Los ninos (Peru part 3)

Ok so yesterday I went out for a huge walk. Well 2 and a half hours, maybe not exactly huge but when you're almost 3000 metres above sea level and can't walk up the gentlest of hills without running out of breath it felt like an acheivement.

The path we took led us down a track with Peruvian houses on either side, I got to see some aspects of Peruvian life that are hidden to most tourists.

The first unusual thing was a kids, no older than 2 or 3, sitting on the front of a motorbike while his big brother rode along the track. Now I've heard people talk about kids saying they could ride as soon as they could walk but a) I've never taken it to be quite that literal, and b) I've never heard it when they were talking about a motorbike.

But on we went past the farm animals that were tied to trees and fences all over the place, and one group of Peruvian teenagers hanging around (Not tied to anything), one of the girls in the group was so checking me out :-P. Eventually after about an hour of walking along a fairly flat footpath we reached the bridge that led across the river and up to the salt-mines.

My brother, whose currently quite ill, decided he didn't feel up to it and turned back with my Dad. Me and my mum marched onwards. Soon after the bridge the path began to wind upwards, both of us soon ran out of breath. My mum told me to go on and she'd catch up, so I walked on by myself.

After maybe half an hour of a fairly steep climb I reached the top and the view was spectacular. Hundreds of pits, each a few metres across, dug into the hillside, with a stream running far below. There wasn't another person within sight. It was breath-taking. I sat there for maybe 10 minutes before I decided it was time to turn back.

It was an amazing climax to another fantastic day in Peru. I can't wait to see what today brings.