Lago De Junin

I feel very lucky in my experiences over the last few days as i seem to have collected a group of friends!

It started with loosing the Carmino Inca whilst on very gently rolling barren open grassland. I ended up diverting to a town i didnt want to go to, in the wring direction to pick up food, and sleep a night in a church, before catching a bus to a town a bit more on route, here I was told to sit and wait in a restaurant by a couple of locals whilst they fetched their american friend. And there turned up an american girl living in the town of Vicco for a couple of years as a PeaceCorp volunteer! So of course i spent the whole of that day chatting in blissful English and relaxing before falling ill that night and spending the next day with her very generous host family recooperating and watching school children marching disturbingly in their Independance day parade.

To my total suprise and enjoyment my new friend (Briana) decided she would join me for a couple days walking as she was due in a town just south in a few days anyway. SO I have had my first propper company on this trip and we headed off down the west side of Lago De Junin or Lago Chinchaycocha. This lake is a nature resrve and is very shallow supporting vast areas of reeds perfectly suited for migratory and local birds, and i had the wonderful pleasure of seeing my first wild Flamingoes (i think - unless there were some in Africa).

I am now in San Pedro de Cajas after joining two other PC volunteers who live around, so I have spent the last few days with some wonderful people, but tomorrow I head off on my own again to Tarma and on to Hauncayo, so for now I am going to go enjoy my company! x