I woke up at 8 today with a morning to do list for the next hour. I started repacking all my belongings before realizing that I still had one more night at this hotel. It's funny how little I knew about this tour before coming here, but I think it's sort of added to the adventure a bit. I also think you have a better time travelling when you go into it without expectations. Anyway, with that off the list, I took a quick walk to the laundromat to drop off the last 12 days of laundry. There aren't any laundromats here where you drop in the coins and do it yourself; it's all done by local businesses. After dropping off my several shopping bags, I had breakfast and got ready for my next activity of the tour - white water rafting! 12 of our crew jumped in a van and we departed on a very familiar road; again we were heading to Ollantaytambo. More specifically, we were rafting on the Rio Urubamba. When we arrived, we found out that there would be more rafts heading out with us. A girl's high school from Cleveland, Ohio had signed up at the same time, so with all of us, there would be 5 rafts on the water. There were 6 people on each raft and my group had 3 other Canadians and 2 Brits. Our raft was obviously the superior vessel: we dominated in raft ramming and splashing! For those who have rafted before, these rapids were level 2 and 3 so nothing too dangerous but still really fun. Unfortunately, none of us brought cameras aboard since they can't get wet. If I can dig a photo of us before the rafting off facebook, I'll share it but otherwise, you'll just have to take my word for how amazing it was. Afterwards, we were treated to a local Peruvian lunch of chicken, potato and vegetables. The big highlight of it though, was the much needed hot chocolate offered to warm us after leaving the chilly, mountain river. We arrived back at the hotel at around 4:30 which was amazing. Since there was no planned dinner, we could actually eat something earlier than 8:30! I went with a few of the group to pick up our laundry (i had one of the girl's hot pink shirts in my bag - they must have thought it suited me). After another lukewarm shower, I went with a couple closer friends on the tour to dinner. We got an amazing pizza (yes, pizza seems to be pretty common here). It was nice to not go to a fancy place and just have a cheap meal for once. It's funny that we had a much better experience than last night here, for half the price. Besides the rafting, it's been a really nice relaxing day. I'm enjoying how much I'm getting along with so many people on the tour. Everyone is really nice and after sharing so much, we're turning into a pretty close contiki group. I have to finish my packing job from this morning now; tomorrow, we fly to the Amazon!!
No pictures on my phone today, so here's me blogging
No comments:
Post a Comment