Arequipa y el Cañon del Colca

Arequipa was definetely the nicest city we had seen in Peru that far. For people travelling to South-Peru, I suggest you do the tour in the direction we did, that is from Lima, Pisco, Nasca, Arequipa, Puno and the Lago Titicaca, Cusco, Lima. Not only do cities become more beautiful that way, but you always go up in altitude as well, which makes that you get used to the altitude easier. For people doing the Camina Inca to Machu Picchu this is really important as you get to about 4,200 meters above sea level doing it, Puno is at about 3,800 meters.

Arequipa, yes, Arequipa is a nice city with a beautiful Plaza de Armas, good restaurants and a nice bario a bit outside the centre, Yarahuana. The Sanata Catalina Monastery is worth a visit very much.

If you go to Arequipa, go to a hostel called el Cansado del Fondador. It is a brilliant hostel on Jérusalen, just in front of La casa de mi abuela,which is in all travel guides. The hostel has beautiful spacious rooms with gorgeous wooden floors and with private bathroom and television. The building is very beautiful, too, and when it will be completely renovated, in about two years, it will be gorgeous with a cool terrace overlooking Arequipa on the third floor. People going to Arequipa, go there! It is twenty dollars for a double room, breakfast included and it is well worth it. Say hi to Marie-Louse from Thomas and me!

From Arequipa, you can travel to the Colca Cañon, the deepest canyon in the world! The Gran Cañon is only about 1,000 meters deep whereas the Colca Cañon is well over 3,000 at its deepest!

The trip from Arequipa to the canyon is long and the road is very bad and dusty, but it is well worth it. After about 4 hours you arrive in Chivay and after that, it is another 1.5 or 2 h of bussing. After the tiring trip, we first had a lovely lunch in a traditional restaurant and then started walking down into the canyon. It is so beautiful in there! We could see the oasis with micro-climate where we would walk the next day from above, it was gorgeous.

Our guide, Patricia, was lovely and a good cook too. First day was only a few hours of walking, and always down, so we arrived early and thus had time to play cards with our fellow travellers, Fleure and Chris, two Aussies and Felix and Cas, two Britons on their honneymoon. The second day, a two-hour walk took us to the oasis, where we had all afternoon to relax in the sun and swim in the natural springs, it was lovely.

Thomas and I went for some more walking and saw a male and female condor circling above the canyon, it was a spectacular sight! The 3d day, we got up around 4 am to start the though walk back up, 1,100 meters up in the moonlight.

By the time the sun got up, we had a gorgeous view of the canyon again. We had breakfast and then took the bus to el Mirador del Condor where there were busloads of tourists waiting to catch a glimps of the mighty birds. Unfortunately, we only saw two very far away, so it was not really worth it. Overall, the Colca Cañon was amazing, people travelling to Arequipa should not miss it. Take out three days to do it though, do not take the one- or two-day trips as you will be on the bus most of the time and you will hardly get any hiking.

Take care all of you

Peace out