After a 4 hour journey from Arequipa to a small village called Chivay, a picturesque village near the mouth of the Colca Canyon, paradise awaited us! Chivay is however the biggest town in the Colca Canyon. We got a taxi from outside the bus station to some Hot Springs. The springs were gorgeous and really nicely done too, with the water fed into very clean tiled swimming pools and with lockers and hot showers as well. Just what we needed after the bus journey. W...

Arrived in Arequipa yesterday (Sunday 7/6/09) after a 14 hour bus journey from Ica. The bus journey is a story in itself, our bus was due to arrive at 7.30pm to pick us up on the 6th but didn´t arrive untill 9pm. We boarded the old looking, beaten bus to find that we were the only travellers on board the rest being natives which alarmed us a little. The first hour or so was fine until we started the route through the mountains, climbing very high roads at spe...