Arequipa & The Colca Canyon

---

We rocked into Arequipa at about midnight woke up the hostel staff and slumped into bed exhausted. We awoke the next morning with a beautiful day ahead of us and a new city to explore. We came to the garden of the hostel for breakfast and were greeted with the city´s two formidable guardians. The peaks of El Misti and Pichu Pichu rose up in our view, with their snow caps to remind us that we definitely were still in the Andes.

We had little expectations of Arequipa, our visit was solely based upon trekking the Colca canyon. We headed into the urban fold of Peru´s second largest city with an open mind and a fresh palate. We ventured towards the Plaza de Armas and felt as though we´d stepped into the plaza of a fancy European city. We discovered that Arequipa was an important port for the Spanish in their occupation of the Inca´s. Their presence is obvious in the architecture we observed in the plaza and surrounding streets. Arequipa is also known as the white city due to the light coloured volcanic rock called Sillar. The effect is dazzling, we were won over instantly and proceeded to have coffee in one of the balconies over looking the plaza. Very European. We spent the rest of the day strolling through the cobbled streets, enjoying the cites and taking in the majesty of the city´s many cathedrals.

Our second day was spent blog writing, as you all know we fell miles behind and needed to catch up quickly. Thankfully Peru has much better computers then Bolivia. We resolved to reward ourselves that evening with a special dinner overlooking the Plaza de Armas. Nicole ordered a Peruvian specialty called Cauche de Queso. It was potatoes encased in cheese and smothered in a tomato sauce. Delicious, it is now Coleys favourite meal for Peru. I had the Guinea Pig. It was quite good too, fatty but tasty. Of course we both had a Pisco sour, our first of Peru. We had heard that Pisco sour is much better in Peru then in Chile. Our verdict; They both knock your socks off.

We quickly got back to the hostel and put our bags in storage. Nicole said a tearful goodbye to Lucho the cross eyed siamese cat. Tomorrow we are up at 2:30am to be picked up and to go trekking to the Colca Canyon.

Picked up at 3am, we were both tired, cold, and a slight bit irritable. It was a long 4 hours to the village of Chivay, the entry point to the Colca Canyon, and the minibus we were in was definitely not built for the height of westerners. Not much sleep was had. We had a solid breakfast in Chivay and headed out another hour to Cruz del Condor to see the largest birds in the world.

The Condors were magnificent, so massive. Got some really good shots. The alpha male did a big fly by right where we were standing, amazing! Even when the condors were not around the scenery was incredible. I took lots of photo´s, however without a wide angle lens it´s impossible to do the landscape justice. It was all encompassing. Little did i know that this was just a taste of what was to come. After an hour we had to pack up and head to Cabanaconde for lunch, a small tour of the town and to start our decent into the 3191m deep Colca Canyon.

Half hour in and Nicole turns to me and says ¨This was a really dumb idea¨ That of course was just before we came over the rise and saw the amazing view. Check out the photo´s, it was real hard to keep your eyes on the path when presented with constant breathtaking beauty and vastness. We had to walk along the escarpment for about 45 minutes in before we started our steep decent. During this time we came across a tree that resembled a fig tree. Our guide Jessica noticed our curiosity and told us that the tree was an Andean banana or a Pechan in the local dialect. Jessica picked some fruit, which looked like a small bitter melon, and the group all had a taste. It was a bit sickly sweet to me but Coley liked it. In total it took us 3.5 hours to get to the bottom, on the way down we saw some champion donkeys climbing the rocky path to the top with upwards of 20 kilo's on their back. We had to take our hat off to them, it was a big climb, we were exhausted going down let alone climbing up with a massive load.

By the time we reached the bottom our legs felt like jelly and our knees were buckling with every step. At this point Coley re-iterated: ¨Who´s stupid idea was this anyway¨ It was the end of the day, we were exhausted and the guide then tells us we have another half hour to our accommodations, most of it is uphill. Turns out it was my favourite part of the journey. We found ourselves strolling through a semi tropical forest with avocado trees, figs, stone fruit and mango trees. Turns out that due to warm air currents that flow along the canyon floor, a micro climate is created. It was a bit of a shock to walk down an arid Andean canyon and to end up in a lush glade.

We stayed in cute little cabanas with no power and million dollar views. We had an awesome dinner and a couple of beers. We were all in bed before 9. It was a big day and no one seemed to be in the mood for a big night. Unconsciousness felt very good.

The next morning we had to be up at 7 for breakfast. The entire group were limping from their cabanas with our calves offering the most pain. We had a power breakfast of pancakes with banana and dolce de leche (caramel). Our second day was much easier and involved a 3 hour horizontal walk across the canyon. We walked for half an hour before our first stop. Everywhere in the canyon we have seen the cactus called prickly pear (The same cactus is a pest in parts of Australia). We also noticed that all the cacti in the canyon had a white fungus or disease. At our first stop Jessica told us how the locals eat the fruit and sell it at the market; she also picked some of the white fungus off and rubbed it between her fingers. We learnt that it was cochineal, a blood red dye that they use for all their material and that what we thought was fungus was the cochineal insect. We also got to taste a new fruit called pacay. It was delicious, not much flesh but tasty and looked like a banana made out of cotton.

Onward to the next village, we hiked into a beautiful ravine and across another Indiana Jones bridge. At this point we had to walk up a steep trail to get to the village at the top of the ravine. This would be our first test for the mountain we had to climb on the last day. By the time we made it to the top half the group vowed to hire a donkey for the last climb. We were knackered after only half an hour of climbing.

At the top was a cool little village with more million dollar views, we stopped for another rest and met our host for the next half hour Mauricio. We got the opportunity to taste more of the canyons fruits.
Lucuma: looks like a soggy avocado with a powdery looking orange flesh and the taste of raisins.
Tumbo: looks like an oblong passion fruit with similar flesh and an oddly delicious taste.
Tuna: is a prickly pear

Our host also told us of a local remedy for a bad cough or chest congestion. He then pulled out a bottle of clear liquid with a dead snake sitting at the bottom. The liquid was pure alcohol of some kind, we were all offered a shot of the snake alcohol. Coley refused to partake; I of course took it in one big gulp. The stuff was strong, couldn´t taste the dead snake but definitely felt the burn.
We proceeded down to the oasis which lives up to its name. The place had about 13 pools all running from a mountain spring, palm trees, tropical plants, fruit trees, robot bumblebees (our name for the massive black bumblebees here) and thousands of dragonflies flitting through the air. We had more cauche de queso for lunch and had the afternoon off to swim in the pool, sunbake and read books. Hard life this. After another awesome dinner we had a bonfire and fun games before an early night. Tomorrow we have to get all the way back up again and we start at 5 in the morning.

At 5 we were up and rearing to go, we joined our group and started the climb. The incentive was that breakfast was at the top and we would all be very hungry by the time we got there. A few of the girls opted to rent a mule that would take them to the top for 50 Soles (20 dollars). Coley and I wanted to walk up so that we could achieve a sense of accomplishment when we reached the top. The climb was grueling, at altitude even a set of stairs can be a challenge and we were to attempt a 1200m climb. It was hard work but rewarding to see the sun come up and bring the canyon to life. Coley did really well, our guide caught up to us and informed us that we were not far from the top and that we had a big breakfast of eggs on toast to look forward too. At this point Coley´s incentive popped like a balloon (due to her intense dislike of eggs), I had to promise to buy her fruit and yogurt for breakfast to get her the rest of the way. As for me, i got to have 2 helpings of eggs for breakfast so I was stoked. The last half hour was the hardest due to higher altitude and the sun now fully overhead. We reached the top in 2 and a half hours, I felt totally exhilarated at what we accomplished that i was on a high for the rest of the day. After we inhaled our breakfast we thanked our cook, we were then told by 2 Peruvian girls we were hiking with that we were such friendly people that we should have been born Peruvian. For the rest of the trip we had new Peruvian names. Aaron & Nicole are now Jaciñto & Florinda.

On the way home we stopped off at the thermal baths for our aching muscles, then lunch, then a 3 hour ride back to Arequipa with the best 80´s mix busting over the stereo. It was probably the funniest part of the whole trek. Nine of us in the back of a minivan busting out to Belinda Carlisle, New Kids on the Block, Milli Vanilli, Culture Club, Cyndi Lauper, Roxette, Bryan Adams and Madonna. Sydney crew would have been very proud. Coley is now set on getting an 80´s mix. A quick stop to see some llama´s and alpaca´s that wouldn´t stay still for a photo and we were back in town. A bus that night to Cusco and we are heading to the city of the Incas.

---

Photos

Basilica Cathedral
the riot police are happy to turn up to any occasion

Pisco Sours are sour!
took us a whole sit down meal to get through one each

Comments

[daniela]

hola!!
Jacinto y Florinda!! i am so happy to see your photos!! i believe you really made a wonderfull trip! i also had a really good time whit you both! was a trip whit a lot things to do and to see.. very good thing and i thankyou both because you are in my memory forever like two amazing people!!! for that i rename you!! jajajaa right now i studing for my test tomorow... so whish me luck!! I hope you continue enjoing your adventure in MI LINDO PERÚ!!! chau =)

[jessica]

holaaaaaaaaaa
hello my name is JESSICA it is my picture i work in AREQUIPA PERU - COLCA CANYON IF YOU WANT TO VISIT PERU .. I WEIT FOR YOU ......E-MAIL [e-mail] good lucky