Colca Canyon to Arequipa

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Buonasera to all,

Its a warm balmy evening in Arequipa, and am sitting outside at 8pm writing this blog.
Another interesting 2 days spent in one of the remoter areas of the planet......I set off from Arequipa at 7am yesterday morning and with various stops it took us 5 hours to reach the canyon. We went past the highest point so far for me at 4850mts......you really do feel it. I arrived in Chivay which was just a small border outpost and none too exciting. Fortunately I stayed in the village of Coporaque which was much nicer and had a very pleasant hotel but not much else. I tuned down the offer of a hike into the hills and a visit to the hot springs.....there are volcanos all around us....and instead had a late afternoon nap before going out to make some more images.

Very nice buffet dinner with barbecue alpaca on the menu.....very tasty....then off to bed early as we were setting off at 5.30am!!!!!
After a quick breakfast we were off and another three hours to get right into the canyon proper. Many isolated and poor villages just existing on subsistence agriculture.....by the way no tarmac roads at all.....dust dust and more dust!!!!!( there is a dust mark on the images which I will remove eventually in photoshop....apologies )
Eventually got to the Condor viewpoint and was rewarded with some impressive flying....this is even more impressive than the Grand Canyon.....and its the deeest in the world.
Getting back to the car park almost killed me......the altitude and inhaling heavily i caught a dust storm...the particles lodged in my throat, I couldnt stop coughing for about an hour!!!!!!

Finaly made it back to Arequipa at 4.30pm...had a shower and went out. Found this fabulous cafe in the Plaza D'Armas where I had an excellen black beer and took the images you can see.

Another tough day in the morning...7am start with a bus from Arequipa to Tacna .....a collectivo taxi from Tacna to Arica in Chile.....a flight from Arica to Iquique Chile ......then hire a car and off into the desert!!!!!!!
If it all works out it will be a miracle!!!
Enjoy the images,
ciao

Mario

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Photos

Altiplano
national symbol of Peru

schoolkids
their teacher made them practice their english with me and in return I got the photo

Coporaque
Not a lot happening

Kids Game
Dust everywhere including in my camera!!!