Arequipa and Colca Canyon

Arequipa…the Lonely Planet calls it “an irresistibly sexy city”…we say, “meh”. Although an alright city in which to spend a couple of days, overall the highlights of Arequipa were, in this order:

·      Our super-comfortable bed with soft sheets and perfect pillows at an otherwise unremarkable hostel

·      A visit to an almost 500-year old convent, Monastario Santa Catalina. It was mainly for upper-class women, so their rooms often included private kitchens, servants’ quarters and opulent decorations. It was one of the most photogenic buildings we have visited (PHOTOS HERE & HERE)

·      Good food at a variety of tourist-oriented restaurants, including a couple of bottles of wine in tree covers

·      Visiting the local city market’s potato section

·      Leaving

We booked a two-day hiking trip to the Colca Canyon while in Arequipa. The Colca Canyon is about a 3-hour drive from the city, and extends for several hundred km from there. It is now recognized as the deepest canyon in the world, at over 4000 meters deep. It is possible to walk down into the canyon at various points along dirt donkey paths. So that is what we did.

The geography and geology of the area are both quite stunning. On our drive (which began at 3am) from Arequipa to the canyon, fading in and out of consciousness and sleeping in strange minivan seat positions, we went over a pass that is above 5000m high at sunrise. It looked a lot like what I imagine Mars would: red rock, no vegetation, skiffs of ice and snow, and hazy light. The canyon itself had a wide variety of geological formations and colours, as well as vegetation ranging from scrubs to large cacti to lush plants and palm trees. All arable land has long ago been formed into terraces by famers so you can also see corn, cereals, potatoes and other crops growing along the hillsides.

After doing other hikes, this one didn’t seem as spectacular. It was a long hike down to the canyon bottom and took almost the whole day. One of the girls in our group fainted from the heat and it was interesting to see how the guides used local plants and a flower water (timolina) to help stabilizer her. By the time it was over our legs were jello. We spent the night in a mini-oasis in adobe huts with thatched roofs. After we had a couple of beer and cleared the room of spiders and any other creepy crawlies, we were exhausted and it was easy to fall asleep early. 

We ate standard Peruvian fare for lunch, dinner and breakfast during the trek. A highlight was that in Peru you often get delicious olives with every meal, even breakfast. The sharp taste actually wakes you up. After our climb out of the canyon (which I barely made), we spent a lovely hour not moving while soaking in some hot springs.

On our drive back, we saw huge herds of wild llamas and alpacas. (Sidebar: you can tell the different between them because llamas have “long everything” – faces, necks, legs, tails, and alpacas have “shorter everything”. At least that’s how our Inca Trail guide explained it). And, we got to see a small herd of vicuñas! This is quite exciting, as they are not that common. Oh, and we saw a couple of Andean Condors. Nothing close enough to get a good picture, but we saw them. They are an important symbolic bird in South America, both now and historically. They are also endangered, and have a giant wingspan. But that doesn’t change the fact that they are quite ugly.

Two hours after arriving back in town we were on another overnight bus (very posh: internet, big comfy seats, movies, and they even played bingo!).  Off to Pisco.