"A f**king big ridge and some birds". This was the description given of the Colca Canyon by a guy we overheard in the street. Luckily, the two-day trip was a lot better than that. We got picked up at our Hostel at about 8am on the morning of the first day and set off for Chivay, the main town on the way to see the Colca Canyon and, hopefully, sp...

Vrijdag 16 mei 2008 Hehe, blijkbaar is laat uitgaan en (veel) drinken de boodschap voor mij waneer ik naar grote hoogtes reis!?! Arequipa ligt op 2300 m ongeveer. In 3u tijd rijden we naar 4900 m hoogte, dus dat is toch wel een serieuze stijging! Enne... ik heb niets, maar dan ook niets last van de hoogte. Geen hoofdpijn, geen longpijn, geen dui...

We still weren´t sick of walking, so we took a 3 day tour in the Colca Canyon. The first day brought us to our highest altitude yet: a 4800m mountain pass after crossing a desolate high plain with scattered herds of llama, vicuña and alpaca. We descended on a rather hairy winding road into a town called Chivay, which has a hot springs as well as...

The trip to Chivay was a disappointment in some ways.  We have had such wonderful guides our whole trip, so this guide, who stopped the tour bus every 500 feet to point out another place where we could buy (the same) handicrafts from a tourist stand, and see the "corns and beans and maize" growing in the valley was a disappointment.  Also, the h...

This is being partly transcribed from written notes...haven´t been near a computer for ages. First, to describe our group. The original five who started in Lima were myself, Don (Canadian - the wallet loser), Dee (Irish - by co-incidence best friend of my friend Maureen´s niece - Maureen with whom I´ve often travelled on these sort of trips!) an...

Ustali u 2.30, vozač nemilosrdno točan u 3h pred hostelom, vodičkinja također. Ukrcavamo se nas 4-ero u "Turbo Intercooler" mini-wan i pitamo se koliko će nas jos biti u grupi. Na nase odusevljenje, nema vise nikog - imamo komforni veliki wan za 8 osoba samo za sebe! Nije los taj Peru. (Kasnije tek ćemo shvatiti da ...

In Arequipa wird ich no zum Fruehufsteher... Gester bin ich am Morge am 1 (nei, han mich noed vertippt) parat gsi fuer de Abholservice, nach 3h Schlaf. Han bim Tour-Operator bim Bueche extra 2mal nagfroeget, ob er au wuerklich daenn chumt (nach mine Verspaetigs-Erfahrige in Cusco...) Ja, spaetistens 1.05 isch er det... Si haend mir gseit gha, da...

We just got back from an amazing 2 day trip to the Colca Canyon (Cañon Del Colcá)outside of Arequipa. Our guide Percy picked us up from our hotel along with 5 other tourists. There was Mike and I, a man from Brazil, a Brazilian couple and 2 girls from Chile on our tour. We headed out in a small van toward Chivay which was about 4 hours away. The...

Mit Vorgaben nehmen sies hier ja nicht so genau. Ob Verkehrsregeln ("Rot ist auch ein schoenes Gruen"), Urheberrechten oder in diesem Fall der Kapazitaet von Reisebussen: Offiziell 43 Sitzplaetze? Quatsch, die wollen zu "Wetten dass": Einstweilen sind wohl zweihundert Leute im Bus, auf dem Bus und unten in den Gepaeckfaechern. Abfahrt sollte um ...

Today we returned from our trip to the Colca Canyon. We spent yesterday on the a bus touring through the Parque Nacional enjoying the sights of volcanoes, vicunas, llamas, and alpacas and chewing coca leaves to ease the effects of high altitude. Along the way we stopped at several small villages to look at handcrafted alpaca goods as well as mee...