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Published: December 15th 2008
A long time ago now we moved on from Huacachina and travelled south in Peru to Arequipa, still with two of the friends we met on the inca trail, where we originally planned to spend a few days, but ended up spending well over a week....
We arrived in the city via night bus and checked into our hostel, and could quickly see Arequipa was an impressive city - it felt more affluent than Ica, but also rich with history and beautiful scenery (the city stands below a number of large mountains, dominated by the closest volcano named "misti"). As it was our first day we hadnt planned to do a great deal apart from find our feet, but unfortunately Adam and Andrew got very ill very quickly, and spent the next three days (literally) in bed. By the time they had recovered we decided to visit a museum that was ran by the University which housed an ice mummy ("Juanita") that has been frozen in near perfect condition for over 500 years. The incas believed that natural disasters were signs that Pachamama (mother earth) was angry so took young girls up to the mountain top to be sacrificed, and
Arequipa Tour Bus
Complete with trendy tourist visorsJuanita was one such girl who had been frozen until she was discovered recently. The museum was fascinating and Juanita is still forzen in such good condition it was incredible to see a 500 year old body looking in such perfect condition.
The city is also home to a beautiful plaza and many great buildings, including Santa Catalina monestry, which is literally like a small town within very large walls homed in the city centre. The week we were in Arequipa was also Halloween, and on the night we dressed up (in poor costumes!) and headed out into town, to discover that Peruvians take it very seriously, as there was a huge street party in full swing (about 500-700 people crammed in one street!) , with most people in amazing costumes.
The following day we decided to be lazy and take a city bus tour to see some areas that werent too accessible by foot, and also to enjoy the city views. When we returned to the hostel we doscovered we had been robbed! Our ipods, camera, memory cards (with all our photos!) and some money had been taken, and in a bizarre and long evening we actually
Condor
The biggest bird in the world. It has the largest wing span. managed to find the culprit (the hostel cleaner!!) and even find the swag hidden in a bag on the roof.....it was a very long story but the good news was we got everything back and were so very lucky.
As we were all starting to feel better we decided to take a trip to the Colca Canyon, the second largest canyon in the world and twice the size of the Grand Canyon (the largest canyon was another hour down the road in Peru), but here was our best bet at watching Condors. We spent the first day visiting the valley and viewing some of the amazing scenery, before the second day where we would travel to the canyon. Unfortunately I got ill again, and spent the next day laying on the bus (mainly sleeping). I did however manage to climb out of the bus at the condor lookout point (where we were told they hadnt seen condors for 5 days), and we were lucky enough to spot eight condors in full flight down the spectacular canyon.
After we returned to Arequipa it was time for Adam to finally see a doctor, who discovered he had an infection and
a parasite! He returned with a large bag of pills (including antibiotics), and over the next week got back to full health, before Daisy decided to get sick too!
After a few days of recovery we journeyed back down to La Paz, and across the most chaotic and shambolic border crossing we had seen!
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