Peru - Thursday 15 October 1998
We wake up early for our trip to Chivay, a small village in the mountains. It's located in the Colca Canyon. The road up there is a miles long sand path.
Nature very impressive here. We pass huge rockets all the time. for the rest, its just an enormous desert. We all take dozens of pictures.
Half way up, we pass a little settlement with some small houses. A little girl wonders who we are.
We get higher and higher. The highest point in this route is 4.825 meters above sea level! Jenny gets altitude sickness. Her face turns completely white. Our driver and guide Sonya are scared by it, too! They give her some alcohol on her face and to breathe. That works out quite good.
We even see real lamas!
In Chivay some children come to see us. 'Photo! Photo!', they call. Of course we take some pictures of them. But... they appear to have experience with tourists. They immediately hold up their hands!
Now we all have altitude sickness, although Chivay is less high than we have been. Most of us get a headache. Me, I'm dizzy. We decide to have a sleep in the afternoon to get used to the height.
In the evening we go to the hot springs of La Calera, a few miles outside the village. The water has a temperature of 85 degrees Celsius then it comes out of the ground! In the swimming pool it is a little bit colder, but it's still quite hot! We take our time to swim and to chat.
Our group is really becoming a group now. We start to know everybody's specialities. Especially Diederick is getting popular with his special talk and habits. Even the text 'Avro maandag, de beste maandag'(an old jingle of a Dutch radio station) is becoming known. Even Jenny knows it!
Otto asks Mike and Ronald since when they have a relationship. Ronald is appears to be quite humiliated to be seen as a homosexual. He even hasn't any homosexual friends! I think some people (especially Patricia) thought Diederick and I are homosexual too, I think. Why don't they ask it if it's important for them...
We try to find another nice restaurant in the village. We walk across a market place, but we don't see anything nice. It's cold and we're tired and I have to go to the toilet. Back to the hotel. There, it's warm and cozy! We have a drink and order some food. A Peruvian band plays real nice music! We´ve even danced...
