Polly and Toby's Travels

When we arrived back at Cusco we changed hostel from Pariwana to Loki due to the fact that a lot of our trek group were staying there… They neglected to mention the 100 or so steps it took to get up to it! & we hoped we had seen the last of the steps! The showers were very nice and powerful & hot though so spent a while just soaking up the water Went and got completly overstuffed on the buffet curry – I´m  a sucker when its all you can eat! Only went up to the buffet around 7 times… Managed to get in a fair few happy hour drinks at Lokis bar which was completly packed because noone could be bothered to walk the mini marathon to the bars in town! Leisurly up the next morning for a suprisingly good breakfast.. I can´t quite remember what we did for the rest of the morning (probably watching the football/being very cultural), the next thing I remember was sitting in The Real McCoy eating my bangers and mash and Pol with her roast beef and yorkshire pud sandwich (not up to mum standard – Pol ) but still good!

In the evening we had a bus to Arequipa, so after some emotional goodbyes & facebook swapping we set off in a taxi to the station. Our bus overnight was ok, (I think it actually wasn´t that good, but compared to last nights, I´m remebering it fondly; but I´ll get to that in a min..) We arrived at Arequipa at 4 45am (!) and had a stressful time booking onto the 6am bus to Colca Canyon. The ticket desk didn´t open till 10 to 6 and there wsa a big rush of locals wanting tickets and very few left. Polly was getting completly ignored by the male ticket man who seemed to scan over women to the next guy wanting tickets, so I pushed my way to the front and got us a couple of the last tickets. The 6 hour bus wasn´t too bad and we managed to avoid paying a 35 soles (8 pound) entry fee. An offical looking women got on the bus and was selling the tickets which she said were compulsery.. Some tourists bought them straight away, but us and a few others refused as we´d never heard of the fee and thought it could just be a scam and when the women said there was a checkpoint we said we buy the tickets there then. With a humph she got off the bus never to be seen again, and the bus was never stopped for a checkpoint! REsult We did read in the bran new lonely planet this afternoon that the fee is genuine and they have just introduced it – obviously having some teething problems Anyway we arrived in Colca Canyon to some awesome chicken sandwiches and dropped our bags at the hostel that we were going to stay at the next night. After lunch we set off on the walk down the canyon to the Oasis. Took us around 2 hours to get down which wasn´t too bad, but you could see the pools all the way down hich was tantalsiing!! The place we were staying in was only 10 soles a night and had a very nice pool with a big rock to jump off (I´m easily pleased ) Another footie match followed in which the locals were easily defeated! The meals weren´t bad at the Oasis.. but they were quite simple (Polly wasn´t a fan, but I thought they were ok) The next morning we had the Oasis to ourselves as tour groups left early and the new group didn´t arrive till late so we had the pool and sun loungers to ourselves! Finally managed to drag ourselves away at half 2 for the 3 hour hike back up the canyon! Polly managed to keep a good pace going up the canyon and comprised with our music blaring out loud (we are totally wanna be chavs) the journey up wasn´t too bad. We got in to the hostel about 30mins before it got dark and as we had paid an extra pound each we had an en-suite with hot water ! so some nice showers before our epic meal! Probably went a little crazy with our ordering… Started with Alpaca Kebabs and chips, followed by a large pizza, followed by another bowl of chips finished off with a big plate of Nachos! Saved loads of money though as we just asked for glasses and made cocktails of Vodka, Inca Cola and Lime Juice!! The next morning we were up to suffer through the England match glad we got through.. not fancying our chances against Germany though..  Watched Italy get beaten by Slovakia(or was it Slovenia I can´t remember) this moring which was a great match if anyone watched it

We had another epic bus day yesterday to get us to Huchachina. Had to ride the 6 hours back to Arequipa then an overnight one to here. The overnight bus was horrible, was very cramped and I slept terribly. Although turns out it was mega cheap. We paid 30 soles to get here and someone travelling the opposite was was offered a ticket there for 140 soles! So feeling a bit better about it now. Polly had spent today in bed as she has been feeling like she would like to chunder everywhere.. although she perked up a bit this evening. Huachina is a vey small oasis town in the middle of huge sand dunes, which I climbed up today.. Hoping to go dune buggeying and sandboarding tomorrow as long as Polly is better. Put a load of photos onto DVD today as had a mini memory card scare and don´t want to risk losing them all (think some virus is in the camera and I don´t have the cable to plug it in and get rid of it grr) Only got to last a few days though so I think we´ll be ok

I heard back from my uni and have got my first choice accomadation which is very nice.. Have to come back at christmas and easter but it saves me 900 pounds which I thought would be worth it as I wouldn´t spend much time there anyway! Looked at Pollys tonight and she thinks she knows where she is going to apply to.. Bristol do it differently so it doesn´t matter when she applies. Also have confirmed that I am going back to cycle heaven this summer which is great although I emailed to check I was starting on the 1st of July and they though that I wasn´t back till later, but its great that I can start then; so I guess its straight back to work!!

Anyway kinde hard to believe that in 3 days time we will have taken off just under an hour ago to fly home! Have got 3 very busy days ahead though so it´s not over yet!! Xx Polly probably would say hi, but she is in bed!