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Published: June 16th 2010
Little Boy
A little boy we hung out with on a stop on the tour.We began our tour at 8:30am on Monday morning. We were picked up from our hostel in a van. As we were heading out of Arequipa, the tour guide was telling us interesting facts about the ciy. For example, there are 1.5 million people in Arequipa and they live right below an active volcano. According to her, if the volcano erupts, 60-70% of the people in the city will die. Pretty scary fact! Along the outskirts of the city were the poor areas where the houses were constructed by hand. There were tons of stray dogs. I saw a stray dog way out of even the poor area of the city going through trash 😞 poor little guy. We purchased coca leaves and coca candy to use on the tour. The coca candy was grosssss. It was supposed to be caramel flavored but defintely wasn´t!
We travelled out to a national park where we were able to see llamas, alpacas and vicuñas. The llamas and alpacas are domesticated so if you see them in the park it means that there is an owner in the area. However the vicuñas are wild. Every 2-3 years the local people gather to capture
The ram!
Taking pictures of the ram right before he attacked me and shear the vicuñas. They wait until a family group of vicuñas comes to a certain watering hole where 2 walls are naturally blocked in then all of the people link hands and run towards the vicuñas to capture them in the area. Then 3-4 people grab the vicuña and someone else shears it. Sounds difficult to me!
On our way to our final destinatin of the day, a town called Chivay, we stopped at a little place to use the bathroom. Everyone was drinking coca tea to help them adapt to the altitude but Jose and I were wandering around. We found a group of sheep and starting taking pictures. The sheep walked in front of the cafe a little while layer and I went out of the van to take some more pictures. Well apparently the ram didn´t like this and he jumped down onto the level I was on and charged me! He head-butted my calf, I have a hugeee, raised bruise.
After that we were told to start chewing the coca leaves because our altitude would begin to increase. They were so gross!!!! Jose and I each lasted about a minute chewing them and
then spit them out. We went from Miami which is at sea level to Arequipa which is 7500ft above sea level to the highest point which is 15,000 ft above sea level! While at this highest point we got out to take pictures and were walking around the area. Suddenly, Jose told me that he didn´t feel well and that he was going to pass out. He laid down and closed his eyes. We were out of sight from the van so I eventually got him to get up and try to walk but just a few steps after he had to lay down again. But by then the people on the van could see us and they came running to help. They had him sniff alcohol and put alcohol on his neck. They also lifted his legs. Soon he was well enough to make it down the area we were up on to the van. They say that you never know who is going to suffer from altitude-sickness. It doesn´t matter how big or small you are, how fit you are or even if you´ve handled high altitudes before. Well, apparently Jose is one of the unlucky ones who
Pepe!
The little alpaca love of our lives! suffers from it badly! He slept on the van on the way to the town.
We went for lunch in this little restaurant. The food was very good, I don´t remember the name of everything we ate but I know Jose tried alpaca. Jose started feeling sick again and the woman who owned the restaurant let him lay down in a little room off of the restaurant to try to sleep so he could feel better. After lunch we were dropped off at our hotel for an hour. Jose slept and afterwards felt much better. Next we went to natural hot springs that the town has turned into pool. We had the option of having an enclosed pool or an open air pool. You can imagine which Jose and I chose! It was cold in Chivay!! The springs are fed by sulfur so the smell of sulfur was super strong. We also took the opportunity to shower there since our hostel the night before had had cold water and we didn´t want to do that again! The water was about 100 degrees so it was amazing!
After some time to clean up at the hostel we went to a dinner with ethnic dances. The people got both Jose and I up to dance, it was a lot of fun. They were traditional dress from different areas of Peru and even did a Frog worshipping dance which is from the Amazon.
The next morning (Tuesday morning) we had to be ready to go at 6:10am! So early!!! We had a litte breakfast at the hostel of bread with butter or jam and coca tea (which Jose and I both drank to help with the altitude sickness, Chivay is at 12,000 ft!). Then we began the drive to the Colca canyon. On the way we stopped to see the burial places of pre-Incan society. They were these holes wayyyy up in a cliff. The fact that the bodies were higher was supposed to help the people move to the afterlife.
When we got to Colca canyon we decided to do a 30 minute walk to see the canyon in more detail. The Colca canyon is twice the depth and length of the Grand Canyon. It was 3600 ft deep and 56 miles long. We got to see the Colca condors that live there. They are huge birds and we got some pictures. The walk was a little difficult due to the high altitude (about 12,000ft) which made us both very out of breath. But it was really beautiful to see. There were lots of cactus around and I even got one of the pieces of one stuck to my camera strap...oops!
After the canyon we headed back towards town but first we made two stops. At one stop these ladies were selling goods and cactus fruit. We purchased a cactus fruit and it was sooooo sour. It made me think of sour patch kids because that´s totally the face I was making! We also learned that there are two different pre-Incan ¨tribes¨in the area. To differentiate from each other originally they practiced skull deformation. One tribe would put contraptions on their babies to make their heads longer while the other would put on contraptions to make their children´s heads shorter and flatter. Once the Spaniards came they had to stop so now they just wear different hats. One observation that Jose and I made was that we saw women everywhere but we rarely saw men. We figured this is because the men are out working the land.
Next we stopped at this little town in the area to see the oldest legit structure, a church from the 1700s. There we met Pepe. Pepe is a 2 month old alpaca that stole our hearts. He started trying to eat his owners goods and then suddenly went for the lady´s fruit who was selling goods next to his owner, she was pissed! We went and took pictures with Pepe and loved him. We´re both pretty obsessed and want an alpaca now! They´re so soft and make the coolest noises. Soooooo cute!
We went to Chivay for lunch and Jose tried guinea pig and didn´t really like it. He may try it again though because this guinea pig was in a stew or something of that sort, it wasn´t the whole pig. He said that it´s super soft and it was filled with little bones which is kind of creepy. We were able to walk around the town for just a few minutes and I saw this huge stadium. Jose asked if I knew what it was, I guessed a soccer stadium but it wasn´t. It was a cock fighting stadium. I can´t believe that they actually have legit structures for cock fighting!!
After that we headed back towards Arequipa. At a stop on the way for the bathroom there was this super cute puppy that I started playing with. He was so dirty and just wanted to put everything in his mouth but he looked a little like Onyx so I had to love him. As we were entering the city 4 dogs ran across the street and one was hit and (hopefully) killed on impact. I feel so bad for the street dogs here. I just think of what great pets they could have been in America and what great lives they could have lead...I may have to go buy a 50 lb bag of dog food and carry it around feeding the dogs...Jose might not be too happy with that!
Tomorrow we leave for Arica, Chile for a week. The weather there is supposed to be warmer which is very exciting and we have a fun tour planned. We already have to do laundry, I guess that´s what happens when you pack so lightly! So hopefully the hostel in Arica has good laundry facilities.
Feel free to comment, we love comments! :-)
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Christie Thomas
non-member comment
WOW
this is sooooo cool! i am SO jealous, but SO excited for you guys. it sounds like the most amazing adventure. have fun!!! miss you!!