Arequipa and Colca Canyon 4/03/14 - 7/03/14

From Copacabana we took a bus to the Bolivia/Perú border. You get off the bus and collect your stamps, then meet the bus on the other side. Elliott was highly annoyed to be charged 50 BOB (about $10) because he threw away his immigration form, when the form specifically states that there might be delays but no fine if you haven't got your form. 'There are no fines in La Paz, but here, you have to pay'. Sure. What could he do except pay, if he wanted to be let into Perú??

The Puno to Arequipa bus trip took 6.5 hours and with an insanely dangerous driver, this was a tiring trip. Speeding and weaving through cars into oncoming traffic really isn't OK when you're a bus. Add to this the crosses at every turn to indicate the places where people have died on these roads, and the taxi driver who we're pretty sure was planning to rob/kidnap us, it was a hectic day. Heads up that I probably wouldn't trust Emperador Tours taxis in Arequipa. It was more than a little suss that the guy was on the phone three times and saying he had 'dos Americanos' in the car. We were later told not to trust taxis, even when they've picked you up from the taxi rank at the bus station. Apparently it's pretty common for taxis to rob their passengers.

Arequipa is a huge city and the second most important (after Lima) for the economy. We only had one full day here, which began with a nice breakfast on the roof of our hostel, complete with a lovely view of nearby volcanoes. We spent the day at Santa Catalina Monastery, and exploring the city on a walking tour in the afternoon. Santa Catalina Monastery was kind of expensive at 35 soles each plus 20 soles for an English guide. We really needed the guide though as most of the signs are in Spanish. She explained the life of nuns and how they used to spend 20 hours per day in their rooms, praying for 7 of these hours. Servants lived upstairs and the nuns were only permitted to see visitors through barred windows. A well known nun, Saint Ana, was beatified by Pope John Paul II for her miracle cures (we were told she cured a woman's cancer hundreds of years after her death, that she could levitate, and that she could be in two places at once. My science brain can't quite wrap my head around all that, but it was interesting to learn about nonetheless). Ana arrived to the Monastery when she was just 3 years old and died there in her 80s. The nuns can now leave the Monastery with permission, however it is rare to see them in the city because it is still only for necessity that they leave. The Monastery itself is very pretty with terracotta and blue coloured walls, paintings from the 1700s, and rooms on display for tourists to see how the nuns used to live.

Given that we're in Perú, and what is Perú famous for if not its thousands of potato varieties, we had to check out the Hatunpa potato restaurant! It's a cute little place with very limited seating, and a simple idea that works so well - choose your potatoes, choose your topping (alpaca for me) and you're done. Delicious.

Colca Canyon

We had organised a 2 day/1 night tour to Colca Canyon. If we had more time before starting volunteering, and done a little more reading, we definitely should have chosen a 3 day one that included trekking down into the canyon. Our tour was ok but definitely overpriced. The guide that we had was recommended to us by some people that we met recently, but I've got to say I don't really know what the fuss was about. We were supposed to have a 3 hour hike when we arrived to the lodge, but we didn't go as it was raining. I thought it was poor form that he didn't ask us if we wanted to go anyway, and there was no alternative activity planned. There were nice views of inca terraces and volcanoes along the way though, but the cloud and rain in the afternoon limited visibility. Essentially we paid a lot of money to stay in a lovely hotel with hot water bottles provided and a wide window facing the canyon. It was very nice but a luxury that we didn't need, and would have been happy to spend less to stay somewhere more basic. Somewhere that at least includes tea, coffee, and water for the price!

After dinner the guide gave us some cool information about condors, in preparation for condor spotting tomorrow. Condors are bad ass. They are among the largest birds that can fly. They have a wingspan of up to 3.5m and are around 1m tall. They can hunt for prey up to 7000 metres in the air. They have no natural predators, and they work with foxes and pumas to hunt llamas and alpacas! By clawing out their eyes... then pushing them over on a hill, then coming back later to eat them. Brutal. And most tragically (or romantically...), condors have one mate for life and commit suicide when their mate dies.

So with this information we were ready for the Cruz del Condor lookout the next morning. It felt like we were walking on top of the clouds as they were so thick, blocking our view into the canyon. We first spotted one condor far away in the distance, and then as we approached the edge of the canyon, there was a female only 5 metres below us. She was so big and majestic, teasing us with her every move but never flying from her perch on that rock.

Mountain bike riding down the edge of the canyon was awesome. A little scary as there were no barriers, so if you lose control you're going down the canyon. There were some steeeeep uphill slogs, then downhill with amazing views again, into the town of Cabanaconde. Lunch and then a 3.5 hour trip back to Arequipa!