Llama Drama

So we go spit on by a llama. And I had just asked a girl the other
day who works with textiles and has seen a ton of llamas and alpacas
and I asked - aren´t they like camels and they spit a lot? No, no,
she says, not unless you´re cutting off their fur or really pissing
them off - they are generally very calm.

Well just our luck, on our city tour of Arequipa yesterday we came
across a mini zoo of llamas and alpacas at an ¨outlet¨ of wool
sweaters and clothes (don´t get excited like I did, it wasn´t the
discount outlet store I was hoping for but it was a nice store).
Anyway, our tour group had a few younger brits in it who thought
banging on the fence of a nice, serene looking llama thing with big
doe eyes would make him pose better for pics. He was SO serene when I
was taking pics, then I turn around to look at other things, jeff
walks by and it all happens at once! I hear a hissing and a spitting
noise and I have chewed up grass on me (thank goodness for
sunglasses). I start cowering and Jeff starts laughing - him being
the tallest one with sunglasses and a hat I guess made him the next
target because he got spit on like 3 times and if I wasn´t so shocked
at what was happening I would have gotten better action shots - but I
just stood there. Hysterical - and kinda gross.

The tour was pretty neat since we got to sit on the top of a double decker. We saw some beautiful landscapes, some guinea pigs (poor things were probably dinner, but they make cute noises when alive), a tour I refused to climb up because just the stairs to get to it were tiring (I really may be dying I´m acting so old these days), some mangy dogs on roofs (hahahha), AND we got to stay on the tour for 2 extra hours because they messed up our tickets. We tried to get off the bus and they said get back on and so we did and THEN they figured our their mistake. Too late - more tour for us. Ha! Except it was freezing at night on the top of the double decker. Oh well - it´s like 2 for 1!

Let´s see - so that´s us in Arequipa. Tomorrow we´re going to see the
condors in Colca Canyon - those would be the largest birds in the
world! Fantastic! Too bad our camera sucks, but it´ll do. There´s a
two day option where they take you down to the bottom of the canyon to
sleep with no electricity or heat, and then they make you walk back
out of the canyon...no thank. We opted for the 1 day tour of just
seeing the big birds. After Machu Picchu and having a nasty cold
right now and me not wanting to pay to hire a donkey to carry me out
of the canyon (which is an awesome option - but I´m afraid it´d stink)
- we decided that one day of just bussing back and forth is enough.

Before Arequipa we were in Lake Titicaca! It was hysterical. We
stayed in Puno, which is the Peruvian town on the shores of Lake
Titicaca and we visited the floating reed islands on the lake called
Islas Uros. They are strange to stand on but huge and neat and I
can´t believe people made them and live there - and for a long time
too. We also visited a small town of Chuchuito down the road from
Puno which had a fertility garden - very inappropriate and hysterical
little garden we payed 5 soles to get into. Other than that and
getting colds (Titicaca was the highest altitude we´ve been so far),
we really didn´t do much since we were so under the weather.

Two more days here and then off to Lima again! We´ll be home before
you know it!