Hola

Hi everyone, 

I'm now in South America with Jessica, who was my roommate in Flagstaff Arizona. 

 We arrived into Lima, Peru and stayed at a hostel that offered us pick up service. We caught a public bus to our next place, they tried to charge us 20/s but the hostal receptionist said no more than 3/s so we pointed to the price chart, said no and gave him 3/s. 

We didn't really didn't like Lima, but that might have just been that we were so overwhelmed with everything when we arrived. 

We camped off the oasis in Huacachina, for 5/s a night which is probably around $2 USD. We were camping out the back of someones house and they even cooked us Peruvian meal for 5/s each. Still probably some of the best food I've had here. 

We went sand boarding and drove over the dunes in a bug, which was real fun - although pretty terrifying. 

We've just been catching buses everywhere mainly- and overnight to cut our costs down- we haven't had any issues as of yet so fingers crossed/touch wood. 

I loved Arequipa- I didn't want to leave at all. We keep bumping into the same people around town/at the hostels - these group of English boys we keep seeing and then some people from Brussels. The gringo trail is pretty small as they say. 

We did a hike down into Colca Canyon over 3 days, which is the third most visited place by tourists in Peru. The final night we arrived at the oasis at 1pm and got to swim, have a good authentic lunch and read/relax. It really made me appreciate doing the 3 day hike over the 2 day, as they got in at 5pm when the sun had gone down over the mountains and who wants to swim then? 

The tour itself wasn't that pricey, but looking back it would have been better if we had done it by ourselves as we would have been able to stay longer in the oasis. 

Currently in Cusco, tried alpaca last night, which was interesting but probably wouldn't order it again. We're going to research prices for Machu Picchu. I've been pretty lucky, haven't been sick yet - although Jess wasn't so lucky. She had to take a mule up for the last leg of the canyon.

Staying safe, 

XXXX 

Sarah