Adios Peru

I never really thought 3 months would be too long to be in Peru, considering my to do list...

Now I truly feel like a a peruvian chica...been there, loved it

I no longer explained that I did not speak spanish/castalino,i just on with it and chatted away with the locals

My hotel in Arequipa which can be appropriately described as "fawlty Towers" was in the process of being enlarged....and I found myself more or less in the middle of a building site...
Despite the issues...I still loved being there

and it was nice to have made some friends there

It was another 10 hour bus ride From Arequipa back to my base in Peru; the saving grace is that the roads are great, nothing like a pot hole...the buses seem to drive more carefully than the minibuses...
By now I was quite used to the local buses...and but it still amused me to see the mamas who came in to sell food...wrapped in the equivalent of a leso, strapped to the back, they move from bus to bus...at different points...then she gets her big butcher knife and literally hacks at the meaty bones...a very popular meal...she then has deserts...bread with cheese and tea...very organized

Then there are the traders who try to escape customs...marchandise is cheaper in Boliva...this one lady sort of sitting next to me, had dozens of bag packs that she stuffed everywhere in the bus to avoid getting busted...

Getting to Cusco was great, simply because it was nearer home for me...it was also nice to rediscover favorite places and the streets

which were now very familiar... each with it's dogs...
Some dogs are luckier though, and get dressed in skirts, tee shirts and get taken places,including into the supermarket by the owners...Definitely a dog loving Nation Peru is..




I was pleased to note that the display at the plaza de Armas had been changed

and as always abuzz with locals relaxing, hawking; tourists being tourists and children feeding the pigeons....The whole town was decorated in flags to mark the Country's independence...almost 200 years

Buena, to mark birthday and departure, my good friend Christine graciously offered to take me for Pisco sour....a proposal I gladly accepted

As I was waiting for her, in what had now become my favorite pub, I got talking to a guy who has been traveling 13 years.....yea....even I was impressed, he's been to 99 countries, Kenya inc.... In some of the places he worked...Brazil ws going to be the 100 next week...he always puts down his occupation as "traveller" for immigration purposes....

Wow....he still had his face painted in the image of a tiger, from last night..had not slept...and had missed his train to Macchu Picchu 3 times...but this time he was going to make it in the morning, he showed me the tickets...

Well, us gals made a night of it...

many piscos later, a meal and some good music, in yet another Irish pub...I was grateful to have a good friend to end my visit to Peru and also excited to note, from the flag in the pub, that another Kenyan had been here and probably had a great time just as I did

VIVA EL PERU