Just a little preface before the actual post: I know that I am pretty far behind compared to my actual location (which is New Zealand!), but I hope to catch up sometime – stay tuned!)
Here goes (beware: long post):
When we (Ani, Lau and I) got to Arequipa after a long 10-hour bus drive in the night, my nose started running and I felt cold. No wonder, as the seats next to the windows in the bus got REALLY cold during the night. Most of the locals had brought a blanket and some warm clothe, but cleaver as I am, I only had my t-shirt, a fleece and my jacket. Oh, and by the way, the bus trip had a pretty unusual start: when we had taken our seats and the bus drivers assistant had turned on the televisions, some real heavy death-metal started blasting out of the speakers. It went on for 20 minutes! As no one seem to react and everybody was getting rather irritated, I got up, turned off the DVD player for the monitors and gone was the ”music”. It seemed that the rip-off movie compilation DVD had a menu soundtrack that would run in a loop with the thrash-metal rocking in the background. Later on, when the movie came on, it was ”Starship Troopers” with Spanish language synchronized on top of it – and that definitely didn’t make a bad movie I had seen +4 times better!
Anyway, we got to Arequipa, found a nice hostal close the main plaza (after been tracked down by a deluded woman wanting us to stay at her lousy hospedaje) and went for the terrace on the roof – sweet! Sunshine, couches, a cold Cusquena (local beer from Cuzco) and just relaxation. A day or two after (not sure) we took off the for Colca Canyon 2 day trip.
The Colca Canyon trip was great – it included a long drive over the desert mountains, bathing in hot springs and an amazing view over Cruz del Condor (and Colca canyon itself), where condors were circling one of the deepest canyons in the world (approx 4000 meters straight down is an amazing view). It was a good short trip all together and the highlight in our Arequipa stay. I remember sitting on the hillside, a little away from the usual canyon outpost, and enjoying the view of the mountains. When I get to be a 60-year-old man and I’ve earned my fortune, that is the view I want to wake up to every morning. Living in the highlands of Peru – that should be achievable right?! 
Anyway, next stop on the route was Puno, which is a small city located on the coast to lake Titicaca (the biggest lake in South America). I specifically remember the bus trip there, as it was absolutely lousy. My comrade, the guy sitting next to me for the 6 hour drive, was so fucking disgusting. I am not exaggerating when I say that the guy was blowing his nose in his jacket, spitting on the floor and generally smelled like shit. When he sneezed once in a while, I could literally feel a rain of mouth interior hitting me – and not to mention the loud throat sounds he was continually making. Great. 6 hours of hell ride.
Puno was a somewhat small town that seemed to exist mostly for the tourism that the lake was producing. One night, we went to the local bar, which turned out to be great fun – I met a Danish girl that was travelling together with a group of other youngsters. Oh, and by the way, as they don’t use crushed ice in Peru, DON’T order a Mojito and expect it to be good! The Mojito I got there was probably the worst I ever had. Hrmp..
The morning after, we went off for the floating islands, which is the main attraction at the lake. Basically, the local indigenous people fled to the lake, when the Inca uprising approached the lake. At the lake, the people constructed artificial floating islands out of siv (?) and made a living there. More about this here. Anyway, the 4-hour trip to the islands was interesting indeed – but tourism has definitely had its touch on the islands. The people had television inside their small cabins powered by solar power and they did a “Vamos a la Playa” dance for us when we left. It felt a little too much really. But looking apart from that, it was fun to see how islands made of siv actually had become a home of so many people.
Next stop was Copacabana. The border crossing from Peru to Bolivia was seamless – you get your passport stamp, walk through the check (where they don’t check you at all) and get the immigration paper. Bus continued on the other side and soon we were in Copacabana. The main place to stay seemed to be a big hotel called Hotel Mirador located right out to the coast, so we checked in there. I got my own 3-bed room (paid for a single room only though), which had a perfect view of the lake. The big panorama window made the sunset/sunrise a spectacular view and Copacabana itself was very calm and quiet in addition. We had a few nice days there. Lau did some Yoga with me – she’s a Yoga instructor and it was a good spot for it (but damn I’m inflexible!) The meals were cheap (Bolivia is even more cheap than Peru) – for around 15 Bolivianos (estimated $2 dollars) you get a 3 dish meal including soft drinks. You don’t get that in Denmark for sure! The evening after we arrived, we chilled, relaxed and enjoyed the calm atmosphere. I saw a movie on my laptop called “The Art of Travel” that I liked a lot (nice concept, bad acting tho) – it’s about a guy leaving home and going to South America with only his daypack. A lot of stuff is happening in the movie, but at some point in the end, he goes to Cuzco, lake Titicaca and Salar de Uyuni – which is exactly the same places I’ve been! In Cuzco, I recognized the central Plaza de Armas and a café he was sitting in – the exact same café where I had breakfast one day. His way of thinking represents a lot of mine really, so I could easily identify with the urge for freedom and breaking out of routine and habits.
Last experience from Copacabana was an evening in a rowing boat on the lake. We asked a local captain hanging around the harbour if we could rent one of the boats and for 25 Bolivianos we got an hour of rowing. Watching the sunset from the boat was quite an experience and summed up the stay there excellently. Only thing I missed was a girl to share the moment with – a bottle of champagne and the sunset of lake Titicaca in a rowing boat sounds like the perfect romantic moment doesn’t it
It was time for goodbyes – I had to leave Ani and Lau to go off for the craziness of La Paz. This goes in the next blog post.
