Endless desert and hiking the Colca Canyon

---

We woke up to see rock desert, this went on for some hours and was a complete contrast to the lush green valleys we’d been enjoying over the past couple of weeks. As hours went by the landscape didn’t change, only when we reached Lima, this vast city punctuated the desert and on leaving the City there was more of the same. We’d decided to skip Lima we’d have to return to get our flight back to the UK. Instead we made a quick bus change and carried onto Paracas a coastal town. After a marathon bus trip just short of 24 hours we were pleased to arrive.

The sky was clear blue and the sun felt scorching – it’s a strange thing that although the temperatures are in mid 20s celsius the heat feels far more intense, and everything looks incredibly bright. We were using this route as a way down to Chile – aware that there wouldn’t be a lot more beach time well probably none - and had heard there was a ‘poor man’s Galapagos trip’ taking visitors out to the Ballestas Islands. We signed up to go the following morning.

We took a short walk around Paracas it’s not a big place and sat out on a small but sandy beach area full of locals enjoying the cool early evening temperatures.

We were up early for the boat trip the next morning. Our day trip was in two parts the first out on a boat to the Ballestas Island and then to a national park in the afternoon. The morning tour was swift but impressive, the first site being a large etched ‘candelabra/cactus’ or something that no-one can comprehend now - on the side of a hill.

Nearing the island we came across large caves of sea lions the males her had ridiculously large necks, there were more boobies (not blue footed) and penguins. We were pretty impressed – there were so many animals enjoying life in a relatively small area. Peru was able to make huge amounts of money out of mining the guano (bird pooh & urine) – to be used as a fertilizer.

The afternoon was spent exploring a little bit of desert and admiring the coast with its cliff faces and red sand beach.

Nazca was our destination the next day our journey was a little longer than intended because of a wheel change. We continued to wind our way through seemingly endless desert eventually arriving at Nazca a small town in the middle of nowhere. The main reason for coming to Nazca is to see the Nazca Lines which are best observed from the air. Before nine the next day we were up in the air in a small Cessna plane taking in the lines but slightly anxious as it dipped steeply and curled to give us the best views of the enormous and fascinating markings on the ground below.

As well as the obvious drawings of a hummingbird, monkey, owlman, four finger hands the floor of the desert has huge trapezoid and etched lines covering vast areas. Although much research has been done there is no definite answer to what the lines represent, it may be to do with identifying water sources, aligned for the seasons or reflecting the stars – there is no definitive answer. At a local hotel where they talked about the stars here being able to see both the North Star and Southern Cross.

Arequipa was our next stop and was by far one of the nicest cities we had been in for some time. The city and the view from the top of our hostel was dominated by 3 big volcanoes. Arequipa is over 7,500 feet so another high one.

Hungry and searching for some breakfast following an early arrival in the city we ended up in the main square. We’d stumbled across a very formal event, lots of armed forces and flag lifting – but never found out what it was about.

After a long stint on buses we thought a short hike might be a bit of a change and signed up for a Colca Canyon trek. The tour operator assured us the 3 day trek was fine to do in 2 days. Day 1 started with a 3 am pick up!!! There was some sleep on the way to the canyon our first stop still in early hours was at the highest point, freezing cold and snow covered. Mark’s decision to wear shorts didn’t seem such a good idea. Fortunately from here we travelled on for a couple of hours to a condor viewing spot as we arrived 3 condors – the largest bird in the western hemisphere - glided over the canyon. By the time we got out of the van they had disappeared but kindly returned close to the viewing platform before we had to go. They are impressive although don’t have the most appealing faces. The Condor is of great significance and represents the highest level of the three worlds in Andean mythology, the puma and the snake representing the other two realms.

The trek was strenuous – at its highest point the canyon is 4,900 metres we were up and down somewhere below this height but the pressure on us from the altitude was obvious. The canyon is twice the depth of the Grand Canyon. A knee and ankle aching climb down one side of the canyon filled the morning, then we crossed over the river and thankfully a short ascent up the other side before lunch. Those taking the tour over three days left us here but 7 of us had a few more hours to go before we reached our stop for the night. After lunch we passed through 3 villages which had a number of houses but seemed pretty deserted. We stopped off to talk with one elderly lady and she shared cactus fruit with us, we saw photos of dancers at carnival in the square of the next town and our guide showed us the vibrant colour of cochineal – a small organism that lives on the cactus.

All of us were delighted to reach our final descent into the oasis. We’d been told there was a swimming pool but that it would be too cold/too late to enjoy but we must have made good time as we all enjoyed a quick dip before dinner. The pool was filled with water from the mountain as were the showers – the temperature wasn’t hot but was quite pleasant.

We went to bed looking forward to a 5 am start the following day and a hike ascending pretty much straight up 1,200m. We were joined by a lovely dog that had before at some time made its way down to the oasis – it wasn’t the best place for it to stay there was very little scraps of food and they had their own dog so we were glad when it joined us on our walk back up the mountain. The walk back up was painful in a different way – the day before our knees had been pounded by the relentless downward march, this time we had to try to breathe and push ourselves upwards with each step. We all made it in good time and were relieved to be able to walk on the flat towards the local village for breakfast.

As seems often the case when catering for westerners they assume that you miss banal pop music from home – so we had a medley of recent chart music and videos to watch/listen to over breakfast. While the music fitted the restaurant we were eating at it seemed out of place with the wider village. We still had a full day ahead.

A drive took us through stunning scenery our first stop was in a typical village where we stopped off in a small village full of people selling typical Peruvian brightly covered, scarves, hats, jumpers, socks etc .

Before lunch a much needed stop to some La Calera hot springs we were beginning to get used to these and it was absolute bliss after the mornings exercise – as we sat in scorching hot water, with lovely mountains around us the rain started coming down just making it an even more pleasant experience. There were a number of hummingbirds flying around - pity we don’t have them in England. After an all-you-can-eat buffet lunch which was seriously overdone by Mark we headed back to Arequipa. On the way there and back we’d seen domestic llamas but also wild Vicuna a smaller animal similar to the Llama but more often than not roaming wildly.

We continued to explore Arequipa but we started our day by dropping off our remaining functioning camera at the local Panasonic Centre – this was quite a surprise to find one on our doorstep. Eight hours later it was fixed – properly - for only £20. Bargain. The main attraction for the day was most definitely the Santa Catalina Convent. It was as described in the tourist information as a town within the city and it was. It was like walking through a Mediterranean village, with beautifully laid out courtyards, each Nun having her own living quarters and kitchen. There was also an exhibition explaining about the building of adobe houses and Llama farming both of which we saw more of in in the next part of our journey.

On the way out to Chile we stopped at a town called Tacna because of the Church being designed by Gustave Eiffel the same man who designed surprisingly the Eiffel Tower. By chance we also had the best Chinese meal of the journey.

To get to the border we had a short taxi ride, 5 of us got into a Bewick –it was pretty comfortable – the taxi would take us as far as Arica, Northern Chile. At the bag check there was a slight delay as Mark tried to smuggle illegal goods into the country - fortunately he was just given a stern warning rather than a fine for being in possession of popcorn. This caused quite a bit of interest with our fellow passengers and some laughing when they realized nothing sinister was going on.

---