Unfortunately Becky's altitude sickness takes a turn for the worse when we arrive in Arequipa so she hits the sack immediately leaving me with a several hours to kill before an acceptable bed time hour. I try and be brave and tell
myself that a walk around this new location is well within my confidence levels but the minute the sun starts setting and the streets get dark I head into the closest Internet cafe, blog a bit before returning to the comfort and safety of the hostel (with a pack of Oreos for dinner.)

With Becky still not feeling great, we have a few lazy days around Arequipa before heading off for a canyon trek. We take a stroll around the plaza, admire the cathedral, drink an abundance of coffee, eat a lot and visit a monastary which was pretty although a tad creepy in the dark. We even splashed out and treated ourselves to a £3.50 manicure one afternoon and although the quality of treatment hardly rivalled that of an English Spa, the duo of transvestites working in the salon made for an entertaining hour or so.

Then on Saturday (6th) we set off for our 3 day Colca Canyon trek. The £1.50 bottle of rum we decided to consume on Friday meant we made it home with about 20mins to spare before our 3am pick up and thus the items I decided to pack a little questionable- no flashlight, only one sock and most impressively, no purse. Nevertheless after a much needed sleep on the bus, breakfast in the worlds coldest restaurant and a stop off to watch condors, we make it to Colca Canyon, the second deepest canyon in the world. There were amazing views throughout the tour which included a few hours trek down into the canyon, visits to several canyon communities (each only having between 10-20 families), lots of soup and a relaxation in the canyon's 'oasis'. On the last day we set off at 5am to trek up out of the canyon.... here the forgotten flashlight would have been key to avoid hiking in complete darkness (again, not safe when walking on uneven cliff edge paths...) Luckily our new American friends had a spare light which we borrowed (they also brought a bottle of Pisco for the group the night before- great couple) so we made it out of the Canyon alive. The trek up took about 2.5 hours (1.5 if your name is Rebecca 'superwoman' Phillips) and we were treated to non other than bread and jam for breakfast (the standard South American breakfast) and a buffet lunch (which of course we had to pay extra for). A great trip though which gave us hope that our fitness levels may be good enough to prevent heart attacks on the inca trail although a stash of blister plasters and a flash torch are necessities (and two socks, rather than one, may be pretty useful too.)