For supper, we went to a place that served cuy (guinea pig). Of course, I had to order it! It came sitting up on my plate with a cute little tomato crown. It's taste and texture were very similar to chicken, but the skin was too tough and thick to eat, and there wasn't much meat on it - lots of bones.
We arrived back in Chivay in time to watch the locals celebrate the patron saint of police with a small ceremony where they gave bread and flowers to the police, followed by a parade around the main plaza. Many of the older women were dressed in traditional clothing.
After a relaxing soak in the hot springs, we went out for supper were we were given a show of traditional music and dancing. Our group was the only one to join in the dancing, and K and I were also pulled in to the dance "I love you because you hit me". I this dance, one partner makes the other partner lie on there back on the floor with their face covered. They then WHIP the person on the floor a few times, pull them back onto their feet, and continue dancing. K got whacked pretty good by the girl a few times, but the guy just hit the floor beside me :) Sometimes it pays to be a girl!
Our next stop was the highest we would be in Peru - Patapamba, at 15,750 ft above sea level! We walked around for a bit, but were careful not to do too much because of the thin air. Our guide for this part of the trip showed up how to roll the coca leaves around a piece of special rock and then lightly chew on the bundle. At first it didn't have much taste at all, but after a minute it started giving off a bitter and gross flavour (I didn't chew it very long after that). After being up there for about 15 minutes, I had a bit of a headache, but it wasn't too bad. K ended up getting pretty sick from the altitude, poor guy.
We had a light lunch at a French Crepery, then found a grocery store and bought some water and snacks for our ride the next day. I also picked up some postcards, stamps, and some more cash. We visited a few more colonial style churches, had coffee on a terrace overlooking the main plaza, then returned to the hotel to met the rest of the group for supper. That night, most of us tried alpaca steaks. The restaurant cooked them perfectly - alpaca is a very lean meat, but they managed to keep it tender and moist. It was delicious!
It was an "interesting" flight - definately not the same standards of safety that they have in North America:
I was definately glad to have taken a gravol before the flight. H and L were in the back seat and pretty sick by the end it. The figures were easier to see in real life than in the pictures I took, but some of them worked alright.
After meeting back with V and C, we drove out to an Inca cemetery. There were two mummies in glass cases to look at in the museum, then we went to look at the mummies still sitting in their graves. Many of them had been damaged be grave robbers, as well as by the sun and wind, but they were still very well preserved. The Incas believed that the head was the seed that life came from, so most of the mummies had their heads cut off. They also had long hair (sometimes with hair from others sewn into their own) to signify their position - the longer the hair, the higher their place in society.
The third stop for the day was to learn how gold was removed from rocks and then refined. The visit was free, but the really push you to give them a tip at the end and hopefully buy something from them.
We were dropped of in Nazca to find our own lunch and I went with K, C and D to a fairly fancy hotel with good food. We didn't spend much more time in the town - there isn't much in Nazca. We squished into a cab and went back to the hotel to relax and swim in the pool.
After sunset, we headed out to have a traditional celebration meal. All the food is cooked underground for three to four hours, then there is a bit of a ceremony before it is uncovered and served. It was all very good!
After we had all stuffed ourselves full, we went off to the bus station to catch the night bus to Arequipa. The bus was about 45 minutes late, so the bus company bought us supper (which we were too full to eat). We did try the desert though - a weird jelly type of thing made from purple corn that is flavoured with cloves and cinnamon ... and has the texture of snot. It was hard to get some to stay on the spoon!
The night bus was uneventful - we were on the upper level, and the seats recline about 45 degrees back and there is a bit of a leg rest. I slept for a few hours, but woke up frequently.
Our next stop was a tour of a winery that makes Pisco - a type of brandy. After the tour, they sat us in a semi-circle and gave us samples of 7 different types! It tasted alright, but I didn´t want to lug a bottle of it around with me for 3 weeks.
We stopped for lunch at Huacichina, a true desert oasis. I hiked part way up one of the dunes with the twins, but it was too hot and tiring to get all the way up. For every step up, you slide at least half a step down! Swimming in the cool water afterwards was very refreshing.
We then got back into our van and drove to Nazca - another long drive through gray desert. We arrived after sunset, but still went swimming in the pool - it had a concrete slide!
I found an internet cafe so I could send an email to Oma and Opa and let them know I got here OK, then found some lunch. The group met up (I´m travelling with GAP Adventures and the group includes 2 Danish twins - H and L, a German couple - C and D, and an American guy - K, and of course, a group leader - V) and headed to the bus station for a 4 hour trip south along the coast to Paracas. It was a long, boring ride with my daypack on my lap (it´s a public bus, so anything on the floor or overhead racks will probably get stolen) through mostly gray dessert. We stayed in a small B&B near the ocean and had a great fish supper at a restaurant along the shore. 
