Arequip, Arequip, Arequipa

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After another long bus journey we arrived in Arequipa, the capital of the Arequipa Region in southern Peru. It is the second most populous city of the country but still has only around 750,000 inhabitants. Arequipa lies in the Andes mountains, at an altitude of 2,380 meters above sea level and is overlooked by the majestic snow-capped volcano El Misti. The city has many colonial-era Spanish buildings. The historic centre of Arequipa has been named a UNESCO world heritage site and after seeing the main plaza and the architecture surrounding it, it is easy to see why, especially the massive Cathedral which dominates one side of the plaza.

We stayed in a nice hostel on one of the main streets and spent the next couple of days relaxing and exploring the city. It is a beautiful city, not quite as stunning as Cusco but definitely up there and we just spent the days wandering around and taking it all in. There was a cobbled street behind the Cathedral which was full of restaurants and bars and we found ourselves there in the evenings drinking Mojito's and beer. The great thing about drink prices in Peru is that it is always happy hour. We would ask when happy hour starts and the waiter would pointlessly check his watch and without fail reply "now!" whatever the time of day. We also went to a roof bar on one of the old buildings on the plaza which gave us a great views of the city, the top of the cathedral and the mountains in the background.

The main reason we had come to Arequipa was to go on a trip to the Colca Canyon. We eventually decided to do the 3 days/2 nights trek, we had intended to just do a 1 day trek since we had only just finished our Inca Trail a few days before but the longer trip sounded much better so we thought we should give it a go.

We were picked up at a disgraceful hour in the morning and drove for a couple of hours to the starting point for our trek. Along the way we made a stop at Cruz del Condor which as the name suggests is a place for spotting condors. We could see the condors in the distant but they were so far away they were only little specks. We had nearly given up when one flew right up in front of us, just a couple of meters from our faces. It was incredible, these are big birds and its wingspan was bigger than us. After this a few more flew up and circled just above us for a few minutes before it was time to get back on the bus.

We arrived in a little village which was to be the starting point for our trek and after some lunch in a local cafe we set off. The first days walking was relatively easy as it was all down hill. We slowly made our way down into the bottom of the canyon and then crossed the river at the bottom to make our way to the tiny little town on the other side where we would be spending the night. We were glad we'd decided to do the 3 day trip as it gave us chance to actually walk right down into the canyon instead of just seeing it from top as you do on the 1 day trip and the views of the canyon both from the top and the bottom were amazing. It is more than twice as deep as the Grand Canyon and is the second deepest in the world second only to its neighbour The Cotahuasi Canyon. However, the canyon's walls are not as vertical as those of the Grand Canyon. We spent the first night in a nice little lodge at the bottom of the canyon, it was surrounded by tropical plants and the side of the canyon loomed over it creating some much needed shade. We had a few beers and ate our tea under the stars. The lodge was home to a lovely little puppy called Lincoln who was very naughty and the in the morning he managed to push our cabin door open and he jumped into bed with us.

The second day we walked along the side of canyon for a few hours taking in the views and passing through a couple of tiny villages on the way until we reached our overnight spot at about lunch time. It was a beautiful oasis situated at the bottom of the canyon. There were cabins and several swimming pools dotted around surrounded by lush greenery and the dry, red rock of the canyon towered above on both sides. We spent the rest of the day relaxing by the pool and trying to escape the heat. When the sun went down we watched the stars, we could see so many due our remoteness, the sky was framed by the silhouettes of the canyon walls in the moonlight and it was very peaceful. After dinner we got an early night in preparation for our early start in the morning.

We had to set off the next morning before sunrise as we were climbing back up the canyon and once the sun was high it would be too hot to walk up hill. The walk took a few hours but it seemed to take for ever, the top never seemed to get closer. When we finally made it we walked back to the village where we had started and got the bus back to Arequipa and that night we got the overnighter to Ica.

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