Arequipa and Colca Canyon
Trip Start
Sep 05, 2007
1
18
38
Trip End
Feb 24, 2008
Arequipa,
Peru
Sunday, November 18, 2007
There are some interesting things to see in Arequipa. It was hot and sunny already when I headed out to town around 9am after showering, etc. There's a really nice main plaza (and cathedral), again called Plaza de Armas (seemingly the name of every main plaza here in Peru). There's also the Santa Catalina convent, which is more or less like a small town inside the city (separated with high walls). It was founded in 1580 by a widow who chose her nuns from wealthy Spanish families
01 - Plaza de Armas
. It was just opened to the public in 1970, but nuns do still live there. But it's a fun place to wander around, with little courtyards, streets, etc. You can go inside many of the rooms and old nuns' quarters.I then went to a museum to see Juanita, a frozen Inca girl sacrificed over 500 years ago on the summit of the Ampato volcano (6,288 meters high). You first watch a short video about how she and some other sacrificed children were discovered, and then you go on a guided tour to see various things related to them, for example objects with which they were sacrificed, such as their clothes and offerings to the gods -- small statues, etc. At the end, you actually see Juanita, in a case which is held at several degrees below zero. She's been preserved really well and looks like a real person, pretty cool to see.
I also had my first ceviche in Peru (figured it would be safe to eat, since the place was recommended by Lonely Planet) at Cevicheria Fory Fay. It was really good -- I had the mixto, a combination of fish and shellfish ceviche. For some reason the chef was sitting at the table next to me and I ended up talking to him for a while -- he had lived in NYC from 1965 to 1980, working in restaurants, and still goes back to visit for a couple of weeks every year, since his kids live in the States
02 - Mountains outside of Arequipa
. Overall, it's a fairly nice city, and less touristy than Cusco (though there are still some rather touristy sections). There are a few very large mountains/volcanoes (around 6,000 meters) nearby which are visible from the city itself. It's also famous for having many buildings built out of a white volcanic rock called sillar (giving Arequipa the name of "The White City").
I also booked a tour of the Colca Canyon for the next day (3 days, 2 nights). So the following day, I was ready at 5:30am to be picked up for the tour. As seems to be the theme with all of these tours where I need to be picked up really early, my ride was late. Finally, at almost 6am, a taxi with a person from the travel agency showed up and off we went to the bus station. The bus was apparently meant to leave at 6am, and as we got there a few minutes later, it was already pulling away when I got to it, but luckily I made it on. The bus then drove 6 hours, with one stop, to Cabanaconde, a small town which is a base for hikes into the canyon. We had lunch (I was starving, since I wasn't able to get any breakfast that early at my hostel) and then started our hike to the canyon. There were 8 of us in the group and one guide.
03 - Santa Catalina Convent
Caņon del Colca is the second deepest canyon in the world at 3,191 meters deep (the deepest canyon is just next to Colca and is only 163 meters deeper). That's about twice as deep as the Grand Canyon.
It took about 3-4 hours to get to the bottom of the canyon (our descent was 1km, so this obviously wasn't the deepest point of the canyon). It was around 5:30pm when we got to the place we'd be spending the night, a small hostel right by the village of San Juan de Chuccho. It was a really cool location, a small green area with great views of the surrounding canyon. After showering and hanging out a bit, we had dinner and then headed off to sleep.
The next day we were woken up at 6am and started hiking between 7-7:30 after eating some breakfast. There was a mix of uphill and downhill as we walked on a trail on the side of the canyon and went through a couple of small villages. We stopped at one to go to a small museum about the life of people in that area -- this was also where I tried chicha, a homemade corn beer. It was pretty good, though I was a bit worried about how sanitary it was (the Lonely Planet says chicha's fermenation process begins with someone chewing the corn).
04 - Gate to Cabanaconde
Our first big destination for the day was an oasis at the bottom of the canyon, and after a long downhill, we got there before lunchtime (total trip time up to that point of about 3-4 hours). The oasis had a pool and we all went swimming. The water was a bit cold and had dead bugs floating in it, but it was refreshing. After lunch, we had to make a decision. The trip itinerary called for staying the night at the oasis and then waking up at 2am to hike to the top of the canyon. The other option was to leave that same day at 3pm for the hike to the top of the canyon and spend the night in Cabanaconde. Personally, I much preferred the second option since I didn't want to wake up at 2am (and hike in the dark). Luckily, the rest of the group did as well, and we headed out around 3pm (first a few of us walked down to the river, where there was a small waterfall).
I think doing the Inca Trail had given me a false sense of confidence about being able to easily handle any more hikes. But going up to the top of the canyon was tough. Vertically, it was 900 meters (nearly 3,000 feet) and the path was all uphill, just zig-zagging its way up the side of the canyon. The altitude is not as high as much of the Inca Trail (though still high, with Cabanaconde at 3,200 meters above sea level) so that made it relatively easier I guess
05 - Colca Canyon
. It took us 2 hours and 45 minutes and my legs were really dead by the time we got to the top. We then continued walking another 20-30 minutes to Cabanaconde, where we checked into a hostel and later on had dinner.We had breakfast at 6:30 the next morning, at which point our guide was supposed to meet up with us. He didn't show up for a while, and we were kind of just waiting around after finishing breakfast, knowing that we were meant to catch a 7:30 bus. Luckily, he came by at 7:25 and we were able to make the bus. We went to Cruz del Condor, a point from which you're supposed to be able to see condors flying around. We stayed there for about 45 minutes, but, unfortunately, we only saw one condor, and it was apparently a young one (smaller than normal adults). Oh well, at least I'd seen two (or one on two separate occasions) when I was at Machu Picchu.
We then moved on to Chivay (approx. 2 hours away) where we had a buffet lunch (a Russian tour group showed up too, which was amusing to watch). After lunch, half of our group went back to Arequipa since they were catching a bus that evening, and the rest of us continued on to the hot springs, where we stayed for a bit over an hour. They were nice (facilities were definitely better than those near Arshan in Siberia) -- basically pools that were like big hot tubs (there was a sauna too). It felt really good on my sore muscles (sore not only from this latest trek, but also probably still sore from the Inca Trail). Then we took the bus back to Chivay and then 4 hours in a bus to Arequipa. Went to a very local place for dinner last night with a few people from my tour, where I had chicharrones, which is a fried pork dish.
Just bought a ticket for a bus tomorrow at 4pm to Tacna, which is near the Peruvian-Chilean border. I'm not planning to spend any time there, but rather just get to Arica, on the other side of the border, in Chile, and spend a little bit of time in that country. The timing will be a bit tight as my bus is meant to get in at 9pm to Tacna and the last transportation to Arica is at 10pm, but hopefully everything will be on time. Hopefully there won't be any more earthquakes in Chile, as there have been 2 in the past week (a 6.0 one yesterday and a 7.7 one three days before).
Comments
Who knew?
Before your trip I had no idea that Peru had so much to offer, but thanks to your blog Peru is now firmly on top of our future 'must-see' list. What a country! Thanks for sharing your adventures. Good luck in Chile! Dad