Cañon del Colca

We arrived in yet another colonial town on our south bound journey through Peru, this one being Arequipa. Having spent a long time on a bus we were delighted to find a hostel with a tv where we recharged our batteries for a few hours before heading out to explore the town

The following morning we headed off on a bus to the famous Colca Canyon. We had a guided tour of the region and stopped for our first taste of coca tea. As you may expect, this is the plant which, when mixed with chemicals produces that world famous drug we know as cocaine. Don´t worry mam, we would have to be chewing on a kilo of leaves to get any sort of effect and Lord be good to us our mouths just aren´t that big. Coca leaves are famous around the Andes for helping with digestion, dealing with altitude. Victoria, with her love of all teas herbal, was all over it. We then made our way toward the town of Chivay. This was pretty much a stop off town on the way to the canyon and so was pretty much created for tourists. A small town in the middle of nowhere and wouldn´t you know it, there´s an Irish pub! After dropping our gear off in our accommodation we took a walk down to the Hot Springs, for which the town is also famous. This was pretty nice but having been to Baños in Ecuador it takes a pretty special thermal bath to impress us!! In the evening we went for a traditional meal in the town where we also enjoyed listening to a live band and watching traditional dancing. There seemed to be a story to every dance and we found one particular piece rather amusing and who´d have thought that this would be the one that Conor would be involved in. His robot break dancing talents were wasted as he was simply required to lie down on the ground and pretend to be having a seizure before being lashed out of it with a whip and a woman sitting on his face. Unfortunately there were no pictures of this actual event because for most of the dance the camera was in his pocket. Due to the obscene nature of this act it was probably for the best!

There was an early start the next morning and on our merry way we went to the canyon before finally reaching the Cruz del Condor. At 3,191 metres, this is one of the world´s deepest canyons and famous for one of the best lookout points to watch condors flying about the place looking for food. We got off the bus along the canyon and walked along the edge of the canyon waiting with baited breath. The views were spectacular and it was a while before we saw any birds but when we did it was really something else. Even from a distance they´re massive but they didn´t get too close. We made our way to the highest lookout point along with thousands of other tourists. The condors only flew in that particular area for a few hours so soon it was back on the bus and we began to make our way back to Arequipa but not before stopping off to buy a few bags of coca leaves and then again at the highest point on the tour and enjoying the thin air and views. Back onto the bus with us and back to Arequipa. After collecting our gear we were back on another overnight bus to Cusco

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