Hostal Santa Catalina Cusco

We arrived in Arequipa early in the morning at around 6.30am. We had read that the climate in Arequipa was perfect with only 5 days a year without sunshine and we certainly were not disappointed on arrival. Arequipa is set in a valley surrounded by numerous snow peaked volcanos. It is a quite spectacular setting. We caught a taxi to our hostal and dumped our bags. We were hoping to meet up with Tess and Matt (of Inca Trail fame) who we knew were staying at the same hostal, but we figured that...

Hallo zusammen, wir sind gerade in Arequipa und eigentlich wollten wir vor einer Stunde mit dem Bus zum beruemten Colca Canyon fahren, aber leider haben wir keinen Bus mehr bekommen, deswegen muessen wir jetzt bis ein Uhr nachts die Zeit totschlagen. Jetzt ist es gerade 15:00. Aber dafuer haben wir jetzt endlich genug Zeit um unseren Blog zu aktualisieren. Wir sind also vor eineinhalb wochen von Cusco mit dem Nachbus los und sind nach Nasca gefahren wo die Weltberuehmten Nascalinien sind. In ...

HOwever, Sarah and I have tried to make the best of things in Peru in the meantime. We landed in Lima ("a shithole", according to, errm, me) and the plan was to leave quickly for the mountains in Huaraz. Plans were quickly scuppered by a national strike/protest against general stuff, which meant that the main Pan-Americana highway was barricaded and we couldn´t get through. Lima at this time of year is covered by a thick layer of grey smog which makes it about as attractive as a wet weekend i...

Just when I thought the worst of my bus journeys were over I got a full cama sauna from Cusco to Arequipa - it was so hot that all my clothes were soaked with sweat and I even had to take my t-shirt off for a while. Most unpleasant. The bus that is, not me with my t-shirt off. I'm hot.



Arriving at 5.30 in the a.m. was not ideal either, but thankfully the nice bloke in Hostal Santa Catalina was willing to let me check in and go to bed for a while. Arequipa is much cheaper than C...

While trekking in the canyon, we got talking to one of our temporary fellow adventurers, an American named Mahlon. Turns out he was quite keen, as were a few of us, to try to scale one of the volcanic peaks standing sentinel-like overlooking Arequipa. The choice was either El Misti, the slightly cheaper (US$65), stand-alone conular mound of steep brown slopes, culminating at 5850m or so, or else Nevado Chachani, a multi-peaked snow-capped mountain range rising to 6075m but costing and extra U...