Blogs from Chivay, Arequipa, Peru, South America - page 3

Mon excursion au Canon del Colca a commencé à 8h30. Nous nous sommes premièrement arrêté à un café/magasin où j'ai pris un thé de feuilles de coca pour aider à combattre l'altitude. Nous nous sommes arrêté à quelques endroits avant d'arriver à Chivay, un village au milieu de montagnes. Nous avons mangé dans un restaurant buffet de nourriture typique du Pérou. Deux américains et moi avons trouvé que le restaurant était très cher alors nous avons décidé d'aller à un autre restaurant pour le souper. Après le dîner nous sommes allés à des bains thermaux qui avaient des températures oscillant entre 36 et 39 dégrées. Nous sommes finalement revenus à la chambre d'hôtel super froide et située juste à côté d'une discothèque. Nous avons assisté à un spectacle/souper en soirée où nous avons pu voir des ... read more

Oh hey! so right now i´m in Chivay. but more on that later. i spent the last week in my homestay in Arequipa. it´s the second biggest city in Peru and it´s pretty cool. sunday i got to my homestay and chilled with my family and Yuri. Monday i woke up and went to spanish school. i was in a class in the morning with maya and yuri and we did bookwork and stuff. that was for 4 hours. at the end, melena (the woman in charge of the school and homestays) decided that yuri was beginner, i was intermediate, and maya was expert at spanish. then we told her that yuri was only in morning classes for that day, so now maya and i are in the same class. it´s great because i´m good a ... read more

Blogger Bec This morning we drove from Arequipa to the amazing Colca Canyon - a beautiful drive spoiled a little by our REAL dose of altitude sickness. About 15 minutes into our 6 hour journey, we stopped at a shop to buy some coca leaves - a natural remedy to alievate the symptoms of altitude sickness. They taste horrible (like a wheatgrass shot only stronger and without the OJ chaser!) and you have to bundle them up with a piece of soft ash in order to digest the juices properly. The leaves kickstart your saliva glands, making your mouth water. They also make your gums, tongue and cheeks numb which didn´t sit well with me - I felt like I couldn´t breathe! Still, I dutifully chewed away as the thought of getting really sick petrified ... read more

First leg of the journey was from Cusco to Arequipa...a long journey of approximately 9 hours on a bus, since I had never travelled on a long haul bus, I thought I would splash out and take a sleeper bus 'Cruz del Sur' not bad, it was cheap and comfortable. The bus left Cuzco at 8.30pm and would approximately arrive at 6am the next morning. I slept pretty well and upon awakening found myself in Arequipa. Freezing cold I waited for my driver to pick me up which unfortunately he didnt..luckily at Arequipa bus station there is an extreamly helpful lady who works behind the Tourist information desk and she was a life saver, happened to know the guy who was supposed to pick me up and called him..within minutes a driver was there to pick ... read more

This morning we got to Arequipa. We decided to go visit the museum where they keep the remains of an Inca child that was sacrificed to the volcanoes, and then head to Chivay, which is a small village that is closer to the Canyon del Colca. Arequipa is a really nice city, with lots of colonial buildings, and it kind of reminds me of Cuenca. The museum was quite interesting, and the mummy (it was mummifies because of being frozen in the ice, and it's still kept in a transparent refrigerator) is really impressive. In the afternoon we got to Chivay, where we found a cheap hostel. Tomorrow morning we're going to Cruz del Condor, where we will hopefully see some (you guessed it) condors, and then we'll head back to Arequipa, and take the night ... read more