The Colca Canyon

Saturday, June 11, 2011
Arequipa, Peru
Our overnight luxury Cruz del Sur coach (complete with reclining seats) got into Arequipa on Wednesday morning and we took a minibus from the bus station to our hotel, La Casa de Mi Abuela, a huge complex of a hotel, with scenic gardens, pool, outside seating and eating areas. I'd slept pretty well considering it was a coach, and even mamanged to survive the showing of one of the Toy Story films on the TV screens in the morning and the stale cheese roll and piece of cake for breakfast.

Arequipa is Peru's second biggest city with a population of ~800,000 at an altitude of 2,380m. It stands at the base of El Misti volcano and is surrounded by other volcanoes - it has been affected by volcanic eruptions and earthquakes nearly every century since the Spanish arrived in 1540. It has fine Spanish buildings, many old and interesting churches, gourmet restaurants and a "busy" nightlife. It is built of white volcanic material and is therefore known as the "White City". The historic centre is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

We had a free day for the rest of the day so after an orientation walk of the city, a few of us had lunch at a rooftop restaurant (good views of the main Plaza and surrounding volcanoes), then I went on a tour of the Cathedral (good views from the roof).

One of the highlights in Arequipa as recommended by (Tour Leader) Mike and as I had read in various places was the Santa Catalina Monastery; in fact, one article stated it was one of the best things to see in South America. The Monastery is a miniature walled colonial town in the middle of Arequipa where over 450 nuns and their maid servants lived in complete seclusion. It was forced to open to the public in 1970. A small population of 24 nuns still live there today. However, I wasn't so sure I really wanted to spend my afternoon visiting a convent, however much it had been recommended, but decided to try it and form my opinion. It was a pricey S/35 (~US$13) for entry, and I splashed out for a guide too at S/20. The complex comprised a maze of cobbled streets, fruit-trees in courtyards, buttressed houses painted in whites, browns, blues and reds, flower-decked cloisters, working kitchens, and empty former living quarters. I thought the place was okay, but nothing more than that.

Mike recommended a restaurant for the group dinner whose speciality was the Peruvian delicacy, cuy (guinea pig). However, I wanted the full cuy experience and after finding out from the waiter that the grilled cuy didn't come with the head, teeth and front legs intact, I decided to hold off till later in the tour. A few drinks after the meal turned into a very late night for me and Mike and apparently, we got in at 4am, although I couldn't remember.

We were supposed to be leaving at 8.30am on Thursday morning for a 2 day Colca Canyon tour but despite (apparently) being woken up twice by my roomie (supposedly, I even got out of bed on one of those occasions), I was still fast asleep when Mike put his head round the door shortly after 8.30am and said I only had a few minutes to get myself ready. It was a case of stuffing half my stuff into an overnight bag and the rest into my big backpack that would be left behind and hoping I had packed the right stuff when I opened the bag at next night's hotel. I also had an arse-ache so must have fallen over at some point in the night, either that or the alternative was too disturbing to contemplate. Oh, and I lost my coat and hat somewhere during the night. Another country ticked off on my World Drinking Tour.

Thursday was very hazy for me, and I only spent a few hours awake during the whole day, most of which was taken up by the drive to our hotel (La Casa De Mama Yacchi) just outside the town of Chivay with a few stops along the way for photos and food. The trip meant us passing our highest altitude of the trip so far, ~4,900m (nearly 15,000 ft). I was coping fine with the altitude but others were suffering with symptoms such as headaches, dizziness and sickness. To alleviate the problems of altitude sickness, the locals use "Mate de Coca" (coca herbal tea) and chew coca leaves. These are the same leaves used as the raw ingredient of cocaine. Although occasional unrefined use doesn't cause you to get high (the amount of cocaine alkaloid in the leaves is minimal), you have to leave at least 72 hours before taking any drug test as it will show up positive! Extended use needs an even longer period of time before taking a drug test!

On Friday, we left early for our trip to the Colca Canyon. The Andes scenery was stunning, particularly with the early morning fog - mountains, terracing, rivers and streams cutting through valleys, all sorts of cacti, local women in traditional Andean dress with roadside stalls selling warm clothing and usual tourist stuff. Colca Canyon is famous for the giant Andean Condors that soar around in the mornings on the thermal currents rising from the Canyon floor - they have the largest wingspan of any bird in the world at ~3m. We stopped at a walking trail which led to the official condor lookout point, the latter is usually full of people and a scrum-fest but the walking trail was pretty empty. As soon as we started walking, we were really lucky and were treated to a spectacular show as a couple of Andean Condors swooped over us and hovered on the thermals. Eventually, there were I think 8 or so Condors flying in the air! Mike and the Local Guide both said that we were really lucky and this was the best show of Condors that they had ever seen. After an hour or so walk, we had a buffet lunch and a bit of time in Chivay before driving back to Arequipa, arriving late afternoon. Some of us went into town for a pizza and a few beers, but the pizza seemed to pass straight through a few of us and added to the early start the next morning, we all (except Mike) headed back to the hotel about 9pm.

On Saturday, we had a very early morning flight to Cusco. This meant getting up at 4am to leave the hotel at 4.45am. After putting our bags into the coach boot, we couldn't actually get onto the coach as the coach driver had locked his keys in. Fortunately, one of the windows was slightly ajar, so we cracked it open a bit more and someone clambered in to retrieve said keys. Then it was off to the airport for our 6.30am flight to Cusco, which with a stopover along the way, reached Cusco 2 hours later. After checking into our hotel, Cusco Plaza 1, we went for breakfast at McCoy's (full English for me), had an orientation walk of the city, back to McCoy's for dinner (roast chicken), then bag packing and an early night as most of us would be off on the 4 day Inca Trail the next day. More about Cusco later as we'd be back here in about a week after the Inca Trail and another trip to the Amazon rainforest.
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