No Gracias…
No gracias. This is the number one spanish phrase that I use most. Street vendors are relentless and sell just about everything from souveniers to first aid kits to shovels to drugs.
In the last week, we made it to Puno, Arequipa and trekked the Colca Canyon.
The best part about Puno was our visit to the Uros (floating) Islands. There are groups of families that live on man made islands from reeds and their entire livelihood uses this material. One little boy invited me into his home where his parents and two more siblings live. It is hard to imagine that five people slept in a house the size of a queen bed. (Check out the Puno pictures to see for yourself).
Our next stop was Arequipa - the nicest city in Peru that we have visited. We loved the colonial architecture and peacefullness of the city. From here we decided to test ourselves and we went on a three day trek of the Colca Canyon, the second deepest canyon in the world. Our accomodations were rustic, to say the least, but it was all part of the experience.
The trek took us through villages in the middle of nowhere to an incredible oasis at the bottom of the canyon. We ate exotic fruits that we picked ourselves and mingled with the mountain folk.
On the last day, we had to climb out of the canyon which was 9km, uphill, over 1100 meters verticle. Gadi made it out in two hours and I took about three, which is still better than the average. I was just happy to make it out alive.
We are now back in Cusco where Gadi met another close friend from Junior High, Amit Stein. Yesterday, we spent the whole day hanging out with Gadi´s friends and recuperating from our journey.
Tomorrow we leave for our Inca Trek. Wish us luck!
Rebecca