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We missed our chance to fly over the Nazca lines as we were passing through,
timing was wrong and the price was way high for a 30 minute flight. We scored a pretty
luxurious night bus to Arequipa. Arequipa was in the midst of a protest of a new
unreasonable gas tax and we met head on with a roadblock. They threw a few rocks
toward the bus and the driver decided it wise to just turn around. I was
convinced we were going to get the bus stuck sideways like in Austin Powers but,
of course , we didn't. We met with another roadblock attacking taxis but after a
stern scolding by our bus driver they let us through. We found a hostel run by a
wonderfully nice family that also helped us set up our tour to Colca Canyon. We
had to leave at 1am that night to sneak around sleeping roadblockers. That put
us in at 7am to start hiking after a rejuvenating bus nap down a road that was
shaking the bus apart for the last 4 miserable hours. Luckily the first day was
almost all downhill. For the second day we got our "test", scaling a couple
hundred meters in 20 minutes at altitude. The test was to see if we were going
to be able to hack the last leg, up 1200 meters in a few hours. We all made it
though, without having to rent a mule, bravo. I think Chris and James werre
trying to race the guide, beating him by a few seconds. The rest of us, well, we
made it, and it was good practice for the Inca Trail. For the last day, we
stopped at a town called Chivay to soak our weary muscles in their hot springs.
Again we had to pace our departures around the roadblocks. We caught a local
soccer game while killing time. Oh yeah, we had to switch buses at one point
because the one we were riding was having problems. Sure enough, a half an hour
after leaving Chivay, our new bus broke down climbing up the mountain between us
and our hostel back in Arequipa. They did finally get it working somewhat but we
had to take almost the whole downhill portion of the trip back with the bus
turned off. The delay had us coasting in with barely enough time to dart back to
the hostel, get the rest of our backpacks, and get back to the bus station to
catch a night bus to Puno. We are here now in Puno, but we are leaving tomorrow
early morning for La Paz, Bolivia. We spoke to the people at the Bolivian
consulate here and they, as well as others, have assured us that all is well in
Bolivia now. We have a mountain bike trek scheduled for wednesday and a bus back
to Puno a few days later to see the islands of Lake Titicaca on our way back
through to Cusco.
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Plaza de Armas, Arequipa
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Ellie and Chris posing with some random Santa man handing out candy
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Cabanaconde, The starting point of our Colca Canyon hike
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2 of the villages in the canyon
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more canyon
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some other canyon hikers
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In Peru, we don't need no water
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The Colca River near an oasis where we stoppped for lunch
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Our guide, Marcial
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Oasis Flora, apparently having a narcotic effect when consumed.
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Preparing for the treacherous hike back up the canyon.
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Andean Condor. 3 meter wingspan
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The halfway point for the trail up.
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The cab out to the hot springs
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The hot springs aka pool with hot springs water pumped into it
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Killin time till our bus leaves, watching a local futbol game. (note the people on every possible view point in the background)
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has he posed for this picture before? I think yes
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Oh my god lady, what happened to your sheep! (baby alpaca)
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Colca Canyon tour Route map created with my GPS points and
Google Earth ©
Colca Canyon QTVR
file
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