Casa Andina Chivay

Whilst in Arequipa I bought a two day tour to the Colca Canyon. I had been warned that two days was not sufficient to do this properly and that it would be a knackering trip and it so proved. The area around Arequipa has the two biggest canyons in the world and it was a real treat to go to the second biggest, Colca. The scenery was absolutely spectacular; really need three or four days to do it justice.<br><br>On the first day we stopped off at ...

My day didn't start until the late afternoon. Until then it had been a series of bumpy dusty roads on crowed buses. <br> Our destination was the Canon Del Colca. <br><br>We saw many wild Condors gliding on up drafts.<br>We tumbled rocks down long steep cliff faces.<br>We threw rocks at wild cows.<br>We walked along dirt roads.<br>We stopped and spoke to farmers irrigating their crops and politely asked for ...

Hey guys!<br><br>Ive just got back from an overnighter at the Colca Canyon up in the Andes. My first taste of altitude.<br><br>We left Arequipa at 8.30am, arriving at Pinchollo around 3pm. Most of the road was the worst gravel, windy, dusty, bone shattering road with shear drops you have ever seen and yet we made it in and out in our bus. We stopped off at the highest point - 4910m - not a lot of air up there!<br><br>After arriving, I was a ...

... noticed the small feline sneak cunningly underneath it´s body to seek solace from the sun. This annoyed Alpaca as why should the small creature not endure the heat just like she did.<br><br>F**k that, thought the furry Alpaca, and promptly parked it´s entire rear end heavily down on the cat´s behind. The onlooking homosapiens gasped and turned the other way in fear of the inevitable. This was surely the end ...

After a 10 hour bus trip that turned into 12 and a half to Arequipa and a brief trip into town to suss out the crack with finding the condors at Colca Canyon, we decided to skip town and head closer to the heart of it all to avoid being ripped too much on the tour front. <br><br>Lonely Planet said it´s better to DIY and I normallly don´t pay any attention to the pile of **** as its 3 years out of date but we decided to go with it for ...

... it left 10 mins before schedule! - with some other crazy gringos who had decided to do the same! It was so bumpy at times, I was actually catapulted out of my seat, but we arrived a few hours later at Cruz del Condor... the indian women got straight into setting up ther stalls, we paid the boleta tourista and found ourselves a good spot to wait... it was freezing cold, as it always is in the mountains at night and early m,orning ...

... t get a shot, but Ian managed an amazing one, looking down onto it.<br> The area we hiked down to was a natural oasis, but the locals had built swimming pools and the like for the tourists which I think ruined it slighlty, but ti was still beautiful. We explored the oasis a little before stopping to fill our bellies full of fuel for the long hike back up. We didn't really want to leave much after 12pm so that we could give ourselves a good 6 ...

I get up really early as a trip from Arequipa to Chivay is long and challenging, even for a bus passenger. It's really hot out there, and the poor outskirts of Arequipa are covered with dust. The bedraggled houses are made of clay and most of them either have no roofs or have roofs in a form of some pieces of cartons plastered with rocks to the bamboo sticks that hold the weird structure altogether. <br><br>The ...