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Published: July 30th 2006
Plaza da Armas, Arequipa
Decorated for 28 July Independence Day celebrationsArequipa is a lovely city. You can´t go 10 steps in Cusco without being accosted or hassled to buy things or go on tours or eat in restaurants. Here you might be asked if you´d like to try a restaurant in the main square, but that´s about it. The place is generally full of people going about their own business. Cusco was wonderful though and we are still missing the place, but the atmostphere is a little calmer here.
We spent our first few days being very lazy tourists. We ended up staying in a slightly nicer hostal than usual (Torres de Ugarte - highly recommended) where we got a fantastic hot shower and cable TV in our room. We spent most of our time lazing on the bed and watching the film channels in between going out for nice meals or coffee overlooking the colonnaded central town square. We did go to the museum to see Juanita though and she was well worth the entrance fee.
Juanita is the frozen remains of a child sacrificed on the Ampata mountain by the Incas over 500 years ago, but discovered only 10 years or so ago when ash from a
Arequipa cathedral
Cathedral tower from the middle of the plaza nearby volcano melted the glacier. The small museum dedicated to her and the other ice mummies found in the area also has the beautifully preserved weavings, clothing and precious offerings buried with the bodies on display. It is quite unnerving to see an actual body over 500 years old, but compelling too. The tour guides and National Geographic video shown before you see the main exhibit go to great lengths to emphasise that ´Juanita´ would have been chosen at birth for her destiny and went proudly and willingly to her death. But you can see pretty clearly the place just above her right eye where she was clubbed in the head. The exhibition is very sensitive and moving though.
All the books talk about the dazzling white stonework of Arequipa, and it is certainly striking, but not really as white as all that. Santa Catalina Convent is fascinating though. Closed to the world for hundreds of years, the community of nuns built up their own walled town within the city. The place is built out of the same volcanic sillar rock but has been painted and generally made to feel very homely. We took hundreds of photos of the
Classy cappucino
Graham enjoys the sophistication of Arequipa dazzling blue and terracotta coloured streets and houses where the nuns used to live with their own servants. The place is full of geraniums and beautiful plants and trees. Didn´t see any nuns though. There aren´t many left and they have retreated to a smaller, new section of the convent.
From Arequipa, we booked a three day trek into the Colca Canyon with Pablo Tours, who were very helpful and even loaned Graham a small backpack free of charge for the duration of the trip. The Canyon is a good 6 hours away by public bus on unpaved roads that wind around the mountains. We were lucky enough to get seats on the early bus, but the locals piled on with their heavy sacks and livestock. I´d love to try taking a UK bus with a sheep on a lead in tow. We arrived in Cabanaconde around noon and enjoyed a slap up alpaca based lunch before starting our trek. The view over the edge before we started our descent was pretty impressive. We were prepared to be underwhelmed after reading other reports of the place, and it does seem more like a steep valley with a gorge at
the bottom than a classic Grand Canyon style canyon, but it is stunning all the same.
We walked downhill over crumbly volcanic dust and rocks for a good three hours before getting to the river at the bottom. The trek was slippery and a bit treacherous in places, but nothing to get too scared about. Once we were at the bottom though, and could look up at the mountain sides all around us, it really started to sink in that there was only one way out.
We crossed the river and pitched up in San Juan, our village for the first night. We stayed at a family run place with a pretty garden and no electricity. It was very basic, but the shared mud-brick huts were surprisingly cosy and we slept really well. There were big cages of the most beautiful fluffy grey and black rabbits and sandy coloured guinea pigs right outside our door and I think their soft snuffling and peeping lulled us to sleep. Pretty sure they were the next day´s lunch though.
We started the second day with a lovely walk through the villages and farmsteads at the bottom of the canyon. After
Nuns washing
Laundrette facilities inside Santa Catalina half an hour or so, there was a steep upward climb. Our guide told us it was a test for the big climb out of the canyon. The French couple making up our small group - geologists and natural born mountaineers - stormed up the path without breaking a sweat. I (Milly) - on the other hand - started to panic for some reason. Not sure why. I´ve climbed up steeper, harder paths before. I couldn´t catch my breath at all and had to be calmed down with a puff of someone´s inhaler and a sniff of some alcohol. Not sure what made me react that way other than I went too fast too soon and panicked when I felt my heart rate rocket. I was fine after a good sit down and a stern talking to myself. I think the fact that there really was only one way out of that place had played on my mind more than I´d like to think. At least when you´re climbing up a mountain you can turn round and go home at any point. I knew we had a steep climb for three hours the next day and I was starting to
worry I´d ever get out.
After the climb and a flat walk through more villages, we caught sight of our destination for the second day. A small oasis at the bottom of the canyon, with naturally warm pools and bamboo huts for sleeping. It was lovely to relax there for the afternoon, although the pools felt pretty darned cold after coming out of the hot dusty trail. We swam all the same and lay out in the sunshine preparing for the hard bit. I´m not sure it was entirely what Graham had in mind for his birthday, but he didn´t seem to mind. Everyone at the oasis gave him a strong, multi-cultural rendition of Happy Birthday at dinner time and the guides managed to find a bottle of fine Peruvian rose to help the celebrations along.
Some tours make you leave the oasis in the afternoon and climb up the canyon in the heat of the day. We had heard that was horrendous so opted for the night trek instead. Our guide woke us up at 2.30 a.m. and we were on the path by 2.50. I was fine in the dark. I couldn´t see up or down
Fine on the way down
Starting the downhill trek or work out how far I had to go. The three of us, Graham, our guide and myself just plodded slowly on by torchlight. Our French friends soon disappeared. When we got to the top we found out they had done it in a practically Peruvian 1hr 40 mins. It took us the full three hours. It was hard going but not impossible and really quite magical in the dark, apart from the fact that Graham's body seemed to object to being woken up halfway through the night. He proceeded to burp, fart, hack and spit his way up the mountain. It made us all laugh though. Even our guide knew the english for 'it's only natural'!
The canyon seemed full of stars and we could see other trekkers´ torches twinkling up the mountain side. After a couple of hours we came across a lady pitched up on a narrow ledge selling coca tea by candlelight. It was the best tasting tea we´ve ever had. We switched off our torches and sat and warmed ourselves up with the hot tea by the light of her candle. It was like something from a dream.
Revived and aware the sky
First night accommodation
An English country garden at the bottom of the Colca Canyon! was getting lighter to the eastern end of the canyon we pressed on for the last stretch and made it back to the village before 6.30. We got so cold after all the exertion even a hot scrambled egg breakfast didn´t help. Graham wrapped himself in a blanket and persuaded two kittens to act as a hot water bottle, but we were still chilly when we got back on the bus at 8. Luckily the sun was blazing by the time we got to Cruz del Condor - a viewing spot half an hour away where you are not guaranteed to see some big birds, but would have to be pretty unlucky if you didn´t. The place was packed with tourists, but we found a spot and waited and were not disappointed. Two mature males and we think two females and a young condor obliged with countless fly-pasts. They swooped up and down the canyon looking for prey and we even saw them doing some mid-air handovers to the young condor. One of the males - with distinctive black plumage and white collar - came quite close and could be seen to scratch his face as he flew past. Our
Looking down on the oasis - our 2nd night destination
See that wiggly white line on the left? That´s the way out. photos are rubbish of course. You need a super camera with a massive zoom to do the magnificent specatcle justice. So we stopped trying to snap them and just watched. Much better.
That would have been the perfect end to the excursion, but we had the 5 hour return bus ride to endure. There was such a crush for the 10 a.m. bus that we didn´t get a seat. In fact there were more people crammed on to the ropey old coach than you would think legal. The two hours to Chivay - where we were to stop for lunch - were sheer hell. Nobody wanted to open the windows because of all the dust and the sun was blazing through the glass. It was like being behind heavy artilliery getting shaken and jolted over the unpaved roads. When an official looking guy with a clipboard at one village looked through the windows and gestured frantically at us to move down the bus so he could get more passengers on, Graham took justice into his own hands and returned with a pretty emphatic gesture of his own. Our only compensation was the knowledge that all the seated passengers nearby
What is it with Graham and hot springs?
semi-naked again. And the water was only semi-warm to be honest. were getting the full effect of our three day old trekking armpits as we hung onto the luggage racks for dear life.
The final stop was at the hot springs in Chivay. They were really hot - coming out of the hillside at 40deg, but cooling to low 30s in the main pool. We sat and soaked our dusty limbs for a couple of hours. If we could have gone to sleep there and then I think we would have done, but we got back on the bus and finished off our trip in seated style. Such luxury.
There are more photos to post for this episode, but we're finishing off this blog in Bolivia after spending a couple of days around Lake Titicaca. We'll add them when we've got a faster connection!
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lyn bramley
non-member comment
wow!
Hi Graham and Milly, so glad you are having a great time. Your photographs are marvellous, and the journal is fascinating. Where to next? All the best and take care. Andrew and Lyn (Andrea's mum and dad)