A bit sick and tired

The floating islands are fascinating. The Uros people have lived on their selfmade reed islands for centuries. Traditionally they lived of fishing and hunting but nowadays their main income is tourism. I wonder for how long they can keep up their independent lifestyle. They have primary schools at the islands but for further education the young people have to go to Puno. And there is hardly any work for highly educated people on the islands. 

From Puno I took the night bus to Arrequipa. Arrequipa is very different from the other cities I have visited. Although the other cities have a colonial centre, the centre of Arrequipa is exceptionally beautiful, clean and  tidy and has a relaxed, almost meditarrenean atmosphere.

Since I came to Arrequipa things unfortunately didn't go as well as before. I over-enthousiastically decided to go on a hiking tour in the Colca Canyon. I hadn't realized how demanding this hike would be. The tour operators have a very tight schedule. We left Arrequipa at 3.30 in the morning to drive to Colca Canyon. We started the hike in a small village not far from Cabanaconde 1100 m down into the Canyon within the first 2 hours of trekking. After a 10 min break we went along the river on for another 25 min before we had lunch. After that is was another 3 hour hike climbing at least 200-300 m and descending again into the Sangalle oasis at the Colca river where we stayed for the night. Unfortunately I had caught a cold and was sneezing and coughing and got worse during the night. On top of this it started raining in the night and the cabin roof was leaking. I woke up when the water dripped in my face. I was terrified about the next day, when we had to start the hike back up in the dark and rain. However, the guide obviously was not very sympathetic and mainly interested in sticking to the schedule. So we climbed the 1200 m back up in 3 hours before breakfast! Being sick and at 3300 m altitude this was really hard. The journey back to Arrequipa I spent sitting in the minibus wheezing and sneezing and feeling absolutely rotten. My legs really hurt also :-/ There's one good thing about this experience: I now know that I can do the Salkantay Trek (if I am not too sick)! And we did see the condors at the Cruz del Condor and lots of llamas, alpacas and vicunas on the way. The Colca Canyon is impressive (deepest canyon in the world) and the hike would have been really wonderful it we had been given more time to rest and enjoy the scenery.

The next morning I took the bus to Cusco. There were some really nice people travelling with me on the bus who gave me Vitamine C - together with some paracetamol it helped me along. Now it is Thursday morning and after a good night I feel okay now and hope I will be able to go on the 5 day Salkantay Trek tomorrow. The last day of the trek is the visit to Macchu Pichu. Later this morning I will attend the briefing. This means that I will be off-line again for at least 5 days.