Copacabana , Arequipa and Colca Canyon

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Copacabana and Arequipa. Things don't pan out exactly as we plan, that is where we need a little flexibility. The Marathon race in La Paz meant we had to leave early, but we did not reach Copcabana early. Most roads in La Paz were already blocked and the bus had to take a lot of side roads ( most of them already choc-a-bloc) to get out of teh city. By 1100 hrs we were in Copacabana. On the way we had to cross the the waters which connected the the large side of Titicaca to the "small" side by a channel of about 1km wide. It was almost like a mini Bosphorous Straits' crossing, The bus was loaded to one float and the passengers were in another motor launh. I had originally hoped to take a trip to Isla del Sol where the Inca "Garden of Eden" was, where the Inca god created the first incas, according to legend. As there was no other significance attributed to the place (it is not even an island any more) I just did a tour of the town itself. It has a beautiful church with ornate doms and towers. Being Sunday there was mass in the church. It was also a blessing day. A lot of cars etc. were in the street outside to be blessed and the roads were blocked until the ceremonies were over. A walk to the Lake Titicaca was rewarded with beautiful views of the "port" and the town which was colourful to say the least.

I had opted for 1330 bus to Puno with a connection to Arequipa. Originally this city was not on my travel plans but now I am staying there for 2 days. What a loss it would have been not to. It was 2300hrs when we finally reached Arequipa, got a taxi to hotel which was beside the Cathedral in Plaza de Arms which is also the center of Arequipa. After breakfast next morning looked for trips around the place. Booked a City tour for the evening and a Colca Canyon trip for Tueday starting at 0330 hrs.

The City is dominated by the Cathedral which is made of the white sand stone. There were also a lot of buildings around made of the same stone giving it the name "White City". The other towering features are the 3 mountains; El Misti with a single cone at nearly 7,000m , the highest and the nearest, Colchani with twin peaks and Pichu Pichu with multiple peaks. All have snow caps for atleast a 1500m from the top. The tour bus had 4 major stops excluding the Plaza the Arms. The Carmelite nuns place which had great gallery of all the moutains, a canyan and river flowing through it. Here there were also some produts, made only in Arequipa, for sale.

The next stop was a wool factory. Arequipa had a specialised wool industry the source being the four south american camels. Each had their own charectoristics and value. We saw the Llama, Alpaca, Guanaco and Vicuna in the facory holding area. Vicuno is the smallest and has the highest priced wool. The garments were pricey at 350Soles + (>100 Euro) and I was not tempted.

Mansion de Fundador (16th century) was next which was interesting. It was almost a palace with all necessary luxurious amenities and luxuries relevant to the viceroy. A lot of the original furnishing and tools were left in situ to give an insight into the life in thatera. The mansion itself was built with access only from one side the other sides had steep falls to protect the house.

Next we stopped another beautiful square with an old church made for the locals (not for the Spanish). This square had palm trees and decorations and beautiful paved alleys with hanging baskets with flowers. The final stop was Molina de Sabandia, a working mill/farm where they had horses, cattle, lamas and had their own water wheel to grind corn. This was quite beatiful and picturesque. Arequipa is in an area prone to earthquakes, a major one in every 10 years and minor ones every year. The last major one was in 2002 and a lot of rebuilding has taken place since.

Due to time restrictions I had only a single day trip to Colca Canyon. The limitation with that is that you don't get to see a lot of villages and their way of living around the Canyon. Hoewever I found it was still worth taking inspite of the cost. The highlight of the tour was watching the Condors fly in and over the canyon. But for me that was only secondary as the drive to the canyon was more interesting. Leaving Arequipa at 0330hrs we climbed steadily to get to 5000m by 0630hrs. Our first stop was an observation point from where we could see 3 volcanos all above 6500m snow capped and a beauty to watch at sunrise. Next was a small village where the guide was showing us the way the locals live and had some photo opertunities. We were passing through villages with terraced agricultural areas made by a pre Inca civilization dating back to BC. How they made all these terraces on the steep hill side, sometimes at 60º only they know. Most terraces are not used any more which indicates that the density of population was much higher then than what it is now. Then we decended atleast 2000m to a small village Chivay where we had to get entrance permits for the protected area (20Euro) where we also had our basic breakfast. There after we started climbing again back to over 4500m where the canyon was.

The view into the canyon itself was breathtaking. The river at the bottom of the canyon is more than 3, 000m below the view point. As for condor watching we were prepared for disappointment as a lot depended on weather. But we hit the jackpot. There were condors everywhere, flying often very close by, some 12 of them even perching on a rock edge. Everybody, including the guides were amazed with our luck. After about an our and visiting different balconies we started back down again to the village. We had traditional lunch of the locals, with Llama meat on the table, but unfortunately I could not enjoy it fully as with the breathing difficulty I did not want to be too full. On the return we stopped at a Llama farm where we could see 3 of the 4 types of South American camels being reared partly for their priced fur. Got back to Arequipa in time to get the evening bus to Cusco. The Cruz del Sur was great with near sleeping comfort and I could sleep most of the way in spite of the fact that the road was very winding. We were in Cusco at 0600hrs.

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