Blogs from Arequipa, Peru, South America - page 107

Visited the Colca Canyon, one of the deepest canyon in the world, twice as deep as the Grand Canyon. But the highlight of the trip was to spot condors at Cruz del Condor. The canyon is home to the Andean condors. From the viewpoint, we could admire the majestic condors soaring over the canyon. Each condor can spread their wings to around 2m wide. So like National Geographic! There was one that even soar right above our heads. Was really an jaw dropping sight! Somehow, condors reminds me of Jin Yong Xiao Shuo. Guess it´s the novels that ¨majestify¨ these birds in my impression. And now that the condors soared right in front of my own eyes, it makes the experience even more unforgettable. ... read more

Hi again, We´ve found ourselves in an internet cafe yet again. They are cheap to use here, only 1 sol (around 30 cents) an hour. The only problem is connection speed... the photos upload slowly. But it gives us time to update the travel blog! We are staying in a wonderful hostal called Casa de Jael here. Two women run the place and live there too. They share their kitchen and living room with the guests. The hostal is upstairs on a busy street and it´s not fancy, but very homey. The kitchen has a small gas stove, a three person table, some plastic stools, and a cabinet. The women shared their dishes with us last night, so we shared our soup and chatted with them. There is an Irish man staying in our hostal who ... read more

After Cusco we took a night bus to the Colca Canyon. We did a 2 day hike that led us to an oasis with a hot spring. When diving in the water we found out that they better could have called it a cold spring because 5 minutes later we were on the road again. The second day was a bit harder because we had to climb up this canyon wall again, some 1500 meters strait up to make it in time for the Condor vieuw point. For half an hour we saw these amazing birdies circling up with the thermal air, a nice sight. Arequipa was our next stop where we just stayed for the end of the afternoon and beginning of the evening. Had a good dinner with a great view of the plaza ... read more

Arequipa is the second largest city in Peru and was mentioned as one of the highlights in my travel guide. Well not Arequipa itself but the Colca Canyon which is apparently the second deepest canyon in the world (twice as deep as the Grand Canyon). Apart from being very deep it also contains a horde of Condors. The way to visit the canyon and to see the Condors is to do a 1, 2 or 3 day tour or trek. Sounds reasonable … well I didn’t do any of that. Can’t really explain why I didn’t want to go and see the canyon. My favourite guess why I didn’t go is that I got a bit sick of sightseeing after my previous “run” through the rest of Peru. Another explanation is that I was busy ... read more

Arrived in Arequipa in the morning - a little worse for wear after an overnight bus journey which had been delayed by three hours. Needless to say, we had a British grumble between ourselves and then carried on.... We expected high things of Arequipa - the Peruvians we´ve met so far have raved about this "white city" (the city´s colonial buildings are built from a light-coloured volcanic rock called sillar). Arequipans are proud people and even attempted to declare the town as a seperate state with its own anthem, flag and passport! They apparently have a passion for intellectual debate so we thought we´d settle in quite nicely here! The town has a European feel to it - the Plaza de Armas is one of the more aesthetically pleasing we´ve seen so far with its grand ... read more