We flew from Cusco to Arequipa which saved us an 15 hour drive in the bus (which I was very thankful for).

We arrived in the evening with just enough time to see the Convent before it closed at 8 in the evening.

The old convent was built in the 1500 and lived in by the mostly Spanish nuns right up until the late 60s. The area enclosed within the convent was hugh and right in the middle of the city of Arequipa. Each nun had their own little living area with bedroom, small lounge (sometimes the both combined) and a little kitchen. Often they had their own small patio as well and strange stairs that led up a wall and going nowhere. Maybe this is so they can talk to each other over the walls (who knows??).

The history was interesting, with only mostly Spanish rich aritocrats being allowed in as nuns and having to hand over their dowry money. One biship started reforms and said the nuns could only have one servant each which didn't seem to go over well with the rich ladies!!! It all seems very sheltered and I imagine that it would have been a fairly nice live for them in their little sheltered town.

The baths were very interesting. A row of about 20 large pottery vases with the tops cut off. Im not sure but maybe they used to sit in their own pot and have baths. Very strange again, but it may have actually been the laundry!!

We left early the next morning for our visit to the Colca Canyon which is the deepest in the world. We had been warned that the road would be bumpy and we got exactly that. The ashfalt had either worn away or just never been sealed and it was an interesting 5 hour drive. We got to stop and take pictures of the Vicuna´s (a sort of deer that is native to Peru and had very small numbers. Fur is shaved every 2 years by the locals and they sell is for 500 USD per kilo). Lots of LLamas and Alpacas as well next to the roads.

Our accommodation was very nice, the worst part was the water wasn't working and after our dip in the hot spring pools we wern't able to wash off until much later in the night.

We enjoyed a walk up a mountain to some caves where the locals were buried. Bones were still out on display and interesting to see.

Next day was what we had looked forward to on the tip the Condors. We were taken for a 2 hours drive up into the Canyon where the Condors live. There are only 65 of them in the Canyon and they are now protected. After waiting for about half an hour they started to fly (they wait until it has warmed up a bit and then they fly on the hot currents). The Condors don't like to fly much and mostly glide on the hot currants and luckily for us we saw about 10 of them and they flew right over the top of us. Some of them were huge (they can have a wing span of 3 metres across). The older ones seemed to be showing off and watching the crowds as they glided over.

Very much worth the long drive to get to see the Condors in their natural environment.

Apparantly when they get hungry and can't catch any small animals they push a donkey or cow off the side of the Canyon to the bottom and then wait a few days before they can then eat it. Some people were getting really close to the edge and well past the signs that said don't cross so we were hoping and waiting for one of them to get pushed over by the Condors. No such luck and they got to live another day!!

A long drive back to Arequipa before our night bus to Nazca which left at approx 9.15. The bus was very comfortable with reclining seats and little pillows and blankets provided. Unfortunatly for Tony the person sitting in front of him reclined his seat and then he had no-where to put his leg so had a very uncomfortable ride and not much sleep.

We arrived in Nazca at about5 5.30 AM