Argh. Not enough hours between getting in and leaving again. Must be the altitude.

Bus out of Arequipa and finally a chance to see the Andean countryside. One really important feature to mention is the cement factory, not far outside the city. Not entirely sure why it is such an important feature (except that it is massive and employs a lot of people) but the guide was very keen to emphasise its merits, as well as those of the 4,700m-high pass that we crossed around midday. On arrival, the hotel in Chivay had laid on a barbeque. Top of the menu was alpaca steaks, which are ery low in fat and cholesterol and it was therefore perfectly correct of me to go back for seconds. And probably thirds too.

We spent the afternoon taking a hike up in the hills around the village, as an introduction to trekking at two miles above sea level. Climbing through arid mountain passes above the terraced agriculture of the valleys below, we soon came to the top of the pass at a sheer cliff face. Dug into said cliff face is what can only be described as some of the least convenient tombs in the world. Most of the visible parts have long been ransacked, but oddly the robbers decided against taking any of the bones. This is probably because the majority of them were deliberatel deformed through the strategic wearing of planks. The idea was to shape the wearer's head like a particular mountain, and served to differentiate between particular tribes. It also served to give them all headaches for the rest of their lives (surprise?) which they treated, as one would, by drilling large holes in their heads.

For our second day in the mountains we were treated to a 5:00 am bus ride, complete with everything you could want in terms of bone-shaking gravel tracks and uncomfortable-looking drops on either side of the 'road'. The only other traffic is locals in traditional dress and their mules. There is also a tremendous tunnel through the rock, entirely devoid of light (be it natural or otherwise) and of sufficient room to accommodate the purported two lanes of traffic for which it is designated. There are some nice enough villages and viewpoints along the road, but the real purpose of this little outing was to go spotting the increasingly rare Andean condor from the ridge of the Colca Canyon. We were informed that there was about a 40 % chance of seeing any condors, so naturally we saw the first pair after approximately three minutes, before we'd even started walking. By the time we reached the main lookout we had already seen four or five birds, all adults, but still spent around an hour at the top watching more of them flying over on the thermal air currents (mainly just trying to get that perfect picture, obviously).

We went back into to Chivay for lunch and a tour of the markets. Specialities on offer included multi-coloured corn, 46,859 varieties (approximately) of potatoes, alpaca' heads (for thos special occassions) and ingredients for traditional remedies (for which read snake skins and tortoise shells). And of course electronic items supplied "tax free" across the Bolivan border. With barely a moment's rest we paid a trip to the hot springs, before heading out to dinner.