Blogs from Colca Canyon, Arequipa, Peru, South America - page 18

Arequipa Our next stop after Cusco is the second largest city in Peru Arequipa. Here lies the deepest canyon in the world Colca Canyon (3,350m deep, twice as deep as Grand Canyon)! We arrived at 6am nice and fresh of the 12hour night bus and booked ourselves on a 3day trek of the canyon for the next day! Colca Canyon Up at 4 o clock to catch the bus to the little town Cabaconde which perches on the edge of the canyon. On the way we stopped off at at a view point called Cruz del Condor! Which depending on the season you can often see condors gliding majesticly up and down the walls of the canyon! As it was off season we were very lucky to see one Condor soar past albeit too quick to ... read more

I arrived in the southern Peruvian city of 1 million called Arequipa on Thursday morning. Rewind 2 days to when my travels began. Monday night I moved out of my ¨home away from home¨Macondo Hostel in San Gil, Colombia. Tuesday morning I jumped on the first bus to Bogota...was only supposed to be 6-7 hours, but of course turned into an 8 hour trip. Got to the airport in Bogota and on my plane at pm...landed in Lima, Peru 3 hours later at 1am. Slept in the waiting area in the arrival wing of the Lima airport for a few hours...me and about 40 other people all waiting out the night in the airport. It could have been worse...the seats had no armrests so you could actually lay down and the bathrooms were fancy...had toilet paper, ... read more

so where did i leave off? thursday. thursday we had spanish in the morning and in the afternoon maya and i went back to the church. we chilled at the church for about 40 minutes until father alex got there. once he got there he took us on a tour of Arequipa. first we went to the poor part of the city. it was incredible. the houses were made out of stone and clay and were smaller than a classroom. the roofs were sheets of metal held down by large rocks. whole families of 5 live in these houses. they were all next to each other and the streets were dirt and there was one thing of running water for about 50 families. this expanded to the very outskirts of Arequipa and into the hills. they ... read more

So after the dreaded flying fiasco, I decided for this ten hour overnight bus it would be brilliant to take a gravol. I was not disappointed. Slept really well in my louging chair, going way back, and having no one in front of me so i could put my feet up. Got cozy in my sleeping liner and went to sleep. James wasn´t quite as lucky but he did get some shut eye. Arequipa is beautiful, and after arriving we checked into the hotel and then headed out around the city. Went to the main square, and into Catalina convent. later went for dinner, and got a good sleep cuz the next morning we caught a bus to the colca canyon. From arequipa at 2400m you climb to the highest point at 4900m. Altitude sickess is ... read more

Midday at the Oasis No one ever wakes you from a light sleep. They always pull you out of either the deepest of dark comas or - perhaps worse - the best of dreams. I am happily oblivious to time in the coma version of deep sleep when Ross's voice interrupts it. "I did it guys!" Before the darkness is replaced by a murky, yellow glow cast through my eyelids and onto my retinas by the bare light bulb fixed in the center of the ceiling, its sound is replaced. The sound of darkness is that of the low, thudding hum of REM sleep - the sound of the ancient, diesel-fueled machinery just below the fabric of reality that keeps everything running. The sound that replaces it is just as faint, but linear and much more ... read more