Picked up by a private van and headed towards colca canyon. Travelled through salinas and aguada blanca national park. On the look out for the south American camels. The llama, alpaca and vicuña. They are all so cute,  I really want to get some as pets. To tell the difference between a llama and a alpaca: a llama has long banana shaped ears, long face, long necks and a long standing up tail. We were also very lucky and saw pink flamingos.  Apparently they are rare to see,  and take their colour from plantoon algae in the highlands.

Because we are going so much higher I had coca leaf tea to help with the altitude.  It really tastes and smells like hay. Even worse is that we kind of have to take it and it aids your digestion like crazy. Not a great side effect in the van. I have to block my nose and skull it like crap alcohol as its that gross. Went to  Cruz Del Condor ( condor ' s cross ).  It was amazing! We actually seen the Andean condor. One flew (actually they glide) past me and was only 10 m away! Eventually we went to Chivay to stay the night. Cute little town with an awesome market. The people here are what I imagined all of Peru to be like. There outfits are awesome. The more embroidery they have to more social class. Some of them are outstanding.  They come from two people. The cabanas lower and the collaguas upper pre inca indigenous group. Spoke different languages. They even have heads that are different shapes.

Went to the Calera hot springs in Chivay.  It was mineral water again and wonderful to relieve all the tension from so many bus trips. Then we got in the van and drove up the colca canyon to the highest point. It's was 4910m high and called patapampa. Freaken hard to breathe and so cold. Colca canyon is the deepest valley in the world called Huambo at its deepest point.  At its deepest it's 4150m. But it doesn't have a drop off like the grand Canyon so some people don't find it as spectacular.

Back to Arequipa,  where we found out our bus isn't going tomorrow.  There have been protest for the last 3 days about the mining of gold etc in Peru. The people are over the big companies paying them money so that they can do was ever they want to the land. They are defending the environmental habitat.  Apparently many fish, monkeys and even humans have been tested and found to have mercury in their systems from the mining practice.  To get the government's attention they have blocked off the road between Arequipa,  Puno and Cusco. If the buses go they will get stranded in freezing temperatures and the tourist buses can also be targeted with violence. So it looks like we all have to fork out about $200 to get flights to cusco in the morning. b*****!