Peru so far!

Hello! Peru has been really good but busy so far. The rest of our time in Arequipa was nice. We all had to work/ study so the days were full with that and during my breaks from classes we would go walk around and run errands. On Wednesday of that week we left Arequipa at 3:30am on a mini tour bus to visit Colca Canyon. I was not really expecting much but Colca Canyon was stunning. The terraced hills were so crazy to see because I had learned about that in high school. Farmers in the past used terraces so that they could farm on hills and so that the area was more resilient to earthquakes! Our tour was cool because we got to stop in some really unique towns and places. Our Colca Canyon stop included a short hike and then getting to watch the Andean Condors fly directly above us. UNREAL!! The Andean Condor is the largest bird that is able to fly. It is generally 1 meter tall and has a 3-meter (10 feet) wingspan. They were so big but glided so effortlessly. We got really lucky because it was a beautiful day and the condors were excited to fly around and show off. After Colca Canyon we got to go to a hot springs right along the river! It was so cool and beautiful. We had a long drive after that to get to Puno and we ended up arriving there are 7:30pm. When we arrived it was raining and we had a 10 minute walk to our Airbnb. Unfortunately the walk was all uphill. So we carried all of our things uphill, in the pouring rain, after traveling for 16 hours. AND when we arrived to our Airbnb the power went out and it was freezing cold. Luckily, we were all pretty good sports, and the power came on and we were able to get some pizza delivered. A crazy travel day that I was glad to not do alone!

We chose to stay in Puno because it is directly on Lake Titicaca which is the biggest lake in South America. It is smaller than Lake Superior but sill very large. It connects Peru and Bolivia. Puno was also a nice town to be in. There was a cool main street and there was a port as well that we visited. One day while we were there we did a full day boat tour. We got picked up around 7am and then visited two islands on the lake. The first island we visited was Uros and it is a part of the floating islands near Puno that are home to the Aymara people. The Aymara have been around for centuries and actually fled from the Inca. Their floating islands are made out of reeds and rest on blocks of dirt and other organic matter. Each island is attached to two separate posts with rope just to ensure they do not float away. And people actually live on these islands. On the one that we visited, there were 5 small huts, and 5 families lived on the island. They make their money through tourism and catching then selling fish. It was such a unique experience. After Uros, we went to Taquile which is a much larger (non-floating) island. We walked across the entire island, watched a dance show, and then got to eat lunch with an insane view of the lake. Taquile has really wonderful textiles and I ended up buying a super cool woven belt! Walking across the island we passed fields of potatoes, corn, quinoa, and livestock like sheep and cows. It was so cool! Then we had a long boat ride back and it was so cool. 

Puno was a great stop, and I am glad that we were able to do that. I love lakes and Lake Titicaca delivered! On Sunday we took a taxi to the bus terminal and then boarded our bus for the day. This travel day was not as long but still ended up being 13 hours. This bus had a few stops. The first one was at a museum about the Pucara which was a pre-Incan group. Some people thinks that the Incas actually descended from the Pucara. Then we visited an Incan ruin called Raqchi. This is right along the Inca Trail, and they stored a lot of food and goods here and had temples. Our last stop was at a colonial church called Ruta del Barroco Andino. It is really intersting to see the combination of Incan and Spanish religious beliefs in the church. It was a super cool tour! We got dropped off in Cusco and then had a car from our next AirBnB pick us up. These are some facts that I wrote down during this tour that I thought were interesting: 

• Evidence of people living in Peru since 8000 BCE and the Pucara people lived from 3000BCE to 1200CE. A drought in 1200CE took them out. They migrated to Cusco. It is thought that Inca civilization is born from Pucara. And that is why the Inca are from Lake Titicaca. The Inca were only in Lake Titicaca region for 86 years.

• They built raised field on the altiplano to avoid floods
• There are 2000 types of quinoas in Peru
• Lake Titicaca is in a basin surrounded by two mountain lines. One volcanic mountain and the other is glacier 
• Bull figurines are put on top of house for good luck and prosperity. Before Spanish colonization, it was llamas. 
• Over 8 million people speak Quechua 
• The Inca would build their walls to be thicker at the bottom and then thinner as it went up so it was earthquake resistant. 
• The Inca believed in three worlds: sky (condor), present ground (llama), and below the ground (snake).
• The entire Inca trail spans from Argentina to Colombia
• 1230-1450 Inca in Cusco. 1450 started their conquest. 1450-1533 built their empire rapidly.

We took the taxi to Urubamba which is where we are now. Urubamba is located in the Sacred Valley and it is beautiful here. We are in a super cool cabin that is part of a group of other cabins. We have a nice porch and it is all around very cool. This morning we went for a hike and got to see structures were ancient Andean civilizations stored food. So cool! I think that we will try to go for some more hikes in the next few days that we are here. This weekend is Machu Picchu. I cannot believe it! Traveling with other people has been nice but also super challenging at times. I had a really bad day but then I took myself out for a walk and got some sweets and visited a market and felt much better. I really love that I am happy alone and need alone time. I feel like that means that I am happy with myself and that is so important to me. 

**I wrote this post last week but did not get the chance to post it. I will write my Machu Picchu post soon!