Condors, Canyons and hot pools

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Arequipa, this is a place you could take it or leave it, if you know what I mean, we flew into Arequipa on Friday and from the plane you would swear you are just about to land on Mars, the terrain is red with streaks of white, which I discovered was from previous volcanic eruptions, we travelled by taxi to our hotel through hoards of manic drivers with what seemed like no sense of traffic rules, the city of 1.2 million was shrouded in a cloud of pollution, and there is a constant honking of horns and what sounds like sirens which the taxi drivers fit to their vehicles, you are constantly aware that you are a tourist, as you stick out in this city, where tourists are far and few.

We left the hotel early after a restless sleep with all the traffic noise that didn´t seem to stop all night, and headed to Colca Canyon, the jouney took us past shanty towns on the out skirts of town, which all seem to be built on this grey rocky terrain of volcanic wasteland, there isn´t a tree or vegetation in site, as we travelled further we were in-gulfed by mountains to one side and wide open plains dashed with cacti to the other, along our journey we came across Vicuna, another type of camel, like the Llama, but more ellegant, these animals are protected and cannot be farmed, their wool is the finest you can buy, and when checking prices for a sweater at $1000 you can see why.

We arrived at Chalhuanca about an hours drive from Colca Canyon to this beautiful resort style hotel where we were to spend the night, the view from my bedroom was of the Andes, all drapped in a beautiful sunset, later that night we soaked for several hours in the local thermal hot springs, to relax after the days travels and refresh ourselves for the next day.

I awoke on Sunday to the sunrise bathing the snow capped mountains of the Andes, what a site to behold, as we packed ourselves into the mini bus and headed off to the Colca Canyon, this took a little over an hour, as we travelled, the scenery started to get greener as we left the arid desert of Arequipa behind.

The canyon is 1km deep and 2.5km wide, we sat looking over the edge and briefly caught a glimpse of these huge birds, the Condor is a Andean vulture, with a wing span of over 2 metres, after walking about for an hour we decided it was futile and left, as we pulled out of the car park our driver spotted 2 condors perched on the crest above us, lucky for us we got a private show from both of these amazing birds.

photos to be attached later

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