We left Raqchi in the morning and had a drive day to Chivay. To pass the time on the truck most of us had our face painted! I was a bee, Sarah a smurf, Shanna an egg, T-bone the Joker, Dee a flower, Jake a snake, Kelly a ladybird, Neil a pirate and Matt an Inca Kola bottle. We looked fabulous! I wonder what the people at the hotel thought when we turned up. We had time to wash off the paint before going out to dinner. We had dinner in the coldest restaurant ever.

Afterwards we went to the Irish bar as the boys wanted to watch football. I ordered a Malibu and coke but I got this wierd combination instead. He didnt have enough Malibu so decided to make me some instead! He mixed together rum and what seemed to be coconut milk together and added coke. It looked like brown muddy water as it was cloudy. It had an interesting taste, not at all like Malibu. I managed to drink it eventually but it took a while! The next morning we got up quite early as were going into the Colca Canyon to see the condors. We had a guide called Luis who came on the truck with us, he talked all the way there about the history of the area. He told us that before the Incas there were two types of tribes living there. Each tribe used to mould the heads of their babies but in different ways. One tribe used to shape their heads so that they had long, thin foreheads. The other tribe used to shape their heads so that they had a short wide face. When the Incas ruled they let them continue the tradition but the Spanish made them stop when they invaded.

The canyon was really beautiful, lots of different types of rock and many Inca terraces to look at. Luis claimed that it is the deepest canyon in the world. About 2 hours later we arrived at Cruz del Condor. This is where we would hopefully sea some condors as they fly out of the canyon to go off hunting for the day. Condors are the biggest flying bird. The males are mostly black with white tips. We stood at the edge of the canyon and waited. It wasnt long before we saw one come floating up on a current of air. Then another one came. They swooped about and even flew over our heads very low down. They did look very big indeed! We saw one land on the cliff edge and rest for a few minutes before flying off again. We watched them for about 20 minutes before they disappeared.

On the way back to the truck we saw Cheryl and whilst we were talking to her a little bird landed on my back. ¨DONT MOVE¨some one shouted ¨There is a bird on your back!¨ So imagining this gigantic thing on my back a look of horror came on my face but it turns out it was only a sparrow.

On the way back to Chivay we stopped in a village to look at the church. We also had an ice cream each and I had my picture taken with another big bird on my shoulder. Luis had also been and got a wooden box to show us. Inside the wooden box was a very old skull. It was a human skull, one with a very long forehead. It was from one of the old tribes. Then we carried on to Chivay sitting on the roof seats of the truck. We had an all you can eat buffet lunch (which wasnt much as I had just had an ice cream).

Later in the afternoon we went to the hot springs. These were nicer than the others as the water was clear. The pool we went in was 39 degrees, it was like a hot bath. We had to sit near the side and have drinks otherwise it was too hot. We stayed in the pool just over an hour before getting out. We had showers when we got back to the hotel before going out for dinner and then to bed.