Into the depths of the Colca canyon

Well well well... the blogging reins appear to have been somewhat cautiously passed in my direction (this is Ian, number one nephew) and so I take it upon my shoulders to give you a full insight of the cruelty and discipline my brother and I face from our evil Aunty and Uncle on an daily basis on our two week tour of Peru.

Finding ourselves with an extra day in Nascar meant Liza was hard on the nagging to get stuff booked up for the remainder of our trip. Bemoaning the fact we had not only chosen to meet them at the height of the holiday season but also precursing the three day Peruvian national holiday, she insisted we booked all travel, accommodation and activities to avoid further disappointment - we had to forego the trip to Puno as a result of not being able to catch the bus the previous night.

After the whole morning and half the afternoon of being dragged around travel agencies and keyboard bashing in the internet café until our fingers resembled the "other" side of a cheese grater, we were finally treated to lunch: meat!

Our overnight bus from Nascar to Arequipa  was due to leave for the at 11.30, but we hit Peruvian time and finally got on the move at about 1.30am. I made the assumption Peruvians get stuck in "hot" mode even when the temperatures veer around freezing overnight as external doors to public places very rarely seem to close, which made for a pretty chilly wait. We made it to Peru's second city for lunch time where we had booked at a place known as the Amazing Hostal, which surprisingly pretty much lived up to its name.

At this point we decided to properly dive into the local delicacies of alpaca and guinea pig. We opted for a restaurant recommended to us by a travel agent in Nascar, as it was his Aunties. Andy and I went for the alpaca and Jack and Liza for guinea pig. The alpaca was in the form of a steak - and was really very good. A better lamb in my opinion. The guinea pig (cuy), wasn't. Wasn't in the form of a steak, I mean, but actually tasted pretty good, even if it was served up whole (yes, feet, head, teeth etc included!)

The night bus had by this point taken it out of the "oldies" who went for an afternoon siesta, but Jack and I were still up for exploring the centre of Arequipa, where they were busy preparing for the independence festivities by decking up the buildings in customary red and white and building a stage of some kind.

Liza has since informed me it's compulsory for all state buildings to display the Peru flag in the month of July which she reliably read on Wikipedia. I'm still not sure if she's having her leg pulled or she's pulling mine. Or I guess it could actually be true. There are that many around!

We decided to head out on a 2 day, one night trek to the Colca Canyon, the second deepest in the world (I find Andy's facts more reliable :) ). This meant a 3.00am start and a 3 hour drive to the head of the canyon. The first stop was in mountain town Chivay where we were finally allowed breakfast.

The locals - obviously accustomed to 6.00am tourists on a bitter Saturday morning - were all set up to extract a few Soles from us by way of animal photo opportunities!

We then drove along the lower rim of the canyon to a view point where the condors are encouraged to congregate with dead donkey meat being dropped into the canyon floor, so that each morning as the thermals start they climb up into the morning sky.

A further half hour drive brought us to the rim of the upper canyon where the path drops down to the floor. This is a 1100m drop down a very loose, steep and windy path.  The views were stunning but there were few chances to take them in because of the concentration required just looking where you are going and keeping balance!

Base camp below: Almost there!

We arrived after a few hours in the midday sun to a very welcome swimming pool with water provided by the stream. Jack and I later wondered a little further through the undergrowth beneath base camp to the very bottom of the canyon to fully appreciate it's overwhelming scale. The river was tainted a muddy brown colour following a small landslip we witnessed a little way away, releasing an almighty cloud of dust.

The following morning we set off shortly after 5am in the dark from our bamboo huts to climb back out of the canyon. The 1100m ascent was tough but there was a great sense of achievement by the time we were all up at not long past 8.

On the drive back we stopped at a few places to take in the stunning scenery, including the 1500 year old terraces embedded in the hillsides:

Before returning to Arequipa, we took one final detour via some natural hot springs. To reach these we had to go over a rope bridge which Jack and I decided was from the film Shrek (before the dragon completely destroyed it). The spring trickled into 4 or 5 pools, each one overflowing from the next and thus each becoming slightly cooler. The top pool was only just bearable (would guess around 40 degrees), and the bottom pool blended with the river for a half hot, half cold combination, which was a bit odd!

On the drive back to Arequipa we got some last few scenery shots... this time with animals!:

We arrived at about 6pm giving us a 2.5 hour turnaround time to pick up our big bags from the hostel, sort ourselves out, and get a cab across town to the bus station. We got another overnight bus to Cusco and meandered our way through the hilly streets to our hostel (not partiularly welcome given a) the time, b) the temperature and c) the steepness of the climb considering the state of our legs from the hike the morning before!), arriving at about 6.30am. With the temperature around freezing we witnessed more open door syndrome at the hostel where we hovered before getting in some welcome breakfast. Before heading off to explore, the sun lit up the city allowing us glorious views from our hostel rooms, making the walk up now seem not so bad.

After a day acclimatising in Cusco, which sits at 3300m, we make our way to Machu Picchu town tomorrow ready for seeing the ruins themselves on Wednesday.