Peru, Feb/March 2010

Our return to Norway after the wedding, and the long dark days of winter were not for long. In February we packed up our bags and bikinis again (or boardies...?) and headed back to the sunshine and the southern hemisphere. Our friends Paola and Paul were getting married in Arequipa, Paola's home town, in Peru. Neither Joel nor I had ever been to South America, so we were so excited to visit such a fascinating, unique country.

Paola had promised us lots of dancing, fantastic music, great food and pisco sours galore, and Peru really delivered! We had such a great time, we met in Arequipa with a big group of Aussies over there for the wedding including lots of Paul's family, family friends and mates. My mum and dad were invited too and the chance to visit South America was just too good to pass up! We had about 4 or 5 days in Arequipa to be tourists, see the city and of course attend their amazing wedding.

The wedding itself was undoubtably the highlight of our time in Arequipa. The ceremony was held in a magnificent, huge cathedral with painted frescoes and statuies behind the altar that were absolutely divine. The reception was in an enormous marquee draped in soft white an blue fabric, everything was so beautiful. The entertainment team (and I mean team - lighting, DJ, smoke machine, bubble machine, foam machine, fireworks, movie/slideshow) ensured everyone was alternately crying, laughing and dancing all afternoon and well into the evening! Later in the evening the 'hora loco' "crazy hour" really shifted the party up a notch with everyone geared up in crazy hats and glow sticks, it was just hilarious and truly crazy! The Peruvian dancing was absolutely fantastic and all Paola's family and friends were so fun, they pulled everyone into the circle to dance!

Before leaving Arequipa, I went on a tour to Colca Canyon with my mum and dad which was beautiful. Such a lush, beautiful valley in amongst quite an arid landscape. One of the highlights there was seeing Condors swooping overhead above the canyon. They build nests there and enjoy gliding and hunting using the thermal air currents arising from the canyon. Spectacular. While I was doing that Joel went on a trip with some other intrepid hikers (Simon, Gaelle and Like with a guide) to conquer Chachani, the volcanic mountain rising above Arequipa. It is over 6,000m high, higher than any mountain in Europe. The conditions were pretty horrid, altitude sickness makes the climb extremely difficult even in the best of circumstances, snow storms and wind made it even tougher. Only Luke actually made it to the summit, but wow what an experience!

We then moved on with a group of friends and family to Cuzco. Dissapointingly Macchu Picchu was closed due to flooding and damage to the trails and railway, but we made the best of it with a fabulous tour to the Sacred Valley. We stopped at some breathtakingly beautiful spots and explored Incan ruins galore.

After the Sacred Valley we sadly said goodbye to most of the crowd from the wedding and continued on with Louise (Paul's sister) and her boyfriend Zane to Puno, heading east towards Lake Titicaca. We had some fantastic visits to idyllic Isle Tequile and Isle del Sol, visiting some of the famous floating reed islands on the way. It is the worlds highest navigatable lake (or something like that - means there are ferries and things on it). Highlights? There were many. One that stands out was eating at a tiny local candle-lit restaurant with no electricity at about 4020 metres, the trout was indescribable!

We had such a brilliant time, Paul and Paola went to so much effort to make our stay there so easy and fun, it was amazing and will definitely be back to South America. Joel had an absolute ball taking around 1500 photos. We put the best of them into a slideshow. Grab yourself a cuppa as there's quite a few there...! Double click on the image and select 'slideshow' to see them in bigger format with the captions. Enjoy!