Arequipa and the Colca Canyon

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Hola desde Arequipa!

So we arrived here at about 4 in the morning. We had our fingers crossed our hostel of choice would be open, but alas it was not. So our taxi man took us to one just around the corner, and its been fine. They´re very friendly and we have a roof top terrace/kitchen again great for making our own meals.

We slept for about 3 hours before getting up to explore the town, which is indeed very pretty as all the books say. Most of the buildings in Arequipa are made from the white volanic stone found in abundance round here due to the several volcanoes overshadowing the city. For the first time we feel like we´re in an actual city, where there are actual things to do and where Peruvians go out and where you could imagine living.

We had heard the best thing to do in Arequipa is visit the Monasterio Santa Catalina, so we thought we´d head there after a hearty brunch in an Irish pub. As reluctant as I was to pay 30 soles each to get in, we did go in. It certainly is very beautiful and a calm place to wander aound but worth the 30 soles? I don´t think so. In fact the most interesting information we learned was from our guide book, which informed us that despite the vows the nuns took, they each had several slaves (mostly black) and used to have parties all the time! Didn´t say anything about that in the monastry...

The next day we ventured out to the second best museum in Arequipa, where they have on exhibition a frozen girl from Inca times! In the 90s one of the volcanoes in the area was going through a period of eruptions, melting the ice on the volcano next to it. This meant that expeditions were possible, and after a very long time (16 years I think...) of searching, an American archaelogist found the frozen girl wrapped up in cloths. She had been used as a sacrafice to the mountain gods, and over time more and more similar bodies have been found in the surrounding volcanoes and aroud peru. We got to see one of them, and it was very interesting but also quite gross! A much better museum than the monastry though.

After that we decided to walk up to Yanahuara ( a local district surrounding Arequipa) where there is a good viewpoint to the rest of the city. An extremely nice area, one could certainly imagine living here, and the views were very nice. We decided to eat in that night, and after about 2 hours of trying to get the gas cooker to work, we finally had some noodles. Then an early bed before our big adventure to the Colca Canyon the next day.

....Ok so we slightly overslept. The 6 o clock bus didnt look too appealing the next morning, so we got the 11.30 one instead. It takes about 6 and a half hours to get to Cabanaconde, on the top of the Canyon furthest from Arequipa. We met a guy on the bus who´s originally from Nasca but now works as a tour guide in Cabanaconde, and so we decided to go to his hostel, since it was only 20 soles a night including breakfast. It wasnt in the book, but he said that Lonely planet had been there the week before checking it out for the next edition (it does sorely need updating. Plus there are so many good places that dont get visitors just because theyre not "in the book")
So we went there with some other travellers that were on our bus, an Australian couple and some Americans. We had a very nice evening there, eating pizza and chatting to the others, tom even played guitar with them for a while.

The next day we got an early bus to a well known mirador called Cruz del Condor, where its possible to see condors flying upward on the thermals in the early morning. Just as we arrived there loads were flying just overhead, and it was fantastic. Theyre so big! We definitely got there at the right time though, about half an hour later there was little to see, and only about an hour later did the tour groups arrive (haha losers.)

We then headed back to Cabanaconde, from where we started our own trek into the canyon. We walked down into the canyon and accross it and up for a little bit on the other side to a town called San Juan de Chocco, which isnt really a town rather a cluster of houses. We had planned to carry on walking to the oasis at Sangalle, further on up the canyon but we were both really feeling the heat and very tired already, so we decied to chill out and spent the afternoon there which was very nice.

The next day we continued on to the oasis,which didn´t take long at all, we arrived at about 11.30. So we spent that day mostly lounging around the pool which was also very nice! The accomodation wasn´t so nice however; it consisted of huts made out of bamboo. Not great for keeping out the beasties. When I moved my pillow a really big spider crawled out from underneath, and I proceeded to spray it with insect repellant in the hope it might die. Alas, it didn´t until Tom beat it wth a plastic bottle. Needless to say we did not sleep well that night!

The next morning we started walking at 6 since we had to climb up the side of the canyon, and were told to allow a maximum of 4 hours to do it, and we didn´t want to do it in the sun. It was really hard work and not fun but we managed to do it in 3 hours and get back in time for the 9 o clock bus to arequipa! So we left with quite a feeling of accomplishment.

We decided to give ourselves another day similar to our one after the inca trail of general recovery; laundry, washing, blogging and perhaps buying a tent are on our to do list, since we were told by yet another arrogant french man that there is free camping all around chile.

So tomorrow we´ll be catching a bus to Tacna from where we shall probably take a taxi over the border to Chile (apparantly the best way to do it.)

I (Connie) shall be sad to say goodbye to Peru, despite the whining Peruvians who always push in front of you in queues. It will always be a part of me, but we´re both very excited about Chile, especially the Altiplano, Atacama desert and some of the best star gazing in the world.

More news from Chile!

Love for everyone x

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Comments

[Vicky]

Beautiful
Beautiful pictures on both blogs and what I imagined South America to look like - and I think it's catching - I'm getting itchy feet! Really looking forward to hearing about Chile - Go, You Guys! xx

[Ryan, The.]

What a brilliant menu. And I did warn you about those whiny queue-jumping Peruvians.

[Craig]

Condors, stars and volcanoes
From the picture viewer point-of-view, this trip just gets better and better

[Craig]

green and red
Green drinks and little red flowers (on the genteel streets of Arequipa): this is what we want to see