Colca Valley, Chivay, and so much more

 food after our great contry side tour. the meat is apparently bulls balls.  hmmm rocky mtn oysters anyone??

my dish

thank god omar is as tacky as i am!! taking photos of his food tour too!

 victor--viejo!

 on the tour

  please won´t you peal my orange?

mercado

oh... let´s see what tall people can do!

 not so much, omar!

 i look amazingly huge in this photo but i love it!

 such a wonderful man that i´ve been honored to meet!

 taxi motor car back to the lodge before hot springs

 omar and i went to the hot springs

 5 soles for 2 courses.. YUM!

 my lodgings

Man,  It is hard to describe the last few days. mostly because the hostel and internet cafe keyboards suck and are latin!
I will say more later but yesterday morning iI joined my new friends Omar & Victor (viejo that i have unofficially adopted) on a trip to the colca valley. I had intially planned a trip into the actual canyon but after so much travel and meeting good friends I went with my instincts.
They weren´t wrong!
After mine and daniel´s tour of the country side we stayed in  the plaza for the view and then dropped viejo off and enjoyed a few beverages on my hostel´s rooftop then had a few rounds of drinks enjoying the AQP nightlife.
Morning came early after a run it was off on a 4hrs plus van ride topping out at 3900 meters which is over 16k feet. It is a wonder that I wasn´t bothered by the altitude!!
Colca town was interesting in that as a foreigner I paid 35 soles for entry and it was beautiful. The choice to stay outside of town was the best ever.

I kid you not; as night fell I saw more stars than I had ever had the privledge to see in the past.
There were a few walks into town with Omar and his Viejo after some exploring in the rio... but the night one was the best... then there was a 2 course 5 soles dinner.. a cerveza in front of a fire...
then star gazing... and all apart from the group.

I know I´ve again made a few friends that will last a lifetime... it makes me miss my grandma and the camp friends I´ve made over the years. nothing can compare with the people who have so little time in your life but make it better...  Hannah, Andrea, Seemz, Jay, Angelina, ale,... i miss you all!

we then went to colca valley the next day for condor watching..returned to aqp and i had  a last few drinks with daniel and his very special friends.

i will miss this area and my new friends but will be happy to be back with ale!!!
Enjoy the photos. i will upload more tomorrow.
besos