Arequipa and Colca Canyon

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Arriving in Arequipa I was quite surprised at how dry the surroundings still were. We searched around town before finally finding a basic hotel near the Monasterio Santa Catalina. The temperature was lovely so we decided to take a stroll around town. It has a great Plaza de Armas, one of the best we have seen in South America. A massive catedral sits on one side with the massive mountains of El Misti (5822m) in its perfect cone shape and Chachani (6075m) looking more raggedy with a snow capped peak. Much of Arequipa is built from sillar, a white volcanic rock. It looks very nice and rustic but with only narrow streets in the centre of town it gave off plenty of glare.
We spent the afternoon in the brilliant Monasterio Santa Catalina, it is definitely the best monastery we have been to. It was founded in 1580 and it occupies a whole block. It has high sillar walls, and was like a maze inside, it has its own streets, fruit filled courtyards, staircases, little plazas and living quarters. The order still has a number of nuns practising but are hidden from public view. It was interesting to see where the nuns use to interact with the public via revolving windows to trade goods.
We found the people in the streets a bit full on, much more than other places but I guess there are plenty of tourists, we always have a laugh at the corner stores. You buy a few things and put them on the counter and when you ask how much you can see they just pull a number out of nowhere. Even when you buy one thing, and ask how much, they need a bit of time to work out how much to charge you. Its only when you get to the supermarket and can see the prices you realise you have been fleeced.
We decided to book a 2 day tour to the Colca Canyon, most backpackers tend to do the trekking option where you start at the top of the canyon, trek down, stay the night and walk up again the next day. But having the thoughts of Santa Cruz still in the back of our minds, and the prospect of Mach Picchu coming up we decided on the easier option of an overnight stay in Chivay, without the trekking. The trip all in all was great, but it did have a few little things to detract from it. The scenery was fantastic, we stopped in the pampas which is like the flat land, it was at high altitude and we got to see some wild Vicuñas, which are like llamas only thinner and more agile. Their wool is very expensive over here and much sought after. The actually road heading to the Cruz del Condor was great, it passes through the valley, there is plenty of pre-Inca terracing climbing up the mountains on either side of the valley. Once at the Cruz del Condor to see the condors (along with the other 200 or so maybe more people) you really could see the depth of the Canyon, around 1km from top to bottom, and only very narrow at the bottom it is only 163m off the deepest Canyon in the world, that being Cotahuasi not far from Colca.
Seeing the condors gliding on the thermal winds was the part of the trip we both really found amazing and are glad we got to see. We couldn´t see any and then all of a sudden they appear having just left ledges below, they actually get really close at times and then you can see the sheer size of them. They look very graceful in the air, there were some younger birds without the full colour, but when you saw the male gliding you could see the white and black.
There was bus after bus trawling this road out to the Canyon, women selling their goods at all vantage points. At the end of the first day we went for a dip in the thermal pools which was nice and relaxing (when the local kids weren´t bombing). Chivay was a quiet little town, catered to for the tourists and we found it really overpriced. We actually managed to snap a photo of a local with the hand out for money, after she caught Deb taking a picture of her.
We had dinner at a local Peña, to listen to some traditional music and see some dance. These parts of the tours are the parts you feel you are being conned. The food was very expensive and not nice at all. And you really feel pressured in to giving tips, even though you are told it is all included when you purchased the tour, this was the only part that detracted from the tour. The view of the valley, canyon and the condors really are something special and we are so glad we got to see it.
I tried some Alpaca in Chivay, at a buffet we were taken to. I wouldn´t call it delicious, it tasted like a very average piece of steak, another local dish called ocupa also sounded very nice, but to my surprise it wasn´t that great either.
Back in Arequipa before our night bus to Cuzco, we went up to the Mirador Yuanahuara to get a nice afternoon view of El Misti (and wander around for a toilet for Deb), now on to Cuzco, our experience here in Arequipa has us a little aprehensive, we know Arequipa is popular but I imagine Cuzco is going to be mayhem. It´s all part of the fun I guess. There is a page 2 for more pics

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