Hola!

We are now in Arequipa, Peru´s second city with a population of about 1 million. It´s quite a sprawling place but the main square is really pretty and the Misti volcano provides a stunning backdrop. It´s also only about 2500m above sea level so is lovely and warm.

We arrived here on Thursday evening from Bolivia, taking a recommendation for a hostel from a guy selling hostels on the bus. We have a tendency to be suspicious of anyone selling things, which is something we really should have gotten over as people need to make a living and most of the time we are buying. The owners met us at the bus station and are a lovely friendly couple with a great hostel. The room was very nice, even extending to his and hers dressing gowns. Very posh. The best thing is the sitting room, which as we appear to be the only guests, we are free to monopolize. Cable TV is a luxury we didn’t even have in Streatham (but it’s now one I certainly want to look into..).

We spent Friday looking around Arequipa and booked ourselves on a tour to the Colca Canyon about 150km north of the city. We drove out to Chivay meaning ´Place where people make love´ (in the cold) on Saturday, stopping off on the way to view the surrounding volcanoes at 5000m, even seeing the source of the Amazon. Chivay nestles in the Colca Valley about 3500m and the drive into the town winding around the surrounding mountains is great. Another festival was getting going in the main square and after spending some time at the nearby thermal baths we had a chance to watch the fun later, sampling some chica, maize wine which tastes as you might imagine wine made from maize would, not great. There were about 4 brass bands seemingly competing to play the same tune loudest over and over again. The local couples and women danced around in a circle whilst most of the men stood around drinking. Sounds familiar? All very nice. We were whisked off by our tour guide to a restaurant where a band were playing local folk and covers (Let it Be on the pipes??!!) for the assembled gringos. We didn´t find this much to our taste (or the prices) so we made a quick exit to a local restaurant for some chicken and chips (starting to become a theme).

Sunday morning was an early start at 5am and it was a little disappointing to get up in the cold only to find no hot water (another theme) so the rest of the trip we were a little smelly. Others were in the same boat so we had no complaints (none that we understood anyhow). We were hoping the early start was to get us to the canyon to give us the best chance of seeing Condors, but it turned out it was so as we could stop 3 times on the way to see traditional dances performed by tired, bored looking locals, gawp at magnificent eagles held on bits of string and shop for local stuff. All very nice, if that’s your thing, but not what we came for.

We arrived at the viewpoints about 9 and had a chance to walk along the edge of the Canyon, which at about 1300m deep, is apparently the deepest in the world (on land I guess). The mountains surrounding are covered in green this time of year and it was an incredibly beautiful place. We were walking at about 3500m and could gaze down into the canyon below where there are 5 villages accessible only by donkey (or foot). The people have lived there for many generations in lush, tropical conditions, a bizarre thought when we were much colder above.

We spent about 40 minutes looking for condors and saw some circling way below but they were not coming up that day. Colca is a stunning place but a shame not to see any condors close up, will have another try somewhere else. We slept for most of the journey home, but still felt too tired to venture out into town when we arrived back at Arequipa so decided to stay in lounging on the sofa with the cable and even managed to get a pizza delivered! Home from home, indeed.

Tonight we are off to Cusco on an 11 hour night bus for white water rafting and a trip to Machu Picchu. It will mean going up to 3500m again so pretty cold but we can’t wait.

Hope everyone is well. See you soon (mid April).

Love Paul and Betty.