Blogs from Colca Canyon, Arequipa, Peru, South America - page 30

We were in Arequipa three days, with a two day tour of the Colca Canyon somewhere in the middle, for a total of five days in the very south of Peru. The Colca had some amazing vistas of terraced hillsides from pre-Inca times, though the tour reminded me too much of the good ol' Holland America cattle drives. Rob was overcoming his sore throat and made the trek, while Maz stayed behind in Arequipa with a troublesome burst ear drum. The canyon was definitely the most beautiful place we've seen yet in Peru. All the Colca villages' names have second meanings. We stayed in Chivay, which means 'Place where people like to make love.' There were other, more erotic names that we'll withhold for the time being. We also got to dip in a hot springs ... read more

So we headed off from Oruro on what was to be abit of a mission. A 6am bus was to take us from Oruro, to Arica in Chile, which was to take around 9 hours or so. From there, we then decided to catch a taxi from Arica across the border to Tacna, Peru, making our stay in Chile a grand 5 hours or so, where we were to stay the night. From there, the next morning, we were going to catch another bus (5 hours or so) to Arequipa, Peru, where we could possibly relax for 24 hours or so. And it all pretty much worked out. The road from Oruro to Arica was sketchy in parts, as it wound down through the mountains to the sea. We saw one truck that had just flipped, ... read more

Good day! Thanks for all the messages from back home! This blog is by the tall skinny white guy, who still hasn´t managed to get much colour after almost a month of travelling (my mother should be proud) In this episode we explore deep canyons, go high altitude hiking, try new foods and make new friends. ***Something we forgot***...with all of the Galapagos excitement, we forgot to tell you about our unique snorkelling experience. While in deeper water looking for hammerhead sharks (unfortunately didn´t spot any), I felt a weird tingling on my mouth and over my arms and legs....after checking with the guide that nothing truly exotic was sharing the same waters with us, I kept on swimming. A few minutes later, my mask was fogging up, so I flooded it with water to clear ... read more

The Colca Canyons are the home of the largest population of Condor birds - 25 couples in total. They live and bread in this area. When in season, the condor will fly the hundred of kilometres to the ocean to feed on sea lion placenta, other times, it will feed on local dead meet, or kill small prey to collect in a few days. The great condor is part of the vulture family, and is the heaviest of all birds, up to 14 kilograms. The Royal Albatross is the largest of flying birds.... read more

From Nazca we took a night bus (a hellacious seven hours) to Arequipa…despite paying the big bucks for a ‘nice bus’, we were all the way in the back, next to the bathroom on one of the many winding roads here in Peru. We arrived to Arequipa at 7:00am and went straight to a hostel and I fell asleep for a good 2 hours. So far, in the past four days, we clocked in 34 hours of bus time. After a nice nap, we headed out to check out the town but before we did that, the guy working at the hostel gave us a map and put a big ‘x’ through half of it indicating where not to go. Arequipa is one of the larger cities in Peru, with over a million people. There is ... read more