Blogs from Colca Canyon, Arequipa, Peru, South America

We've had some early starts on this trip, but this one really takes the biscuit. 2.30am, the alarm goes off and it feels like we've barely had time to fall asleep. Which might be because we barely have had time to fall asleep. Lying awake in the dark, I wonder why do we do this to ourselves. Wanting to make the most of our few days in Peru before we continue north to Colombia, we've arranged to go on a three day trip to Arequipa province's famous canyon country. I certainly hope it's worth it - I don't get out of bed at 2.30 in the morning for just anyone. Three in the morning and the streets of Arequipa are dark and deserted. Out of absolutely nowhere a minibus appears. We get on and sit down ... read more

Rushed through breakfast this morning as were unaware that plans for departure time had been amended and were leaving 15 minutes earlier than advised the previous afternoon. A two hour drive along a winding pass to Colca Canyon in the company of a Guide. The Guide talked to us about the area and the inhabitants who originally bandaged babies to either elongate and thin their faces or make them squat and fat depending on the area from which they originated. This mutilation was stoppd by the Conquistadors who enforced Catholism and the Spanish language on pain of death. The scenery was absolutely stunning. It is the deepest canyon in the world allegedly but not the part we saw. The deepest part would be a further 6 hrs driving and 9 hrs walking..... We hung around viewing ... read more

In all our time on this earth, neither Donna nor I had ever had to set an alarm for 2.00am. This all changed though for our trip to Colca Canyon, as the bus was due to pick us up at the Hostel at 3.00am! As we were getting ready in the middle of the night while others were no doubt still queuing to get into clubs on the other side of town, we just prayed that this trip would be worth it…. Once the bus arrived, we climbed on, gave a quick ‘Hola’ to our fellow sleepy trek goers, and settled in the seat to try and get some shut eye that our bodies were crying out for. Five hours later with a small stop in-between to pay our entrance fee to the national park, we ... read more

As it's understood we did not have access to the Internet or even phone because we were up in a canyon. The Colca canyon, which is even bigger than the Grand Canyon in the States. It's a really long way to reach it, imagine that we started at 8 in the morning and we reached the main town at 2 . Arequipa Arequipa andthe surrounding towns are build from volcanic ash, and it's needless to say that theyexploit it as. Est they can, the have their volcanic springs and even more they have a cementfactory that uses the white volcanic ash to produce their cement. This Factory is in Yura. Another interesting fact about Arequipa is that it was divided into 3 sub cities Arequipa and 2 others that were divided by Stradivari , namesakes are ... read more

Pick up from the hostel at 3am, the earliest start yet. We travelled for 3 hours through snow and thick fog that covered the mountain range surrounding Arequipa. Arriving at the entry point of the national park for another breakfast of bread and jam. You know what, I am so sick of bread and jam. Literally every breakfast since I left England has been bread and jam. Sometimes I am lucky and I get bread, jam AND butter. What also makes the breakfast hard to stomach is how sweet the bread is. In England I don´t really eat much bread NEVER white bread and here I have eaten my entire body weight plus in rank white bread. Anyway I have digressed slightly from the point here. Back in the minibus heading to the deepest part of ... read more

This leg of our journey starts in Arequipa, a town built at the base of a volcano, El Misti, and another one close by. The buildings here are all built of a pretty white stone called sillar. We did what all the tourists do and went to visit Juanita - a 500 year old mummy who was sacrificed at the tender age of 15 by the Inca civilisation to appease the mountain gods (ie volcanoes). We decided to venture off on our 4th hike of this trip, this time into the very dry and dusty Colca Canyon. Although tourists are encouraged to take a guide, we decided to do it alone, armed with a very rudimentary map (which, we soon found out, had many errors). We set off with tent and food in hand, excited about ... read more

Originally 14th October 2010 8th-11th October 2010 It took another 16 and a half sleep deprived hours to get here on the bus. I passed time by staring out the window until Jeff made me swap at our first stop four hours later. We were on the Pan-American Highway and the scenery was immense. Outside of Lima we passed several suburbia, or slums, huge clusters of one-room hovels smaller than our shed at home. I wondered what the people there do, just survive I guess. I saw some more further away from the city right on the coast, the Pacific Ocean literally feet away from their homes. The landscape changed noticeably as we delved further inland into the Andes. Apparently, the locals say about the surroundings that ´when the moon separated from the earth, it forgot ... read more