Arequipa and Colca Canyon
Trip Start
Oct 10, 2006
1
63
110
Trip End
Ongoing
Arequipa, ***, Colca Canyon, **,
Peru
Sunday, April 29, 2007
Reached Arequipa on a night bus from Ica on the Sunday. It was pretty dead with a lot of places closed but I still did a quickie run around to the main sites of the city.
A really picturesque city with a huge plaza with a centrally located fountain, manicured lawns, looming palm trees, a beautiful cathedral to its north and a large quantity of French-renaissance-style windows in front of the surrounding buildings. Just a few blocks north of the Cathedral was the old Santa Catalina monastery which used to be home to hundreds of nuns living hedonistic lives. It was also possible to see the perfectly-shaped, snow capped cone of active volcano of El Misti (5822m) in the background.
One of the main reasons for coming to Arequipa was to do a tour to the Colca Canyon which is the second deepest canyon in the world measuring 3,600 meters deep and 128 kilomertres long. It is second only to Colca Cotahuasi, also located in Peru, which is deeper by a mere 163m.
Said to be twice as deep as the Grand Canyon, Colca Canyon failed to impress me. It neither looked deeper or more beautiful that the photos I have seen of the Grand Canyon. It did not have any shimmering moments and it literally looked like a few mountains pieced together. I think the measuring men (and women) literally just took note the highest peak of the canyon and then dug for the deepest section and it did not matter if they were a kilometre or more apart.
The only redeeming moment in the Colca Canyon tour (which was basically two days of driving in a bus with the exception of a trip to thermals, a dinner with a very touristy folkloric show and an overnight stay) was the sighting of the Andean Condor, the beautiful black bird, whose effortless gliding really is a spectacular sight. Its presence can be seen daily on the Cruz del Condor (3,320m) which is also said to be home to the most impressive parts of the canyon. (Ahem!)
The Condor is the second largest bird in the world but is considered the fastest. The condor is a very large bird and I was glad of its vulture status cos I wouldn`t fancy my chances if one stooped down to pick on my ickle head.
Really glad I saw the Condor but I would find it difficult to recommend this tour. I would have been bored out of my brains on the bus only for the company of three sound Irish lads from Limerick and the fact that Tuesday was a bank hol in Peru for labour day. The bus was, therefore, full of Peruvians so I managed to practise a little Spanish. In fact, I`ve spoken more Spanish in a week and a half than in the six months I`ve been travelling with Collins.
I also had a bit of a fascination with watching the interaction between two sisters and their cousin. One of the sisters obviously had a bit of a thang going on with the couz as they were more touchy feely than Posh and Becks. The Irish boys nearly got sick when I told them they were cousins so it wasn`t just my powerful imagination as Wonder Mum would probably say.
I got sitting beside the "uninvolved" Sis on the second day and got chatting to her. Eventually we got onto the subject of their family etc. It turns out that the sis and couz know each other all their lives. When I asked if it was common for cousins to be couples in Peru, she opened her beautifully-painted brown eyes in shock and said "they`re not a couple, they`re just close!"-
Riteo honey, I thought, as I glanced over at the two staring into each other`s eyes...they say "love is blind" but obviously a sister`s incestuous love is even blinder!
The evening of the second day, I hailed a bus to Puno which is located near the border with Bolivia. Sat up on the steps beside the bus driver for six hours cos there were no seats and ended up having to stay in undesirable Puno for longer than I wanted for a second time (also in 2004) due to the short hours of the Bolivian border. Arrived in Puno, listened to a German drone on bout his hatred of Russians at dinner, then fell into bed. Got up at 5am to head to Bolivia`s crazy capital La Paz, Bolivia where I was going to be reunited with Don Juan...
