Colca Inn Hotel Chivay

After one night in Arequipa Mary and I took a 2 days tour to the Colca Canyon (the 2nd deepest on earth).
Along the way to Chivay the bus stopped at a lot of "miradores" where we could enjoy the andean landscape at nearly 5000 meter above sea level. We also stopped to observe the wild vicuñas and llamas at their natural envirement.
As the way to Chivay is so high i get a bit headache because of the altitude. But as we knew it will be like that we tried to adapt us with natural things a...

Woke up early for breakfast. The tour group bus, dropped by my hostel to pick me up, was the last passenger on the filled bus (12). We saw llamas, viscunas and alpaca along the way to Chivay which we stopped for pictures. The view of the canyon was awesome! We had buffet in Chivay, which was very good and would recommend it anytime. We were dropped off at our Hotels for rest then was picked up whoever wanted to goto the Hot Springs, since it was near my end of trip I decided to do it. WOW! It...

We left Arequipa around 8 AM for a bus tour to the Colca Canyon. It was an amazing drive with beautiful scenary the entire way. We stopped at a few small villages and scenic spots. At each stop 20 or so local women were all setup to sell hats and gloves to tourists. Ok, we bit. First, Julie bought a sweater, and then a hat, and then I bought gloves and a hat. But these local chicks don't know when to stop. How many freakin hats and gloves are people going to buy?! Why not see something useful...

We got up at 5 AM this morning! Our room was nice and warm but as soon as we left the room the rest of the hotel was freezing. We ate a small breakfast (with instant coffee) and tried to keep warm until it was time to board the bus again. Even though we were still tired, we all appreciated how pretty the morning was with the sun rising over the valley. Then the road got a little rough, and then rougher, and then we were bouncing all over the road. The road that barely seemed wide enough for s...

Our local guide Pepe picked us up in our private bus for our 2 day excursion to Colca Canyon. We were going to be traveling through some pretty high altitudes so our first stop was a shop to buy some coca leaves. Once back on the bus we had our practice session. There was a little rock of sillar supplied. You wrapped 5-6 leaves around it, put it in your mouth and chew, then left it in your cheek. It tasted quite bitter and I wasn´t too happy about the bits of rock. After a while, my tongue an...

On the 1st we took a bus journey up into the mountains we passed the highest point I have been so far 4900m the locals at that point build a pile of stones to make a wish so felt i should do the same. We have been staying in some fairly basic hostels but all very clean and friendly and have only had to share with one girl on the trip, but this one was fab had a fire in the breakfast room which smelt great and even gave us a hot water bottle ready done as we came in at the end of the night! To...