Our alarm was set for 4am but there was a banging at 3am which woke us. Whether it was a donkey kicking the door, a dog running into it or maybe fruit dropped out a tree onto the roof, we'll never know and we won't get the sleep back either.

Paul and the chef had been busy in the kitchen and breakfast was served as promised at 4:15am - pancakes, bananas & dulce de leche washed down with mugs of coca tea.

It was still dark at 5am and we could see a line of lights already making their way up the track, they had started 30 minutes before us. The rationale for the early start is due to the heat, once the sun gets into the canyon it becomes a nightmare for those perhaps not used to such strenuous tramping combined with the thin air. So with headtorches on, we started our walk out of the canyon. It is a 1,200m ascent on an 8km long path so no easy task although locals can do it in between 60 and 90 minutes - we were given 3 hours!!

We took it slow and steady but still managed to leave our group behind except for Marco from Switzerland. He wanted to climb Volcan Misti next week and was told that if he couldn't get out of the canyon within 2 hours he should forget it, he wasn't fit enough. He was like a greyhound out a trap and even with the daylight of dawn, he was out of sight having passed scores of other walkers in no time. We kept up our slow, steady pace and made it to the viewpoint in 2 hours and 5 minutes which was surprisingly quicker than the time it took to walk down yesterday. After a few minutes rest and some photos we walked the 25 minutes back to the village and the waiting bus.

Once everyone was back at the bus, we were driven to some hotpools by edge of a river. We had to cross a very shaky, Indiana Jones style, bridge to get across to the pools. Everyone was beginning to feel their legs being a bit sore and the warm pools were just the tonic needed. After an hour, we were ready to leave but heaps of other tours were just arriving. The shaky bridge could only take two people at a time and was causing bit a backlog and the people coming in wouldn't let us out. Paul tried to tell the other side to let us through and when they didn't he marched over the bridge and blocked their path. It would have made sense if one from each side crossed at the same time but sense was not prevailing.

We were all hungry after the walk and the hot pools so we were whisked off to Chivay to have lunch at Urinsaya. It was another buffet lunch with local specialities, all very delicious.

After lunch we drove to a meeting point to switch bus to one that went to Puno instead of returning to Arequipa. Willy, our driver for the last few days, changed bus too which was good because we knew he was a safe driver. It was a 4 hour drive through some really nice scenery with lagoons and even some pink flamingos. We stopped briefly at Lagunillas Lake which was beautiful even if it was absolutely freezing.

As we neared Puno there was a thunder storm ahead with some crazy lightening, alternating between sheet lightening and dramatic forked lightening strikes. We eventually drove into the rain and crawled into Puno's evening traffic which was chaotic. Apparently it wasn't the rain causing the traffic jams, this was just normal.

Our hostel was on a street that was under repair so we had to get out and walk 3 blocks in the rain. The hostel, Pacha, was cheap and had 2 sets of bunk beds which were really comfy with warm blankets and a duvet. The only downside was it was bit noisy night as there was some bar close by and someone's car alarm kept going off about every 30 minutes.