one to our destination was at 3.45. Let’s just say it was a long and very boring wait at the bus station until we finally got to board the bus and basically switch from one quite uncomfortable seat to another, except this one would be our seat for the next 18 hours (it actually turned out to be 19 as of course our bus was delayed). At 11am this morning we FINALLY arrived in Mancora. After driving through practically nothing, just desert land and a lot of fog, it was such a nice relief to arrive in a cute little beach town with bright blue sky and a shining sun.
This is what it looked like practically our whole journey…

And this is what we saw when we arrived at our hostel…

Safe to say it felt like we’d entered into paradise. Our hostel room wasn’t actually ready for us for another couple of hours so we wondered into the town to explore and grab some early lunch. Mancora is an open, clean, quite pretty town full of crazy tuck tuck drivers, surfer tourists and local market sellers. One side of the road is filled with the market sellers stalls where they sell everything hand made and everything has ‘Mancora’ written beneath it, even bracelets!
The other side of the road is filled with banks, drug stores and hundreds of cute, locally owned restaurants, one of which Juliet and I decided on for lunch. Firstly because it was two courses and a drink for 10pesos (£2), secondly because all the decorations, including table decorations and lamp shades, were made out of shells, and thirdly… Because the food actually seemed quite nice. (We definitely have our priorities set in backpacker mode)

We then spent the rest of the afternoon unpacking and dumping all of our warm clothes and jackets (that we definitely will not be needed) in our hostel room and then sunbathing by the massive pool that the hostel has to offer. This evening, after a solid afternoon in the sun of course, Juliet and I headed back into town and browse the markets once again and find something for dinner that we really fancied. We came across a cute little Italian restaurant, lowly lit with red flowery table clothes and we’re sold. The food was delicious, we both had vegetarian pasta and it was so huge we couldn’t finish it!!

It’s now 8pm and Juliet and I are both in bed in our room, nether of us slept at all well on the bus last night and it’s safe to say we are both looking forward to a very early night followed by a hard core sunbathing session tomorrow. We are in a party hostel however and the music is blaring, serves us right for being such grannies… Hehe (sorry grandparents! Love you all lots).

After recommendation (and the fact that Juliet and I are seriously missing the sunshine) today we are off to Mancora, a beach town on the west coast of Peru.
Lonely planet says…

Peru’s worst-kept secret, Máncora is the place to see and be seen along the Peruvian coast – in the summer months foreigners flock here to rub sunburned shoulders with the frothy cream of the Peruvian jet set. It’s not hard to see why – Peru’s best sandy beach stretches for several kilometers in the sunniest region of the country, while dozens of plush resorts and their budget-conscious brethren offer up rooms within meters of the lapping waves. On shore, a plethora of restaurants provides fresh seafood straight off the boat as fuel for the long, lazy days. The consistently good surf draws a sun-bleached, board-toting bunch and raucous nightlife keeps visitors busy after the sun dips into the sea in a ball of fiery flames. However, even though it has seen recent explosive growth, Máncora has somehow managed to cling to its fishing community roots.

So it’s easy to see why Juliet and I want to go there!
With a 1pm bus arriving in tomorrow morning, let’s hope our 18 hour bus journey is worth it. I expect to see beautiful beaches and bright blue sky!

Today when we woke up we decided to spend the day as true Peruvians. We took our laundry down to the local laundrette and set about exploring the city… Without appearing like tourists of course. We first passed huge inca ruins, situated right in the middle of Miraflores (the area in Lima that we are staying it) with a huge fence around it, enclosing amazing sand steps up to huge inca buildings and also lots of lamas.
Our plan of the day was to head for the best Ceviche restaurant in town and on our way we had to walk through the ‘Park of love’ (yes that is actually it’s name) a heart shaped park, full of emotional and soppy quotes and the most bizarre statue ever.

The town itself was heaving and so was the park due to the bright sunny sky, beautiful weather and obscene amount of para gliders coming in and out of the beautiful cliffs below us.

For lunch we went to a restaurant called “La Mar”, famous for it’s Ceviche. Ceviche is raw fish (or seafood in our case) that is covered in onions and lime juice and then left to basically cook in the juices… and we had the most delicious meal. It almost went terribly wrong when I put a whole chile in my mouth thinking it was pepper, but it was soon fine after that.

We also had the opportunity to then try a Suspiro a la Limeña (literally translated as the sigh of Lima) a delicious caramel type desert that Juliet and I both secretly wish we hadn’t shared… But had all to ourselves.

Our last port of call after lunch was another lovely stroll through the town until we arrived at the street of markets, ready to shop!

However in true Juliet and Steph fashion we actually got very bored of market shopping quite quickly and so we swiftly moved on and headed to the supermarket to buy dinner and then back to Miraflores, to the hostel to watch England’s first game in the World Cup, against Italy. Of course England lost but we did feel patriotic for a bit at least, while watching it.
It really was a very Peruvian day, with ceviche, Peruvian wine and local dessert, we did feel like we had accomplished something and came back to the hostel exhausted!