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Published: August 5th 2008
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Arequipa is located in South Central Peru several hundred miles southeast of Lima and it is nestled at the base of four volcanoes. Needless to say, the city has been rocked by natural disasters over the years—earthquakes, eruptions, etc. Fortunately for us, the only “disaster” we faced was the questionable quality of the hotel during our one night trip to the Colca Canyon. After experiencing Lima, it was great to see the sun out, and to find the city much more cozy and friendly. The Plaza de Armas, the main square in town was truly stunning; I could imagine a very similar scene with the outdoor restaurants, large church and bustling crowd somewhere in Spain. We stayed in Arequipa from Tuesday to Sunday due to flight availability, and this was a little on the long side. We did, however, manage to fill in our schedule well.
While it was fairly warm in the sun during the day (high 60s), it got fairly cold at night and we would often take 3 soles ($1) taxi rides around town. Using my limited Spanish, I usually took it upon myself to do the negotiating with the drivers. I was particularly pleased with my Spanish and my negotiations until Raquel told me that I had demanded to pay 3 soles when the driver had actually asked for only 2.50.
Our first full day I went white water rafting in the Rio Chili, just outside of town, while Raquel relaxed and kept warm in the hotel. It had been years since I had been rafting, and it was fun to be out on a river again, although the course was not particularly challenging. In fact, in the two areas that did look somewhat interesting, we actually had to get out of the raft and walk around on land while the guide went through! Nonetheless it was still fun, and the photographer who paddled ahead in his own kayak got some great shots of us (I’ve got my fingers crossed that the Dutch couple sends them to me since they bought them.) Raquel and I capped off the afternoon with a private city and nearby country tour.
The next day we left early for a two day excursion to the Colca Canyon, one of the largest in the world and comparable in size to the Grand Canyon. We stopped along the way to see various animals (Alpacas are everywhere) along with desert/mountain terrain. The altitude of the area approaching the canyon topped out over four thousand meters, or over 12 thousand feet, and our heads were beginning to feel the pressure. We arrived at our hotel mid-afternoon and quickly realized that outside of our planned trip to the hot springs, there was literally nothing to do there. Good thing I had some movies with me to watch on my laptop. The major highlight of the trip came the following morning, when we visited the Condor Cross, an area where huge condors up to six feet in wingspan regularly fly around in the early morning. I had never seen such big birds in nature let alone so many of them at one time. The canyon itself was also quite stunning and certainly worth the trip. I would however recommend toughing it out and leaving at like 3am to make it a day trip.
Our final day we visited the monestary, which was the size of a square city block. It has been around for years, and back in the day, wealty families used to send their second oldest daughter off there to be a nun. Each girl had their own little house within the larger structure, and they were forbidden to leave the monestary walls for their entire life. Definitely worth a visit to see how they lived/live. A guided tour is a must. Later that afternoon, we went off on our own: Raquel went shopping at the market and I went on a 3 hour bike ride into the country side. I returned just in time to get into a museum where Juanita the "ice princess" is kept. Juanita is corpse of a girl who was discovered in the nearby mountains and estimated to be hundreds of years old. Since she was frozen, she is incredibly well preserved. Pretty creepy too.
(Note...I'm playing catch up here, and I'm already back in San Francisco...just didn't want to send them all at once!)
Travel Tips - Don't stay at the Casa Andina Classica. Both times we checked in they made us wait over 30 minutes even though we had arrived after the check-in time. They were slow to respond to many of our requests as well. Finally they pulled the quote in dollars and charge a high exchange rate to pay in soles trick.
- Eat at Zig Zag and try their three meat combo of Alpaca, Ostrich and Beef.
- The restaurant at the monastery is also very good and reasonably priced for US standards.
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