Canyon Country

Day 26 - 31^st December

We arrived in Arequipa early and tried to find a hostel. This proved more difficult than we had first thought as most places were closed and our city map wasn't great. Once we had settled ourselves into a nice hostel I proceeded to spend most of the afternoon asleep, having picked up a cold in the jungle (don't ask me how!) In the evening, feeling much better, we went out for dinner and then headed down to the Plaza de Armas to see what the Arequipenans do to celebrate new year. It didn't look like a lot was happening so we settled ourselves into a bar overlooking the square to see in the new year with some local beer. At midnight all hell broke loose in the square – hundreds of people had gathered and set off fireworks and fire crackers they had purchased from street sellers. The noise and chaos was incredible, everyone letting off their fireworks at once. It's a shame you'd never get away with it in the UK, everyone behaved sensibly, no-one got hurt and the atmosphere was fantastic. Feliz Ano Nuevo everyone!

Arequipa

New Year's Eve, Arequipa

Day 27 - 1^st January 2012

We had hoped to do a bit of sightseeing today but it turns out that everything in Arequipa shuts down on New Years Day, including the tourist sites. Instead we took a walk up to a mirador with views over the city and spent the rest of the day in our hostel, reading and playing games.

Day 28 - 2^nd January

This morning we visited the Monestario de Santa Catalina, a huge, sprawling convent in the heart of Arequipa. The convent takes up an area of over 20,000 square metres and even has streets and squares inside it. The Nuns' cells were quite opulent, many of them consisting of many rooms, gardens and lavish furnishings. The Nuns' families would sell the cell to another Nun when she passed away. There are still 30 Nuns living in the convent and the chapel was closed, although the art gallery and museum were opening, housing an impressively large collection of religious art from the Cusco school.

Monasterio de Santa Catalina

After the Convent we tried to get a bus to Cabanaconde, a town at the Colca Canyon, where we planned to do a few days walking, Unfortunately all the buses were full and we were only able to get as far as Chivay, a town at the head of the Canyon. Jon finally got his wish to travel on a local bus. We started the day in Arequipa in shorts and t-shirts, and ended it passing over bleak Andean high plateau, and snow covered peaks at 4800m. When the bus was full, people started filling the aisles and I ended up with an elderly Quechua woman sitting at my feet. Eventually she decided this wasn't comfortable and squeezed onto mine and Jon's seat with us, practically sitting on my lap. It was hard to be annoyed with her when she stroked my leg, held my hand and gave me a big toothless smile! With no plans or information about Chivay we gratefully accepted the offer of a hostel from a woman who met us at the bus station and were piled into a tuk-tuk with our bags stuffed in around us. As it was throwing it down we didn't argue when the tuk-tuk driver opened the door to what looked like a deserted house, ushered us into an empty room and waved us goodbye. Eventually the owner appeared to take our money and we wandered into Chivay in search of dinner. Being low season the town was totally deserted but we managed to find somewhere to serve us pizza and beer. That night it was bitterly cold and I was grateful for my thermals in bed.

Day 29 - 3rd January

Another day, another bus.  This time we took another 3-hour local bus to the small town of Cabanaconde, situated near the top of Colca Canyon, the world's 2nd deepest canyon.  We reached Cabanaconde at around 4pm and were greeted off the bus by one of the staff from the hostel, even though we were a day late! The weather pattern at this time of year in the canyon is hot and sunny in the morning and rain late afternoon and evening.  As we were walking to the hostel the heavens opened and the torrent didn't stop until the next morning, so we spent a very relaxing evening sitting in the bar of the hostel, drinking beer by the warmth of the pizza oven.

Day 30 - 4th January

This was the day that Jon nearly killed me by overestimating my physical fitness!  The Colca Canyon has some beautiful hikes, most of which are done over a few days.  We had intended to do a 2-day hike into the canyon, stay at the bottom and hike out the next day, but with the weather being so predictably awful in the afternoons and evenings we decided that our warm, cosy, friendly hostel was preferable to spending a damp night at the bottom, and decided to do a day hike instead.  The problem was that the day hike we decided on was a 1200m steep descent to the oasis at the bottom of the canyon and back up again.  Had we stopped to think we may have realised that this is akin to climbing Ben Nevis in reverse and we may have adjusted our expectations somewhat!  The walk started well, across fields, past a spectacular view point, from which we could appreciate the beauty (and scale) of Colca Canyon, and then a very steep 2-3 hour hike down the side of the canyon to the Sangalle Oasis 1200m below.  By the time we reached the bottom, both mine and Jon's legs were feeling the strain and we were very grateful to slip into one of the beautiful cool swimming pools that cluster around the river at the base of the canyon.  

At the top of Colca Canyon

The view down to the oasis from about half way

Sangalle Oasis

Feeling revived we set off an hour or two later to begin the long climb back to the top.  My relief was short-lived - the climb was incredibly steep, on very uneven terrain with loose stones and dust and knee-breaking steps.  I maintain that I would have made it up if we hadn't already done the hike down less than a few hours before.  As it was it was incredibly slow going (even Jon says that it was very hard and more challenging than days 2 and 3 of the Inca Trail, but he may just be being kind!)  I made it about 2/3 of the way up before my legs hurt so much that I flagged down a passing mule and hitched a ride!  Riding a mule up a steep stone path with no saddle or harness of any kind has definitely entered my strangest-experiences-ever shortlist.  My knees may have been sore from the hike but, by the time I reached the top every other muscle in my body had joined them from clinging on for dear life with my thighs and fingers!  I left my trusty steed at the top of the canyon and waited for Jon to catch me up - predictably I didn't have to wait long, it turns out he's nearly as fast as a mule uphill.  While waiting I was treated to the majestic sight of a condor flying over the canyon.  Luckily the rain started later that evening and we made it most of the way back to the hostel before the deluge hit.

Day 31 - 5th January

Another day spent mostly on a bus, which given the amount of pain I was in from the walking and mule-riding, was probably for the best.  We caught the bus back to Chivay, unfortunately this one was even more crowded than the previous bus and Jon had to stand for the last 2 hours of the journey.  We then caught the tourist bus to Puno, which stopped en-route to see wild vicunas (related to llamas and alpacas) and a flamingo lake.  We arrived in Puno late in the evening and found a hostel to rest our aching bones.

Grazing aplacas

Lake on the way to Puno