Blogs from Colca Canyon, Arequipa, Peru, South America - page 16

We had a 3:30am pick up for our tour of the Colca Canyon. Our trip was to be three days and two nights and there was some serious trekking to be done (by our standards anyway). The tour cost $55 which is cheap when you consider it’s three days travel, two nights accommodation and breakfast, lunch and dinners. Also you get a cool experience thrown in where you do something adventurous and different. Our bus arrived on time and we were briefed as to what would be happening. We were then told to sleep for a few hours before we would arrive at Cruz del Condor. We arrived there at 9:30am and got off the bus. There were many other tourists there but they all head back to Arequipa after seeing the condors. We were told ... read more

Colca Canyon We booked this tour through the tour desk at Inca Roots (Colonial tours, $23 US pp). Pick-up was half an hour early so we missed our breakfast. Two Swiss, two Serbs, four Peruvians and us two Kiwis. One of the Peruvians was an off duty tour guide taking his two younger sisters (11 and 13) and an old school friend for the trip. We sat next to the two boys so got a lot of extra info as the trip proceeded. we could not recommend this tour Company more highly. The guide had an excellent understanding of all facets of the trip and his English was superb. The first day alone seemed well worth the cost, traversing areas of Vicunas, Alpacas and Llamas along with some high altitude lakes with aquatic waterfowl. Much of ... read more

Hey Guys, Well another bus ride another town. We have headed inland to Arequipa in the Peruvian Andes Mountains and have arrived just in time for Semana Santa (Easter). As far as holidays in South America go this one is right up there with Christmas and Carnival. It is pretty cool to watch the festivities happening around us. Our main purpose of this leg was to hike the Colca Canyon which is twice as deep as the Grand Canyon. We were contemplating hiking this by ourselves since we had read that the trails were well marked and accommodations were easy to get in the villages inside the Canyon. Since it was Easter and we were having issues with catching buses for the next day (there are approx. 9 million extra people traveling) we opted to go ... read more

It all started early one Sunday morning as we shivered on the street outside our hostel at around 4.30am. As taxi after taxi honked, waved, and shouted all sorts of unrepeatable things at us we began to wonder why we were up so early. Then a lone pedestrian shuffled his way towards us, hair hanging over his eyes, looking shiftily down at his feet and then from door to door as he walked. ¨What are your names?¨he demanded, "Are you New Zealand?". Well not quite, but that is how began our adventure in the Colca Canyon with Marcos, the sleazy, greasy tour guide. Several hours later we were winding our way over the high plateau, families of vicuñas feeding in the early dawn as snow capped mountains peeked out of the clouds above us. As we ... read more

hey all...just a quick update...still in arequipa but leaving tomorrow to cusco at the base of manchu pichu so should be fun...phones not working so wont be getting texts until I sort that out...Just did a tour of the colca canyon for two days... met up with a couple of swiss guys who are cycling from Lima to Patagonia at the bottom of the continent... lunatics...The canyon was amazing and got to see some condors... wing span 3 metres... there supposed to be cool or something... stayed in this litte village and had a traditional dinner where for some reason I was dragged out to dance with the locals... mortification guaranteed but good fun never the less... Was coming back in from a smoke and got trapped again...double mortification... oh well...! Also found the Irish Irish ... read more