After spending the
past three and a bit weeks in Bolivia (mostly over 3500m) it was nice
to head back in to Peru to the town of Arequipa. Arequipa, Peru's
second largest city, is at a lower altitude than most of the
places we had visited in the previous three weeks in Bolivia and is extremely picturesque with several volcanoes surrounding the city. It was in Arequipa
that we met up with my brother who was coming to join us for a month
on the road. The city itself has a beautiful colonial feel to it, and
coupled with the great weather we experienced while there, it made for a
nice place to chill for a few days.
Enjoying our first meal in Arequipa.
Larni and Brendan had to try cuy (fried guinea pig).
Having a beer on the rooftop of our hostel with the volcanoes in the distance - Arequipa, Peru.
The main drawcard to the city
though, is the Colca Canyon, which is about 3 hours from the city.
The canyon, which is the deepest in the world, can be visited by bus,
with a guided day tour, or you can opt to hike the canyon for several
days. Being pressed for time, we decided to take the easy option and
simply visit the canyon as part of a guided tour - and weren't we
disappointed! Our tour left Arequipa at 3.30am and we were told we
would be at the canyon in 4 hours. After 2 hours of driving around
Arequipa looking for the various pick-up points, we found ourselves
back outside our hostel with a very confused guide and a heap of
pissed-off customers. Upon reaching the canyon, several hours later,
the shitty excuse for a tour began. Stop after stop the guide
attempted to explain elements of the towns en-route, but never explained anything about the canyon itself.
Group selfie - Colca Canyon, Peru.
The highlight of the day was seeing
the Andean Condors that inhabit the area and seeing first-hand how
big they actually are (their wingspan can be up to 3.2m).
From Arequipa
we took an overnight bus back to Lima in order to catch a flight up
to our next destination - Iquitos and the Amazon.
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