Our pickup for the Colca Canyon tour was not until 8am but we still didn't manage to get any breakfast beforehand, only a cup of coffee. The bus was about 15 minutes late and we were the last on and had to take the only 2 seats left, one at the front and one at the back. When we booked there were only 8 people, now there were 16 of us from all round the globe - Australia/England, Brazil, Spain, Russia, France, Switzerland, Italy and USA. As we drove out of the city, Paul our guide, gave us a quick introduction of himself and asked us all to introduce ourselves to each other. We had one final stop before we left the city boundry and that was a shop to stock up on any water or snacks we might want. Paul recomended we buy a bag of Coca Leaves to help with the altitude and fatigue of the walk in the days ahead. Thankfully he talked us through how to chew the leaves too, otherwise I'm sure everyone would have spat them out without getting the benefit from them.

The bus drove us round behind the volcanoes towards the Reserva Nacional Salinas y Aguada Blancas which was full of vicuñas, alpacas and llamas. Our first real lesson of the tour was the identification of each of the animals and how not to confuse them. Vicuña, the most protected of them, has the finest hair - even better than baby alpaca. They are the sleekest looking of the three and can run at speeds up to 60kph to try outrun pumas. Llamas are the tallest of the three with long straight ears and a long snouted face. The alpaca has more of a squashed face and smaller ears. As the animals can get mixed up on the mountains, the owners will sometimes put markings on them - the most unusual being putting wool through their ears.

We took a walk through a rock forest for an hour - standing rock formations that have been created just by the wind and the rain. Some of them, with a bit of imagination, looked like an Indian's Face and another a Guinea Pig.

The view from the park back to the volcanoes, the side we couldn't see from Arequipa, was stunning.

We continued our drive towards Colca Canyon, passing a lagoon full of Andean geese before climbing up onto the pass which had views over to the smoking Sabancaya volcano and Ambato, next to it, where "Juanita" was found.

We drove into the small town of Chivay for lunch and were taken to Wititi restaurant. Paul was very keen to explain to everyone that the buffet served all the local delicacies including the spicy stuffed peppers and alpaca meat. We had tried everything before. Alpaca was served in two ways, one in stew and the other in ribs - the ribs were awesome and they were a favourite with everyone for seconds and for some, thirds.

Back on the road after lunch, we were getting a history lesson about the local inhabitants and found out that it wasn't the Incas who developed the terraces for cultivation, it was in fact the people around this area. They had been using terraces for years before the Incas and the Incas then took the best stonemasons to help them build elsewhere on the continent.

We passed some "hanging tombs" which were actually rock tombs built onto the cliff face.

We drove through and briefly stopped at the villages of Yanque and Maca to see the pre-inca terraces and village church.

When we finally arrived in the village of Pinchollo, we left our bags in the van and were led down a track to start of canyon. It wasn't too deep at this point and was hard to belive it would be over 3,000 metres deep further down it's 100km length - being the 2nd deepest canyon in the world. We watched the sun set and headed quickly back to the Colca Trek Lodge where we were staying for the night. Our bags had been unloaded and we were given the keys to our rooms.

The room was very luxurious given what we are used to. There was a huge bed in the middle of the room with heaps of pillows, fleece sheets, thick duvet and blankets. There was also a huge bay window that we were told would offer impressive sunrise views in the morning but for now the curtains were closed because it was freezing outside.

Dinner was served at a big long table so we could get to know each other a bit more. We started with Quinoa Soup which has suddenly become popular throughout the world. Well, perhaps not the soup, but quinoa in general because it can be eaten by those with gluten intolerance and has many other benefits too. The sad bit though is that it used to be part of the locals' staple diet but exporting has pushed the price up beyond the reach of the poor. We had grilled trout and mash for the main course and finished off with nice chocolate dessert. With the meal finished, we retired to comfy chairs around the fire for a few more drinks.