Arequipa

Well, this was the second time we had arrived by bus into Arequipa, thanks to the road strike, but this time we were going to stop for a few days.

We arrived early in the morning so we had the whole of our first day to explore the city at our leisure. Arequipa is known as the White City, due to a lot of it iconic buildings being made from a white volcanic rock. With the blazing sunshine that the city gets pretty much all year round, this makes for quite a bright place. The central plaza is very pretty with a huge fountain in the middle surrounded by landscaped gardens. The cathedral, which sits in the main plaza, is quite spectacular and locals are always lining the steps that lead up to it whilst they eat and drink. The rest of the plaza is surrounded by cafes, restaurants and shops. It's relaxing and it a nice place to hang out for an hour or two. There are three huge volcanoes that sit just behind the city and can be seen in the background behind the cathedral, their snow-capped peaks in the background really make for a dramatic view.

Around the rest of the town are lots of lovely smaller squares, all of which have their own ornate churches. The city also has a fabulous selection of restaurants, so after a hard days walking around town went for a meal at a Moroccan place. We ate early as we had to hit the sack early; we were being picked up at 3am for our 2 day trek to Colca Canyon.

We awoke on time, thanks to Mel, and quickly threw on some clothes. The bus was on time and we scrabbled on. Much to our surprise two English lads, Harry and Andrew, who we had met 3 weeks previously in Potosí, Bolivia, were also on the trip. We were also joined by another couple from our hostel. Due to the early hour we didn't speak to them for long as we were all in need of sleep, the bumpy drive to the start of the canyon was four hours, so we all got our heads down.

The first stop at the canyon was the look out point for the largest birds in the world, the Andean Condor. The birds have a wing span of 3-3.2m and they get somewhat close to the look out point so we all waited in anticipation. While we waited we got to take in the stunning views from the look out, from which you could see 1200m down to the bottom of the canyon. This however was the most shallow part of the canyon, the deepest part is another 8 hours drive away and in over 3500m deep, making it the second deepest canyon in the world.

We for an hour and were about to leave when the birds finally decided to come out to stretch their wings. Four in total flew by and it was amazing watching them glide passed effortlessly riding on the heat thermals to increase their altitude as and when they needed to.

After spending 20 minutes watching the condors we jumped back in the minibus and made our way to the trail head. The first 3 hours of our trek would see us descend 1200m to the bottom of the canyon. It was all down hill so we figured it would be pretty easy....how wrong we were. The track from top to bottom was steep and the surface was made up of loose small stones, so keeping your balance was challenging. We all fell over a couple of times, but it made the trek all the more interesting.

It also turned out that our guide was somewhat of an expert with herbal medicines, so every five minutes he would stop us and tell us what he illness he could cure using a particular type of plant. At one point Mel had a bit of a headache, so he ran off to find this plant he could use to cure her! It was all very amusing. The scenery on the way down the canyon was spectacular and after 3 hours we reached the bottom. We took a 5 minute break and then started our acent back up the other side. We only had about 200m to climb and then it was onto a flat path that would take ua to a little village called San Juan, where we would stop for lunch.

We stopped at a little resturant that served up some fab soup as a starter, followed by chicken, rice and vegetables....for a change! The resturant owners had an abundance of pets including two dogs, three cats and 3 of the biggest chickens we have ever seen, these things were huge! The cats and dogs obviously pestered us the entire time we were eating, but we didn't mind as they were all pretty cute.

After an hour and a half stop for lunch we continued on our way to our final destination, The Oasis. The Oasis was exactly that, an oasis of lush greenery at the bottom of the dry arid canyon, on which they had built some extremely basic cabins. It took us about 3 hours to reach the oasis, passing through some beautiful mountain villages and walking down through the bottom of the canyon again. Upon reaching the oasis we were shown to our cabins, which was just a mud hut with a straw roof and a mud floor, basic but very cosy. We got changed into our swims and went for a dip in the pool and had a bottle of beer. The evening was really relaxing, we sat around drinking and chatting with our new friends and at around 8pm dinner was served. After dinner we managed to stay up till about 10pm, but the early morning and the moderately hard day's trekking had taken it's toll. We also had to be up at 5am the following morning for the toughest part of the climb, the 1200m ascent back to the top of the canyon. Much to our surprise when we climbed into bed it was extremely comfortable, so our heads hit the pillow and we were asleep.

The following morning we were woken by our guide knocking on the door of our hut, bugger, we had overslept. We quickly jumped up, got our clothes on, ate some chocolate and bananas and we were off. We knew the climb was going to be tough, it was steep, uphill all the way and would take between 3 to 3.5 hours. We set of at a pace that Mel was comfortable with, not too fast but not that slow that we would be there all day. The other couple who were trekking with us opted for the easy option - they hired a couple of ponies to carry then up!

We started well and were slowly making our way to the top, the guide recommended that we break every 30 minutes, which we did after the first 30, but from then on we took a break as and when we needed one. The guide was impressed with the pace we were going as we were speeding up all the time and we eventually reached the top after just 2 hours and 15 minutes. We took a 5 minute break, took some pictures and then headed into town, as our stomachs were rumbling and breakfast was much needed.

We had breakfast in a little town called Cobanaconde in a little cafe right on the main square, which was lovely. Afterwards we just soaked up the sun in the local square for half an hour and waited for our bus which would take us to the local hot springs.

We couldn't wait to get into the hotsprings after our strenuous climb that morning so as soon as we got there we were changed and into the pool, which was soooo hot, perfect for the aching joints and muscles. The springs also had a waiter service for drinks so Mel and I, despite it only being 10.30am, indulged in a Colca Sour, a local drink made with the Peruvian spirit Pisco, egg white, sugar and the fruit of the San Pedro Cactus. It went down very well while we sat in the warm waters of the springs.
After the springs we had a 4 hour drive back to Arequipa, during which we took in a couple of view points, the most spectacular being at an elevation of just over 5000m, from which you could see five different volcanoes from. It started to snow after being there after 5 minutes, so we all quickly jumped back in to minibus. The last viewpoint was a stunning one over a beautiful part of the Canyon. After stopping here we made our way back to Arequipa.

We arrived back in Arequipa at 6.30pm and our bus for Nasca was due to leave at 9.00pm, just enough time to grab some food.