Arequipa – Colca Canyon
After Machu Picchu and the train back to Ollantaytambo we took the local route back to Cusco in what was going to be a very long day of traveling. There seemed to be something…off…with each segment of the journey. The first little combi we took from Ollantaytambo had a man riding with us who seemed to be in a very bad way. Every movement he made seemed to come with a great deal of pain. The next bus we took was standing room only, when we realized that there were no seats we tried to get off, but a whole wave of people surged onto the bus and we were stuck standing all the way back to Cusco in a very stuffy bus, people packed around us. Amazingly we arrived in Cusco with everything still in our pockets and bags. Once in Cusco, we arranged to take an overnight bus to Arequipa….and what a trip that was. Oi. At any given moment there were three to five people snoring around us. And I mean SNORING. One guy (his wife chimed in with gusto on occasion too) ripped out earth shaking snorts the whole trip, non-stop. Emily had ear plugs and headphones with the volume all the way up and she could still hear the guy. I had nothing and have never felt so claustrophobic in my life. I managed to nod off here and there, but much of the trip was spent in audio hell.
So…we arrived at Arequipa refreshed and ready to tackle a brand new day. Actually, Em fell sick again with food poisoning. Both times it has been after we’ve eaten at a ‘nicer’ restaurant. Go figure. I firmly believe that this second time she had a weakened immune system due to sustained auditory torture.
Once Em had recovered, we hit the town to explore a little. We went to the main site in the city, Catalina Convent which is this huge complex built over the past 500 years. By the time we got through the convent our feet were pretty tired. They have it set up so that you pretty much have to walk through the entire convent (every room practically). It was impressive, and I have never seen so many kitchens in my life. Every nun had her own living area and kitchen (or two) with a brick oven and grinding stone etc. There was this huge building that was itself a gigantic kitchen with a well right inside. I thought that was pretty clever. We didn’t have a guide to explain so…I guess the life of these nuns was cooking and God. Anyway, after the convent we booked a tour to Colca Canyon for the next day and ate dinner in the main plaza. Arequipa has one of the most beautiful plazas that we have seen in South America. Cusco had a great plaza as far as architecture and layout are concerned, but it felt more like a tourist center than a place to relax and enjoy the city. In Arequipa the plaza is very beautiful and is also the center of the city life. People eat in various restaurants that have balconies overlooking the plaza. As the day turns towards evening more and more people start showing up, to hang out in the plaza itself or meet up before heading off to the bars and dance clubs. The city becomes vibrant and very active at night. A couple days later we were hanging out during the evening with some people we met during our tour —Tom (Spanish) and Tsusushi (Japanese). Em and I had an early bus to catch so we had to head back to our hostel around 10:30. The streets were filled with people. We were turning in, but the rest of the city was just getting started.
As for the tour itself, I’ll summarize as much as I can. Emily, myself and Tom sat in the back of the tour bus which was quite uncomfortable because the seats do not recline at all and the tour is basically a lot of driving. It was not kind to our backs. The tour is a two day event, involving a drive through a national reserve were you can see Vequnyas (wild Llamas), Alpacas and Llamas, and Visqatchis, a close relative to Chinchillas (bigger, but just as cute). At one point, you pass through a very high pass which is a really cool looking place. First it’s a great panoramic view of various volcanoes, but what I loved is that everywhere there are these piles of stones that stretch on seemingly forever. Basically the tradition is to come to this point, build a pile of stones as an offering, and make a wish. We stayed in the village (Chivay), went to a hot springs (water was nice but the air was freezing!), watched a good performance of music and dances of the various indigenous groups. They would pull people fom the audience up to dance with them on occasion. They made Emily get up and dance with them for a bit. It was difficult enough doing the dance she didn’t know with the guy who knew what he was doing, but then they passed her on to another tourist and went to go get someone else from the audience. So, the two of them made quite a pair. Niether of them knew what they were doing and the guy (who is supposed to be the leader) had very little rhythm. Our whole group cheered her on. never the less. The next morning we headed out to Colca Canyon, the main focus of the tour.
The canyon is deeper at one point than the Grand Canyon. However, the part that we saw wasn’t nearly as impressive as the breadth, variety, color and majesty of the Grand Canyon. The comparisons they made to the Grand Canyon had me expecting something more, but no matter. From the vista point on the canyon where we were, you could also see the origin of the Amazon, a mountain called Mismi. Which was pretty cool. The main point of going to Colca Canyon is to see condor birds. There is a point called Cruz del Condor where the condors are almost guaranteed to pass by. You arrive early, around 7:30 in the morning, and basically you wait as the day heats up and creates stronger drafts for the condors to fly on. They start low in the canyon and start to rise higher and higher as it gets warmer until they are at the rim of the canyon. At this point everyone gets excited, takes lots of pictures and then the show is over as the condors soar on past us and far up into the sky. The whole process took about two and a half hours for us. Our guide told as that the condors are both curious about the tourists but also have something more sinister in mind, they swoop by (they do this to cattle too) in the hopes that their presence will spook their target into getting distracted and falling down the cliff. There were a couple nutjob tourists that were standing on a precarious point overlooking the canyon. If one of the condors had really took a swing at them, the condors could have gotten a good meal out of the deal.
(Emily) Sometimes the most enjoyable parts of a trip are the little things that you can never plan. We stopped off for a bathroom and coca tea break at a little rest stop in the middle of nowhere. But somehow wherever the tourists are, there the local vendors are also. There was a group of them selling the usual sweaters, scarves, etc. and of course the little kids dressed up in their traditional outfits in order to have their pictures taken by the tourists (they recieve a tip for the service). There was one little girl of about 4 who didn’t look very interested in doing her job. She was playing by herself with an orange balloon. I went up to her and asked how to say balloon in Spanish. She mumbled something that I didn’t understand, but I guess she decided I would make a good balloon tossing friend even if I didn’t know such obvious things, so she through the balloon at me. It surprised me because it had a rock inside of it. The blown up balloon didn’t last long. I think the rock probably poked a hole in it and it soon deflated, but that didn’t stop this little girl. She was so excited to toss this balloon/rock back and forth with me. If she made a good catch I would clap and say “bueno”. Then she would jump up and down and turn in circles. Her mom would make occasional attmepts to get her to put the balloon down and get back to “work”, but she kept right on throwing the balloon/rock to me. Chris finally called me to get back on the bus to leave. She seemed very dissapointed that I had to go. I really wished I had a whole packet of balloons to leave with her, but we had a great time while it lasted.Â
that was pretty much it. We headed back, stayed the evening in Arequipa and took off the next morning to Puno and lake Titicaca.