Week 14: All I Want For Christmas...

...is to spend a few lovely days with my family, eating to excess and having fun. Failing that, the next best option was to do the exact same thing but with my surrogate family.

Before arriving in Cusco for Christmas I had a few hectic action packed days. I visited Lake Titicaca on the Peruvian side, where they have "floating islands" made of reeds, and a few actual islands. It was a fun day but we spent longer on the boat than anything else, which nobody told me so I hadn't brought a book.

Narnia-esque landscapes

After the floating islands we went to Taquile, a larger island. I walked a little ahead of the rest of the group (not being antisocial but as I am sure you know it physically pains me to walk slowly) and felt that if I stopped to tie my shoelace I would hear voices of invisible men plotting to ambush the group. Maybe I shouldn't read any more Narnia any time soon. We had a delicious lunch of quinoa soup followed by trout from the lake and then a mint tea, which I actually liked. This was probably because there wasn't any tea in it, just mint and hot water.

Learning to weave Alpaca garments. Pretending to, anyway.

Santa Catalina Convent

The following day I took the bus in the afternoon to Arequipa, which took about 6 hours. When I got off the bus I met Itamar, from Israel, and we headed to find a hostel. In the evening we walked around the city, which I found surprisingly attractive. I don't usually like cities but Arequipa has a lovely colonial feeling, and was particularly improved by the Christmassy feel in the main square. The next day Itamar did some downhill biking from the nearby volcano, El Misti, but I decided to take advantage of my only day in Arequipa to explore the city. I took an extremely good walking tour in the morning, and after lunching with some other from the walking tour, we headed to see "Juanita" - the mummy-who-isn't-actually-a-mummy-but-a-really-old-body-preserved-by-the-cold-at-the-top-of-a-volcano. She was a human sacrifice to pacify the Gods in Inca times. It was very interesting but difficult to see the body because of the conditions she needed to be kept in. Then we went to Santa Catalina Convent, which was pretty much a citadel within the city. It is still a functioning convent but obviously the part which is open to the public has long been out of use. It was really well kept and I couldn't believe how beautiful it was.
I then went to a rooftop bar on the square to enjoy sunset over the city. After this it was time to get the bus to Cusco.

Panoramic from the rooftop bar at sunset was beautiful!

View of the main square on Christmas eve - manic!

After a not too awful overnight bus journey, I arrived with Itamar in Cusco at the somewhat unsociable hour of 8am. We ditched our bags and went to a cafe which I will not name because arguably it is taking over the world and had a sort of version of breakfast. I headed back to the hostel I was staying at the rest before the others arrived. After only a few minutes of sitting I heard the dulcet Dutch tones of one particular travelling companion of mine in the lobby, answered by the Jen's Scottish lilt. We were reunited!

After checking in we headed to "Jack's Cafe" with Alex, an Australian girl who had travelled with Jen and Eefje after I had left for Brazil. After some well deserved homey tasting treats Jen and I went back to the hostel to make ready for battle.
I'm not really joking. On the way to the Inca Trail, Jen's bag had fallen off the bus and was lost forever in the mists of time. Her guide for the trip was, to be honest, being a bit of a dick about it. I went along as moral support so that she wouldn't get trampled on and intimidated by an emotionally-blackmailing, lying weasel. However after a tense half an hour or so, in which I was told "it would be better if I kept silent" (I kept calmer than you might have expected), all was resolved one way or another. We weren't going to let it spoil our Christmas.

Early Christmas present for me... from myself

In the evening we went out for food and cocktails with a few others from the hostel, before going dancing. Needless to say, there were a few sore heads on Christmas morning.
It didn't stop us from all jumping onto Jen's bed in our PJs and tearing open the presents we had from each other and digging into our stockings. I got a lovely pair of earrings from Jen and Eefje and some chocolate from Alex, as well as some lovely hand-knitted gloves/half armwarmers from my mum, which I had been carrying around, wrapped, for over 3 weeks. I also opened the last day on my advent calendar card, thankfully it wasn't a happy family or I think I might have got a bit emotional!

Aforementioned delicious brunch

We went for a delicious brunch before coming back to the hostel for a nap. We were rudely interrupted by another familiar Mexican face (or rather, voice, as none of us wanted to open our eyes) as Edgar came to see what we were doing. We told him, extremely politely, that we would meet him later, after our nap.
So in the evening we all donned our Christmas hats (I hadn't managed to get one so I had to make do with a minions hat) and headed to a more upmarket restaurant for dinner. The menu looked really delicious but I didn't have much of an appetite so stuck with just having a main. I had an absolutely delicious piece of Peruvian trout on a bed of much-needed vegetables. We were all tucked up in bed by midnight with full tummies and sleepy heads.

Preparing to devour our Christmas dinners

On Boxing Day we had a pretty chilled out day. I managed a short run in the morning, wandered why I was struggling so much, and then remembered that Cusco is at an altitude of 3,339m (11,152ft). After that I wasn't really surprised. We explored the city a little more, just walking and enjoying the day. (It probably rained, I can't really remember).

The 27th was the inevitableday of separation, and in the afternoon Jen, Eefje and Alex all took the bus to their various destinations and I was once more deserted! However with the prospect of seeing the iconic Machu Picchu in the days ahead of me, I was pretty excited and ready to get moving again.

Boxing day attire... now you may say I look German