Arequipa to Cusco

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Full day in Arequipa, spent some time wandering around the Santa Catalina Convent first. It´s like a small town inside with brightly coloured little cobbled streets, very pretty. Then went for lunch at a rooftop terrace overlooking the Plaza de Armas, which has some fantastic colonial architecture - arches galore! Oh and the obligatory cathedral which has been rebuilt after a couple of earthquakes. (all the places we´ve been so far seem to have this!). Had first taste of coca tea today, supposed to help with altitude sickness. Quite similar to green tea I would say, so of course I loved it! Arequipa is only at 2325m though, so not expecting to feel any symptoms yet...

Monday was an early start, although not as early as originally planned - we were supposed to leave Arequipa at 2 am (!!) to get ot the Colca Canyon by 9am which is supposed to be the best time to see condors. But we had a tip off that the condors are not around at the moment (it´s the breeding season!), so we left at 6am to arrive at the canyon a bit later in the day. On the way out of Arequipa we got good views of El Misti, the volcano which overlooks the city, and then later on climbed up through a pass at 5000m where we could see Mount Mismi, which some claim is the official source of the Amazon (tho it is disputed). Some people starting to feel the effects of the altitude now, not me yet.... fingers crossed it stays that way!

Once we got to the canyon we had more mpressive views, and we did actually see 1 condor although it was pretty far away, so no photo. Ended up in nearby town of Chivay (3600m) for the night, still enough daylight for a trip to the hot springs - very relaxing, perfect after spending a whole day on the truck.

Tuesday was another huge long truck day, 6am start again and lots of nice scenery and interesting views on Peruvian life along the way, just people getting on with their normal life and occasionally stopping to look at this huge yellow truck passing through their little " peublo"! Lots of llamas and alpaca too. Arrived in Cusco (3300m), capital of the Inca Empire, just in time for dinner and drinks at Paddy´s Irish bar - yes there really is one in every city!!

Wednesday was a free day so spent some time wandering around the cobbled streets of Cusco and trying not to spend all my money in the souvenir shops or buy lots of art that I can´t carry! Starting the Inca trail on Friday so also spending some time re-packing as we are only allowed 5kg for the trail which will be carried by porters.

Will be back after the trail!

BTW still not really feeling the altitude - but hope I´m not speaking too soon as they say it can still strike at any time. Drinking lots of water, which is supposed to help! Well ok maybe the odd glass of wine too :-)

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Photos

Hotel in Arequipa
Even the hotel was colonial style! Very nice :-)