the beautiful city of arequipa

We really wish we had more time to spend in Arequepa, it is a really beautiful city and full of spanish style buildings and churches.

we saw condors!

While spending a couple days in the Colca Canyon (the deepest canyon in the world) we got to see a total of 7 condors. The birds are incredibly ugly, but amazingly magnificent to watch fly. They can have a wing span of 3.2 meters or 11 feet and weigh up to 14 kilos or around 30 pounds. This was a lot of fun to see and experience. We felt blessed to get to see a sight that very few people ever get to see!

steripen

Thank you to Isaac for telling me about the steripen. We used our steripen daily while in Peru and never got sick. I am a big fan and highly recommend that any of you who hike where the water is bad should consider getting one. We spent a few minutes every night filling up our nalgene bottles and preparing for the next day.

You can find out more about it at the steripen website, which is at http://www.steripen.com or find it on http://www.rei.com under camping/hiking and then under water treatment or you can follow this long link: http://www.rei.com/online/store/ProductDisplay?storeId=8000&catalogId=40000008000&productId=47847993&parent_category_rn=4500462&vcat=REI_SSHP_CAMPING_TOC

Lake Titicaca

On Lake Titicaca, we spent a night with a local family on Amantani Island. They fed us really great food including some potatoes that looked like grubs, but tasted really good, something like a mix between an onion, potatoe and asparagus.

wowee the macaw

Somehow this picture downloaded twice. But this is Wowee the local macaw that came around to be fed. He was quite large standing about 18 inches from head to tail.

Tambopata reserve

These pictures were taken while in the Tambopata reserve (part of the amazon jungle). I really felt like I was on vacation here. It was really relaxing and as you can see we saw a lot wildlife here. One night we went out caiman searching and found several and the next night a guide found a rainbow boa.