Mike Saves Kitten From Alpaca

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  Colca Valley, Peru
Sunday, August 12, 2007

Day 10:  Today we are heading on our first real guided tour of the trip - we're going for two nights to Colca Valley.  We are a bit nervous about the whole guided tour thing because neither of us likes the idea of being forced to be with other people we won't necessarily like for such long periods of time and having to go where other people tell us to go...so we'll see...  Getting to Colca Valley isn't very convenient on the public bus (or so we have been told), so that's why we decided to do the tour.  We were happy that it was actually a really small tour with only one other couple going with us.  If we had only been going for one night (which seemed to be the typical trip) we would have had to go on a big bus with 50 other people.  Now, that would be a nightmare.  We had a driver, Miguel, and an English-speaking guide, Joel.  It took about 4 hours to get to our hotel.  We made many stops along the way at different look-out points,  to drink tea, look at ice on the mountain, and look at vicuņas, llamas, and alpacas.  I can definitely tell which is the vicuņa, they're small and cute, but I still get confused between the llamas and alpacas.  We could've done without probably half the stops (which Mike got tired of and definitely started seeing as nothing but attempts to get us to support the local economy; being paraded past more stands of the same wool hats and blankets and other crap and kids and women dressed in the traditional way trying to get money for a picture, etc), but it was still better than a public bus.

We got to the hotel in time for their buffet lunch.  They had a grill and were cooking up some alpaca and chicken.  It was a little odd to eat the alpaca because they had a pet alpaca at the hotel, named Spot, and he was just laying there right near the grill.  The alpaca wasn't nearly as good as it was at Zig Zag.  Anyway, we had some time to relax before our hike.  So far, the group thing is going ok.  At 4pm, we headed up a mountain.  It was a little harder than we thought it would be because of the altitude, but it was a really nice hike.  And Mike's question, does anyone know when everyone started calling hikes "treks"?  Are they different things or is trek a broader term encompassing the word hike?  We saw the biggest and coolest hummingbird on the hike.  I can't believe how much bigger it is than the regular ones we have in the US.  I think it might actually be called the Giant Hummingbird.  Anyway, it was really pretty.  We reached the top of the mountain just as the sun went behind the mountain.  It was beautiful but chilly!  Walking down was much easier.  As we were getting back to the hotel, I noticed that a little kitten was following me and the other girl on the trip.  We stopped and it stopped and meowed at us.  We continued, and it followed us in through the gate of the hotel...where Spot, the alpaca, was spending its evening.  Apparently, the alpaca did not like the kitten invading its space because it walked right up to it and tried to spit on it!  The kitten was hissing at the alpaca.  It was quite a stand-off until Mike picked the kitten up, and placed it outside the fence so the alpaca couldn't get it.  Mike saved the kitten!  And Mike doesn't even like cats!

We had dinner at the hotel with the other couple.  So far, traveling with a tour group is ok...tomorrow we go to the Colca Canyon to watch the early flight of the condors.

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