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Published: October 9th 2007
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Arequipa
Looking out on the Plaza de Armas We arrived in Arequipa 29th Sept. Journey details:
Origen/Destination... Arica (Chile) - Arequipa (Peru)
Mode of transport... Taxi & Coach
Company... Cruz del Sur
Cost.... 3000 Pesos each + 35 Soles
Duration... about 6 hours
Remarks... we took a taxi from Arica across the border to Tacna and then picked up a coach for the rest of the journey to Arequipa. This was apparently the best way to do it. Our cab driver in Arica was friendly enough and seemed to know what he was doing... reassuring since we had to entrust our passports with him for a spell at the border. The crossing itself was easy, and passed without problems.
After arriving in Arequipa we headed for our hostal: Arequipay Backpackers... the best hostal I've stayed in so far. Clean, central and run by Evelyn, the sweetest Peruvian I've met who just laughs at everything you say: "¿Que tal Evelyn?"... "jejejejejeje bien". "¿Me haces un jugo?"... "jejejejejeje, si"... and so on.
We spent the first couple of days exploring the city and taking in the various sights such as the Plaza de Armas and the Cathedral and the monastery. The plaza's beautiful as is the cathedral. The
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Miche looking guilty for all her sins at the monastery monastery was also well worth a look. I thought it was a tad pricey but we got a decent amount for our money. We decided to ask for a spanish speaking guide in order to practice a wee bit... a good decision since if we had gone with an english speaking guide we'd have probably ended up in a large group. As it was there were only three of us: Miche, myself and a girl from Buenos Aires. The guide took us round the monastery explaining the different parts and their purposes including the "death room" where dead nuns were put on display for all to see... nice. It was once home to 400 nuns, now there are about 20 in residence. Its said that the monastery is a city within a city... not surprising as it takes up a whole block and has it's own street names. Unfortunately I never got to see "Juanita, La Niña de los Hielos", the 550 year old Inca girl sacrifice found in 1995 by mountaineers on display at the musuem. Miche did however... and she was impressed by it!
We next decided to book a place for the Colca Cañon trek. This
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Its a long way down... Colca Cañon was all done through the hostal with a company called "Land Adventures". The price was $45... bargain considering we got two nights accommodation, transport and food thrown in. This had been recommended to me by a guy I met in Bolivia. The trek involves walking down the second deepest cañon (twice as deep as the Grand Canyon in the USA) in the world, chilling for a while at the bottom, and then trekking all the way back out of it again... sounded like fun. The cañon is second only to its next door neighbour: Cotahuasi Cañon which is couple of hundred metres deeper. We set off painfully early on Tuesday morning in order to catch the 06:30 public bus to Cabanaconde... our starting point for the trek. We were expected to trek down the cañon on the first day, staying in accomodation at the bottom. The next day we would walk to the oasis and spend time in the pools before heading back out of the cañon to spend the night in Cabanaconde. The final day we would go to Cruz del Condor, the pass where condors soar gracefully on the rising thermals occurring as the air warms. After this
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Cooling down at the Oasis it would be off to Chivay (at the other end of the cañon) to spend a wee while relaxing our poor muscles at La Calera hot springs.
The whole experience was fantastic. The scenery was amazing as we walked down and up the cañon. It certainly wasn't easy though... especially when we had to walk back out of the cañon and had the afternoon sun bearing down on us almost the entire way. Not having a hat I resorted to wearing my swim shorts on my head to protect me from sun burn! The stay at the bottom was great fun... relaxing in the pool was exactly what was needed before the painstaking climb out. Furthermore the condors were well worth seeing. We were lucky... seeing about half a dozen condors, each with a wing span of about 3 metres, flying around the pass posing for the many cameras below. Finally the springs... a great place to relax. I even treated myself to a massage... I felt my legs deserved it after climbing some 1300 metres (twice). The only downer was that our guide didn't really do or help or explain much at all. Although nice enough at the
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After 4 hours of climbing we finally made the top! beginning he became totally detached from the group. We later found out that we should have been taken to the company's office in order to leave our opinions on the trek... something that didn't happen, no doubt because he knew what we would say!
Needless to say, the next day we didn't do much. I managed to muster the energy to get out of bed and that what about it. However, the following day we went rafting (again organised through the hostal for $25). We were taken to the local river (Rio Chili) and given a few pointers on how to raft. The whole thing was really well organised and they provided us with everything we needed. As it's the dry season, the river was running quite low meaning it was quite easy to see all the ominous looking rocks sticking out from the river bed. Not a good sign I thought. We started outside Arequipa and made our way down the river towards the city. I was impressed with myself as I only managed to fall in twice... the first time losing one of the company's padels... whoops. The second time I was more interested in my sandal
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Condor at Condor Pass (they were quite expensive). Note to anyone doing rafting... don't wear sandals. The whole thing was great fun, and anyone travelling to Arequipa has to give it a go.
Arequipa is such a beautiful place. Although it's Peru's second largest city it really doesn't seem that way. It was the perfect place to chill out and relax for a while, whilst endulging in a few fun activities as well. I loved the plaza with its magnificent backdrop of El Mitsi. One thing though... what's with all the taxis? Anyone who goes to Peru must go to Arequipa.
Now... its on to Puno and Lake Titicaca and the worst coach journey of my entire life.
Suerte.
Photos:
http://flickr.com/photos/13183189@N06/
http://flickr.com/photos/14643121@N05/
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