¡Buenos noches de Puno!

I have had a very exhausting day. It started when I woke up at 6:30 am and could not get back to sleep. I finally crawled out of my warm bed at 7:30 to prepare for my very exciting day of white water rafting. I was picked up at my hotel at 9 a.m. by Camillo who was my rafting guide. We picked up 5 other girls and drove about 20 minutes outside of Ariquipa to our launch site. The drive out there was beautiful with the mountains in the background and the river on our right.

We were given wet suits, jackets and helmuts to wear and received the entire safety drill. Since I had been rafting before, I was put up front (no pressure...if you don´t know the front paddlers set the pace for the paddlers behind). We started right in rapids, there wasn´t any easing into it and for the next 1 hour and 45 minutes we paddled through class 2, 3, 4 rapids. It was so awesome! The scenery was amazing, we were the only ones on the river. There were times the river cut through cliffs and we were paddling between cliffs. No one fell over board and there were two times we had to get out and walk through some rapids because there were "traps" in the river. Caves off to the side where the current could suck someone in if they fell overboard. We then had to prepare ourselfs for a drop that was 1 meter! It was so cool, I totally thought I was going to fall out, but I loved it!

Then we took a break and had some chocolate and water on a cliff and we were invited to jump off. I declined because it was not for a million dollars and the water was shallow. The cliff was maybe 25 feet, maybe less. I wanted to do the rafting again, and I hear there is some in Cusco, so I might be doing some more.

I then raced back to my hostel, then to the bus station to catch a bus to Puno, Lake Titicaca. The lake with the highest elevation in the world. My bus dropped me off in the town over and i had to catch a collectivo to Puno. Me, and 15 nice smelling Peruvians packed like sardines into a minivan. Then we stopped and picked up 4 more! An expirence not to be forgotten.

So I am in Puno wearing about 10 layers including some alpaca sweaters and hats, because it is like 30 degrees here. I don´t think my hostel has heat, so I will be nice and cold tonight. I have a killer headache and i think it is from the altitude. I´m just going to have to drink lots of cocoa tea (the cure apparently).

Tomorrow it´s off to the floating islands on the magical lake.