S: We arrived and headed to a hostel and got settled and then headed out to breakfast. The guys had a massive fruit salad and although I was feeling better, I had eggs lol. We wandered around and eventually found the two treks we wanted to do for the right price with a chap names Joél. James cooked a stir fry to save money as the treks were quite expensive. We visited the church and the cathedral. The cathedral was impressive with a new organ being built in 2001 after an earthquake. It was sad that it only got played about 3 times a year. During the earthquake the locals of Arequipa decided that they would take the marble floors, gold and silver off the altars. We decided you must be desperate to steal from a church and everything that was left of value is now behind glass cases to preserve it. Our camera had died at Death Valley and James had tried to mend it, but in the end, we had conceded that it was dead. But we took it out whilst we were visiting the town, and we paid around £14 to have it fixed. We were both happy bunnies again lol.

J: I needed a new water proof for the treks as mine had never been fully water proof since riding in Vietnam. We explored the town that day looking for one big enough as locals as so small the jackets didn't fit my arm length.
The next morning was an early 3am start and the hostel left us cheese rolls, apples and coffee. Then it was into the mini bus and on our way, we slept as much as possible until we stopped at the Valley Of The Condors, they are a majestic bird considering they size, they hardly flap and use the mountain thermals whilst looking for dead prey to scavenge on.

S: We had our second breakfast and oh dear I wish I hadn't. The stomach bug hadn't quite gone and now it was back full flow. We started the Colca Canyon hike and it was an 11mile trek to the bottom.

J: This Colca Canyon is the deepest canyon in the world.... But depends on what source you read as a "canyon" is up for a lot of debate apparently. But it is the top one on Google and that's what I'm going with.

S: I had borrowed walking sticks, so I didn't get in the same predicament as the Grand Canyon. Now all I had to contend with was a dodgy stomach and yes, I had to stop on the trail to go - talk about embarrassing. Now as all good travellers know, you talk about your bowels quite a lot. And when three of us at dinner didn't touch anything, we had the conversation of how many times today lol. James had his first taste of Alpaca and said it was delicious. We then trekked the next part along the river and through the villages with a couple of good hills to contend with. We arrived at the village called the Oasis, it had no electricity and no hot water. We all braved a quick shower with the very elusive doors made of bamboo which didn't hide anything lol. On the journey our guide Ange had explained about certain plants being good for certain things, and when she mentioned diarrhoea, James in his not so quiet voice said, I needed some of that, and a few of the group had an upset tummy. She promised to make us some tea later to help.

J: After the "public" showers we ate dinner by candle light and I mentioned to the group that we had a couple large spiders in the room (that Sam had kindly killed), the guys said they saw some too and after I explained that in South America at the bottom of a canyon, venomous spiders are a real risk. Everyone checked their beds and pillows before going to sleep and the Canadian couple were so freaked they hardly slept lol.
We had an early 4:30am start in the dark to get the steep walk out of the canyon done before it got too hot, Taylor was struggling a bit with fatigue from the day before, so Sam gave her sticks and I took her bag, that was our good deed for the month lol.

S: The hike up wasn't too bad and we all started fantasising about bacon and eggs for breakfast. We eventually made it to the top and it was a brilliant moment of accomplishment. We still had to walk a couple of miles to breakfast, but they had scrambled eggs and bread - James had two servings lol. So back on the bus and we stop at the highest point of the mountain and it was just cloud, so much so we didn't even get out of the bus. We next stopped at the national park for llamas, alpacas and flamingos (that were white!!). Finally, we made it back to Arequipa and found a restaurant that served chicken, chorizo and chips for the grand price of 13 sols (£3.50) it was a well-deserved meal and we were all set for the night bus.