Poo? No!

Whilst traveling South America one invariably learns that, after visiting Machu Picchu, other destinations struggle to live up. I just spent the last two days on a tour of Colca Canyon, apparently the second deepest canyon in the world (twice deeper than the Grand Canyon) and, while undeniably beautiful, it was underwhelming. The tour, in fact, was quite shitty, but I met good people in the group and we had a pretty good time.

Working backwards: after Machu Picchu I spent a few more excellent days in Cusco before making my way to the barren wasteland of Arequipa, in which I currently find myself. One day in particular, Sunday, was probably my favorite day of the trip thus far. Sunday was Carnaval in Cusco which, as far as I could tell, means that Cusqueños spend the day throwing water balloons, spray paint and a colorful chalk-like substance at each other. Of course I had to get involved. Along with about 7 friends from the hostel, we set out to wreak havoc on the city of Cusco. We bought upwards of 1,000 water balloons, spent a good few hours filling them up and then hit the streets. The one ground rule was that, generally speaking, it was Men v. Women, in an epic battle royale. The day was extremely fun and competitive (I got into one particularly nasty battle with some other gringa and, judging by the water-balloon sized welt on her stomach, I'm pretty sure I won) and we spent close to 5 hours running around the city acting like children. I threw one balloon into a taxi whose windows were down and the driver wasn't too pleased. He skidded to a halt, got out of the car and started chasing me around the block. Naturally, I ran. When he eventually caught up to me (I was wearing flip flops and didn't want to fall!) I pulled the 'no entiendo' card and got away from trouble. Despite the deep sunburn on my shoulders, I had a wonderful time and will remember that day for a long time.

Back to now. I am planning on jumping on a bus to Puno on the shore of Lake Titicaca tomorrow, where I will bum around and over the Bolivian border for about 5 days before hopefully meeting Julie in La Paz. The excellent bus company I was hoping to take, Cruz del Sur, is booked full until Sunday so I'm going to take my chances on another, supposedly lesser company. I've recently heard plenty of horror stories about South American busses and their passenger's sticky fingers, so I'll be clinging to my bags most carefully. Lake Titicaca, the world's highest navigable lake (I think), is supposed to be breathtaking, so hopefully my camera will be able to do it justice and I'll be able to share these crazy experiences with you all soon. Finally, I'm currently trying to set my schedule for the rest of the trip to get the most enjoyment out of every stop before finally heading home to graduate and start my job. Of course, there's a greater than good chance that I'll be preemptively laid-off. But it's ok - Noah and I have a recession plan. If I lose my offer and he, his job, we'll spend the year traveling Southeastern Asia (on his dime, of course) before getting serious again about real life. I'm not sure which option I'm rooting for!

Anyways, that's all for now. I hope everyone is well and please email me! There are points on this trip during which I really miss the familiar faces of my friends and family, and just hearing from you is usually enough to placate the homesickness. Ciao!