I can´t believe i just bought a vest - i must be drunk! (JF, 2007)

So we headed off from Oruro on what was to be abit of a mission. A 6am bus was to take us from Oruro, to Arica in Chile, which was to take around 9 hours or so. From there, we then decided to catch a taxi from Arica across the border to Tacna, Peru, making our stay in Chile a grand 5 hours or so, where we were to stay the night. From there, the next morning, we were going to catch another bus (5 hours or so) to Arequipa, Peru, where we could possibly relax for 24 hours or so.

And it all pretty much worked out. The road from Oruro to Arica was sketchy in parts, as it wound down through the mountains to the sea. We saw one truck that had just flipped, with all its fruit and vegetable produce spilled out across the road (luckily there were no banana peels), but apart from that all was good. We then managed to get a pimpin´ taxi from Arica to Tacna, fully decked out with curtains, plush leather seating, the works. The night in Tacna was great - we treated ourselves to a nice hotel after having stayed in squalor for so long, and the bus to Arequipa the next day couldn’t have worked out any easier. Piece of cake

We spent two nights in Arequipa, staying at The Point Hostel which was a real blast, even though it was borderline empty. Such a nice hostel, i would definitely recommend it to anyone going through Arequipa. I did a few touristy things around the area, like visiting the massive convent in town, and wandering around checking out all the old Colonial building, but the real reason we were there was to visit the Colca Canyon. We booked a 2 day, 1 night tour, with a bus picking us up from the hostel at 8am.

All well and good you would think - except for the fact that it was Go-Karting night at the hostel followed by one of the employees farewell parties. I suspected things may get ugly when we were drink driving whilst go-karting, and it only got worse. Basically, I ended up getting back at around 5am, with Josh trailing in 90 mins behind me. End result - a wake up call from our hostel owner, and not the alarm we had set, telling us that the bus was outside waiting to pick us up. Enter pandemonium as we raced around getting our stuff organised, and jumped on the bus after it had patiently waited around 10 mins for us to get ready. The last thing you would want on that bus is around 25 people all your parents age, staring at the disgusting example of youth boarding the bus, but that’s exactly what we got. A few sorry´s were exchanged, some deodorant applied, and some breakfast purchased, and we were very sheepishly on our way. I think Josh may have still been experiencing the effects of the night before however, as he introduced himself on the bus as Jan from Estonia, which didn´t really tickle the tour guides fancy after all we´d put her through!

That first day was very painful, with a lot of driving, stopping for photos, stopping to buy local produce etc etc. The highlights were the hot springs in Chivay, the town where we stayed the night, which helped in curing the hangover, and also the dance night that we had at a local restaurant were both Josh and I were dragged (more like volunteered) up onto stage and made to perform traditional dances with a local dance troup. Very touristy, but great fun nonetheless.

The second day commenced at the very reasonable hour of 5am (I am so over tours) and we made our way out to the canyon. The drive out there was spectactular, if not for the views, then for the Frenchman on our tours ability to take a photo of every single angle of every single tree in every single valley. We arrived at the Canyon at around 8am, and had two hours to hang out there, soak in the views, and hopefully see some of the condors that make their residence in the canyon. The Canyon is the second deepest in the world (about 3 kms deep from top to bottom I think), and is second only to another canyon about 10kms away. Add to this the condor, which is 1m tall and has a wing-span of 3m, and it’s a pretty magical place. We managed to see about 8 condors whilst we were there, just soaring around the valley, which was great as on some days people don´t see any the entire time they are there. After two hours out there, we turned around and drove all the way back to Arequipa, where we stayed one more night, and definitely took it easy.

The next day we managed to get a fair bit of nuisance stuff out of the way, before we caught the night bus to Huacachina, where we intended on hanging out, swimming in a pool, and sandboarding.

I have nearly caught up on these blogs now - only a week behind or so. We are currently in Mancora in the north of Peru, which is a surf town just near the Ecuadorian border. Having a great time just chilling out and surfing, and watching the days go by.

Will keep you posted.

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