Final day in Iquitos:-)

It feels as though we have been here for ever, in fact it has been 10 days, but escape tomorrow! We had to change hotels again yesterday as the place we were staying was fully booked, it was a shame as it was really nice (apart from the odd lizard). The place we have moved to is not the same standard, it is very hot and small and no proper windows and pretty noisy, still we survived last night.
Everything is more expensive in Iquitos but compared to home it is still very cheap. Our hotel is £22 a night, £7 each. We have been eating in the tourist cafes and a meal costs about £5, but if we ate out of the central area and stuck to the menu we would still only be paying £2.50 for a 2 course meal and a drink.
Yesterday we went into the jungle to a conservation area where there were some animals, obviously lots of plants and a lake with a man made beach, it was good to get away from the hustle and bustle of Iquitos and my favourite thing was seeing the huge spectacular butterflies floating around.
So we fly to Lima tomorrow and are staying in the central area as the girls want to go shopping in the central market and then the girls fly out on Wednesday. I had been feeling nervous about being in Peru alone but now I have got a sort of plan together I feel a lot better about it and am excited. I have bought a plane ticket to fly down to Arequipa, which leaves a few hours after the girls leave. This is in southern Peru and is in the mountains and supposed to be very beautiful, from there I will go and visit a canyon which is far deeper than the grand canyon. I’ll spend a few days in Arequipa and then get a bus to Puno which is on the banks of Lake Titicaca and have a look around there. I am then going to see if I can get a bus to Le Paz in Bolivia and travel to the Bolivian salt flats. I have met two people who travel a lot who say it is the most beautiful trip they have ever taken. I’ll then come back to Peru and go up to Cuzco and see the sacred valley and Macchu Picchu. At least I have a plan in mind now but I can change anything as and when.
It will be a relief to get out of the sticky jungle heat and into cooler temperatures, although no doubt we will say Lima is freezing! (thinks it’s about 20 degrees, so not too bad!)