Blogs from Arequipa, Peru, South America - page 9

Day 45 - 46 Today we temporally leave Arequipa & move further into the highlands for an overnight stay at Chivay which is the gateway to the Colca Canyon before returning to Arequipa. The main reason to visit Colca Canyon is not only the amazing scenery but to hopefully see the magnificent Andean condor, the world's largest flying bird, flying over the canyon. We travelled by minivan to Chivay (approx 5 hrs) stoping several times along the way to see llamas, alpacas ( both herded for wool & meat) and vicuñas (roam wild). One rest stop we were able to try some coca tea which is supposedly good for altitude sickness. Another stop was at Patapampa (the highest place on our tour at 4900 m above sea level) which was an assent of 2600 m from ... read more

1 March 2014 - Saturday – Puno to Arequipa, Peru Noisy vibrant bus station; Arequipa-quipa-quipa-quipa-Arequipa! Vicuna zone; volcano; 295 kilometres. Drop in elevaton from 3830 km to 2380 km above sea level. Arequipa second largest city in Peru, population just under one million people. Like the ‘Republic’ of Cork, the people here fondly refer to themselves as citizens of the ‘Republic of Arequipa’. The scenery between the two cities is flat prairies and mountain plateaus with long-range vistas of distant volcanoes and one snow-capped mountain peak called Nevado Mismi Mountain (5597 meters, 18,363 feet above sea level). The road descends from the Altiplano highlands through the Salinas and Aguada Blanca Nature Reserve to the ‘white city’ of Arequipa. . Along the way is the natural habitat of the vicuna, one of two wild South American camelids ... read more

An action packed day began with a boat trip to Ballestas Island (sometimes known as the poor man's Galapagos Island) to see an assortment or wildlife. There was also a truck sweepstake to see who was going to be the first to be pooped on by the thousands of birds that fly above or around the island and I was relieved that it was a near miss for me and i returned to dry land with my clothes and hair intact. The sight of the rocks simply covered by cormorans, penguins, pelicans and blue footed boobies and took my breath away. I also wondered whether I may have been a sea lion in another life as I watched them sunbathe on the rocks! We travelled to Huacachina in the early afternoon to the sand dunes for ... read more

The common denominator is down, way down, hours of just, down. But there were some other similarities... about half way along the Colca trail we started to see a crescent of green oasis at the bottom, and it reminded me of the view of Phantom Ranch as I'd descended the Kaibab Trail. And there were mules on the trail and a fair number of other hikers. The geology did not appear to be as interesting on the Colca, it lacks the layers of colored rocks that make the Grand Canyon so brilliant. Although there was a stunning rock outcrop that reminded me of the devils post-pile. The trail itself was in excellent shape, nicely constructed with lots of switchbacks. Bone dry so the main 'watch out' was slipping on loose grit and gravel, but no wet ... read more

I left the Llama Education Spanish School this morning about 9:30 am and started walking. Semi-random walk. I had a rough route in mind. I'd been to the center plaza and wanted to see the neighborhoods around them. I knew the river divided the city and it was pretty steep on either side. I took the first downhill street and just kept going, avoiding big roads and turning onto streets that looked like neighborhoods. I rarely used the map, occasionally checking progress to make sure I wasn't headed in circles. Arequipa has excellent street name signage. At most intersections there are street signs, even the small neighborhoods and most houses have the street name just below the house number. OK... I wrote the above paragraph, which then morphed into a separate blog, "How to Explore a ... read more