Free Travel

We just returned from our five days of free travel. What a load of traveling for five days. It all started out leaving the spanish school in arequipa in the afternoon on a wednesday. we all packed into taxi´s and headed to the bus staion. we took a more local bus at 3 in the afetrnoon. so the drive was supposed to take five to five and a half hours, ha, after about six we were all feeling a little tired of driving. the bus took an extra hour to leave then stopped a lot to pick up random people. it took about seven hours total.
we arived in puno at around ten at night. we took taxis to the hostel and got situated in the rooms. Then went out and had dinner. But after that a "long" nights rest.
in the moring we had some bread for breakfast and headed to the dock to get on a boat. We were a little late so our time on the islands was cut short a little. The reed islands of uros were very amazing but very touristy. from there we rode the boat another three hours through lake titicaca to the island of taquile. We had a guide who grew up on the islands and told us a lot about the values and history of the island. We then ate a nice lunch of quinua soup, trout from the lake and rice,and headed back to the city of puno for the night.
that evening we were lucky enough to see one of two parades that happen in puno every year for the university. there were the most extravagant costumes and dancing and masks. it all lasted at least four or five hours maybe more.
In the morning we all took a two and a half hour bus ride to the cross of the roads between puno arequipa and colca. the two and a half hours turned into five. we met our driver and drove for another two hours to the city of chivay. we got all cozied up in our hostel and then headed to some hotsprings. the hot springs where nice, more of a hot spot for little school kids and packed to the brim with people but nice. we went out and ate then went to sleep at the hostel.
in the moring we were up at five thirty and drove to the cruz del condor. we sat and waited for about four hours to see the condors and only got a slight glimse of one. while we were there more tourists showed up by the hundreds and filled the parking lot with huge busses. they only stayed for about two hours and then left. it was quite a site of tourism at its finest.
From there we went to the town of cabanaconde and ate lunch, bought food for the day and the next morning and headed down the colca canyon to the oasis. it took about one and a half hours to reach the bottom and by that time i was thoroughly burnt and ready to swim. we swam for maybe an hour befor the sun went down. we had a great evening of stars and rest before our grueling hike back out the next morning at about seven in the AM.
we reached the top in about two and a half hours. we were again lucky enough to see another parade in cabanaconde, accompanied by a whole lot of loud fireworks. we went from there back to chivay for lunch and then headed back to arequipa for the night and the next day of long travel to lima/ quito ecuador.
-Elliot