16th May 2005 5.30am we had to get up!!! 5.30am, I ask you!!! But it was well worth it! We travelled into the Colca Canyon, on the way the Cruz del Condor, we stopped and viewed the amazing Inca Terracing, the best I've seen yet and some of the tombs which were set half way up the cliff faces. Arriving at the Cruz del Condor at around 9am, set in the heart of the Canyon, where you can look over the edge and suffer big time vertigo! We sat and wa...

15th May 2005 Today we got up early, 6am!!!! We were collected at our Hostel by our guide Carlos, who was taking us to the Colca Canyon. Which is basically a two day tour, staying in a town called Chivay. We climbed to the highest point on our trip to Peru, 4849m, the air was very thin, but I felt ok, that may have something to do with the Coca Tea and sweets I had had, yummy! The bus journey was very scenic, travelling through & around the mountains...

14th May 2005 Today was a fairly lazy day. In the afternoon we to a suburb of Arequipa, Paucarpata. We had some lunch in what I can only describe as the 'Locals' dinner! The people stared at you when you walked in and I had no idea what I ate for lunch but the views were awesome! The garden over looked Inca terracing and El Misti, Chachani & Pichu Pichu. We then took a rather nerve racking kamikaze taxi ride out to a El Molino de Sabandia, which is ...

13th May Today was day of sight seeing around the city. We started off with a visit to the Museo Santuarios Andinos. This museum exhibits 'Juanita'the ice princess, the frozen body of an Inca Maiden sacrificed on the summit of Ampato over 500yrs ago. She was discovered by an american mountaineer/archaeologist Johan Reinhard, who climbed the summit which had been melted by recent eruptions of nearby Sabcayna volcano. She had fallen from her tomb and...

12th May 2005 Having spent half the night at the bus terminal in Nazca, bus finally arriving at 2am!!! We arrived in Arequipa at around 11am. Arequipa is is set in a valley, dwarfed by the active volcano El Misti (5822m), the more ragged inactive Chachani (6075m) and the lower peak of Pichu Pichu (5571m). The hostel was lovely, a few blocks from the main Plaza de Armas, courtyard style colonial building and the bonus was it had hot water!!!! Bliss! ...