Canyon Hopping

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Arrived in Arequipa Friday morning, so tired so found a hostal and went to bed. Taxi driver said that my spanish is good, lies! But can now sort of have a conversation with someone. Well mainly them having a conversation with me but whatever.

Got some food later on and some beers from the shop, met 4 guys from czech rep. So had a few beers and a bit of rum. The owner joined in the fun, he´s about 50 and was hammered!

Was quite interesting talking to him about Peru etc. Went to a few bars, well the owner kept taking us into different bars and then deciding they were no good so ended up coming back after a few drinks and a quick tour of the centre!

Went on a brief taxi tour of the city, was interesting and went to a big tower for amazing views of the city and then tried the local dish at a very swanky traditional Areqipan restaurant. Pepper stuffed with spicy beef, very hot but very tasty! More sleep followed.

Another day spent lazing, went to a museum which houses Juanita "the ice princess" discovered in a tomb on top of a mountain 6000+ metres in 1995. She was an inca sacrifice, and was frozen so you can see her skin etc, very interesting. Also loads of ceremonial artifacts as well.


Another day of rest and went to visit a huge monastery, literally a little town within a town. Pretty much just rested and booked a tour to the canon de colca.


Left the hostal at 8am and got a bus for 4 hours to Colca canyon and then began the 4hr .. 1100 metre descent down into the canyon. After crossing the river walked along to a lodge in the dusk/dark, with no lights, on a path 1/2 metre wide, with a 300 metre drop on one side!


Scary but made it to the lodge for a well deserved beer, most expensive so far but they have to make a special trip out of the canyon to get it!! Poor donkeys!


Second day walked through some local villages and went to the oasis in the bottom of the canyon and had a lovely swim in a swimmimng pool fed by some local springs, (wasn´t too warm though).


Then began the mammoth task of climbing back out of the Canyon, only 1100 metres back up! Zig-zagged up the mountain, so hot and you need to drink every few minutes as its soooo dry. And also was leaking quite badly so trying to replace lost liquid. Made it out with the help of a local, see pic! and stayed in a lovely hostal.


Next day up at 7am for condor spotting. Had seen a couple on the first day but so far away couldn´t really appreciate there size. The first few looked quite small, but the last one was so huge. Look at home in the ridiculous landscape. Think if you saw one at home you´d probably run away!

Back to Arequipa and then got a bus overnight to Cuzco. Going to do a Macchu Picchu Salkantay trek on Monday, so the next bunch of pictures should be worth a look, and cuzco is lovely!

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Photos

Valley before Arequipa
Lush green valley in the middle of desert

El Misti
View over Arequipa with the volcano ´El Misti´in the background

Inca Cola
Classic drink of Peru, just had to put this photo up at some point. Very old style bottle, after lots of recyling.

Plaza de Armas Arequipa
Huge catherdral taking up one whole side of the Plaza

Deepest canyon in the world
Can´t really fit the whole thing in, but a view down the valley!

Llama / Alpaca
Had to put a photo up sometime in Peru!

Tom and Tom on top of the world
On the way back out of the canyon!

Waterfall
Water pouring out the side of the mountain, causing an oasis below!

Me and Jesse
On the way back out the canyon, taking a well deserved rest!

Portable shop
Just before the top this lady saved us all, with water and banana´s, just so dry and so hot!

Condor spotting
The rest of the group eyes peeled.

Comments

[Andrew Bettle]

Hello......
Hey dude.....looks like you are having a wicked time out there. I'm quite jealous!! Take care mate. Pags