Travel Diary: Lima, Arequipa and trekking Colca Canyon

Lima, the capital of Peru, was a very welcome surprise of beautiful buildings and stunning coast line.  A true city in my opinion, bustling with relaxed looking locals, shopping malls and lots of art.  Then we headed into canyon country and based ourselves in Peru's second largest city, Arequipa.  Arequipa is absolutely beautiful nestled in between snow capped mountains.  My favourite city yet.  And finally an epic 3 day trek in Canyon del Colca. 19 May - Lima Having travelled through the night our bus arrived in Lima at 7am.  At the bus depo we were unfortunately stuck with the most awful looking taxi. We literally thought it was going to break down on the motorway which is a seriously scary thought since nobody stops for anyone, plus our driver was a crazy one, beeping and shouting at everyone - even if he was the one that pulled out on them! The taxi managed to get us to our requested location in the heart of Lima to Kokopelli Hostel in Miraflores. This is the same hostel we stayed at in Mancora and it was pretty good. On arrival the hostel advised they only had 2 single beds available in an 8 bed dorm which wouldn’t be ready until 10am. Peruvians live on a different time, a very slow, unhurried time.  This meant our beds were not ready until 1pm.  In the meantime we had breakfast and tried to relax on the noisy roof terrace. On checking in the manager had decided to give us a double room with a shared bathroom, at a discounted rate. We had had enough by this point and just needed some sleep so we paid the extra money and went off to our room to sleep. In the afternoon we took a stroll around Miraflores and ended up at the LarcoMar shopping centre which is a really pretty, open fronted shopping mall on the edge of the cliffs of Lima. They even had some pretty decent shops but since we are in the capital the prices are high,typical. In the evening we took the advice of the receptionist and went to a little cafe called La Lucha and ordered what he had said. It ended up being a seriously yummy pork roll and sweet potato chips ... good choice. After taking some nice night-time photos of the lit up cathedral in the park we headed back to the hostel to try the infamous Pisco Sour. Ergggghhhhh! This concoction was made up of about 10 lemon/limes and some potent alcohol and it was disgusting! How this is their national drink I don’t know. The bar was pretty quiet and we were pretty tired to so headed to bed after this. 20 May This morning we slept in late then went for our free breakfast at midday (well one was free but we had to buy another each as the portion was so small). This evening we are heading to Arequipa, the start of canyon country.  We spent the day mooching around LarcoMar shopping centre and continued to walk along the coast watching the surfers and the paragliders. We eventually reached the paragliding take off point which looked so dodgy as you literally take off on a sheer cliff! There is obviously no health and safety as there are loads of paragliders all landing and taking off at the same time and they go so close to the buildings and cliff edges it looks like they are going to crash. We’ll give this activity a miss I think! The rest of the afternoon we chilled out at the hostel before going back to La Lucha for dinner as it was so good. Our taxi came along at 7pm and he was even crazier than the last. We have had some crazy ones but this one was in a league of his own. I think he was even sniffing coke on the way! Shaun even took a video as evidence and this only spurred him on more – what a nightmare! We were boarded onto our bus at 8pm and to our utter dismay they were awful seats. The seats weren’t the spacious leather ones we had come to expect in South America. The films they played were also in Spanish so this was going to be a very long 9 hours. 21 May At 11 this morning after 16 hours on the bus we finally arrived in Arequipa (pronounced A-re-key-pa) which is Peru’s second largest city in the middle of the desert at a huge altitude of 2230 meters (quite a difference from Lima where we were at sea level). Arequipa translates into ‘the land between the volcanoes’ as it is nestled between some huge volcanoes including El Misti which are all snow capped which looks stunning. This is the first time we have seen snow in South America, we are hoping to do some skiing. We got a taxi to our hostel, Pirwa Hostel, which of course the taxi driver had no idea where it was as usual. He eventually found it and it looked pretty good from the outside which is a very good sign. We checked into a 4 bed dorm and luckily no one else had checked in so we have paid a cheaper rate for our own room any way (£20 for the 2 of us for 2 nights). After a little lie down we went out to explore the city. Like many Peruvian cities the main area is around a plaza and this one is beautiful! On one side of the plaza is an amazing cathedral and on the other 3 sides are shops and restaurants and travel agents all based in amazing white buildings made out of white volcanic rock. The plaza itself has a nice fountain in the middle and is bustling with people. For tea we ate at one of the restaurants in the plaza and watched the sunset. It was really amazing because they light up the cathedral and behind that is El Misti which the sun sets behind. 22 May After a nice lie in we went out into the town to find some brunch. We ended up at a posh looking roof top terrace and on the menu was Alpaca and Guinea Pig!! We couldn’t quite face guinea pig for breakfast so Shaun had an alpaca steak along with a litre of sangria! The alpaca steak wasn’t as we expected as it tasted and looked like a pork steak ... maybe they ran out of alpaca! Sticking with the alpaca theme we went into one of the many alpaca shops and stocked up on some alpaca goodies including a pair of gloves each, a pair of socks each, a small rug and a funky mask. We couldn’t resist as it’s so cheap, we had all of this for under £20 and it’s about time we start buying souvenirs to take home. In the evening we headed out in the town and found the shopping street and on the street was a kfc, star bucks and a burger king ... you can’t escape them so Shaun made us have KFC. We were in bed by 9pm to get some sleep before out 3am pick up for our 3 day trek in Canon del Colca. 23 May At 3.30am the mini van picked us up and we were on our way to Chivay. A few freezing hours later we arrived in Chivay for breakfast. Breakfast consisted of a few flat rolls, butter, jam and tea! Not quite the hearty breakfast we were expecting before a huge hike. We hopped back into the mini van and our first stop was the Cruz del Condor viewpoint. From here you are supposed to see condors flying around the canyon but we had no such luck. Instead there are between 50 and 70 tourists all fighting for space at the edge of the canyon and traditionally dressed Peruvian woman trying to sell alpaca souvenirs. I couldn’t resist and bought a tiny alpaca jumper for Riley, my new born nephew. A short drive over a gravel winding road we made it to the starting point of the trek. The group on the bus all split up and we were put into groups and given a guide. As luck would have it our guide, Roy, looked like he had had a stroke, one side of his face and neck had fallen slightly, and he was rather abrupt too as he told us to go! We walked for 20 minutes down a tarmac road before moving onto the gravel path on the side of the road. All of the groups (those taking 2 day and those taking 3 like us) stopped at the edge of the canyon and given a briefing of the next few days. Our guide didn’t really say much apart from point out the endless looking zigzag in the canyon opposite which we would be trekking the following day. That was that, off we went down and around the canyon for 4 and a half hours! Not so long into the trek did we realise we were painfully unprepared! Neither of us have trekking boots or the correct clothing so 2 hours in Shaun’s knee really started hurting from improper foot wear. This progressively got worse and he ended up limping through the pain. Our guide, of course, was also painfully unprepared with no first aid, ropes or anything of any use in his bag! I was in just a bad state because I decided the previous day to do some squats and lunges in preparation only to completely stiffen up my legs today it was stupidly painful to walk down hill! Trekking, it seems, is not for us – this is not our idea of fun! We finally made it to the bridge which we had been promised all day as the end of the down hill decent – we have never been so happy to see a crappy bridge! Following a short rest it was then 25 excruciating minutes of walking up the cliff and through the forest and we finally made it to the hostel. Shortly after we arrived lunch was served. A little more substantial than breakfast but still nowhere near enough food! It consisted on a quinoa soup and a main dish of rice and vegetables. After lunch we were shown our rooms for the night. Well ... we had a private room at least but it the worse accommodation we have ever seen! There were 3 single beds in the hut which had a straw roof and no lights, no electricity, no nothing apart from a few dusty old alpaca blankets on the bed! And it was freezing! Everyone else’s rooms were just as bad so we just have to deal with it! A few of us had a beer in the ‘garden’ and got to know one another. As the sun went behind the canyon we both quickly showered in the outside ‘solar’ heated shower and had to tuck up in the single bed together to get warm. With all of the clothes we had brought with us on plus our beanie hats we were still cold! As we were laying there we both thought each other was shaking the bed until the glass in the window started to shake and we could feel the earth beneath us moving side to side “IT’S AN AVELANCHE” Shaun shouts and drags me outside and knocks on next doors room! Hooker said it was just an earthquake and not to worry they are very common here, after all we are in a canyon! 2 more short rumbles followed which you could hear growling in the canyon! Finally dinner was called which was pretty much the same as lunch and we could finally go to sleep ... well try! 24 May After what seemed like an endless night in the freezing dusty conditions the alarm went off for our 8.30 breakfast, pretty much the same, cardboard bread and butter again. We started trekking at 9 and had a nice flat walk for 3 hours along a path carved into the side of the canyon – we were now actually starting to enjoy ourselves. Some children even take this same route to get to the school in the next village which is ridiculous. We have complete respect for the people that live in these 10 communities down here but why you would ever chose to I don’t know, life is so hard! Roy our guide cut down Shaun a length of bamboo to aid his sore knee – he looked like a shepherd leading his herd! Before heading downhill again we came to a huge clearing which was used by the Incas for agriculture. As no water flows in that part anymore the locals use it as a Saturday football ground. They come from all over the canyon, some walking for hours up and down to reach the game – some dedication to their team! From here we could finally see the oasis - a light at the end of today’s walk! We walked down the gravel path for about an hour before reaching yet another bridge and eventually made it to our accommodation for the night. Last night we thought it couldn’t get any worse but being South America of course it can! Again we had a private hut but with a double bed but the hut was made out of mud bricks and bamboo screens for walls!!! On the plus side it was a lot warmer here and we had a natural pool to swim in! We took a freezing shower and had a few beers in the garden before Roy lit an amazing fire for us at the back of the canyon. Shortly after dinner was ready, again pretty much the same deal as yesterday. 25 May This morning was the dreading 5.30am start! Without any breakfast and light just peaking over the canyon we started trekking up the side of the canyon which would eventually take us 3 and a half hours to reach the top. We climbed from an altitude of 2160 meters at the oasis up to 3287 meters at the town of Cabanaconde. About an hour from the top my legs gave out and it was the biggest struggle of my life to get them to move one in front of the other. Doing a hike this hard without any breakfast is a really stupid idea! Shaun was racing off ahead even with his knee still hurting and everyone else was at least 10 minutes ahead of us! Quite embarrassing! At a snail’s pace I finally reached top and met everyone else where we had our triumphant final group photo and a well needed banana each! From here we took a pretty flat walk through the cattle fields to the town of Cabanaconde for breakfast. This breakfast was slightly more impressive than the last 2 with the addition of scrambled eggs! Still not enough energy though! A mini van then came to pick us up and take us to Chivay via a few scenic stops. Firstly we stopped at a view point to see the Inca agricultural land and then at a beautiful white catholic church where some guy chucked an eagle on Shaun’s head and we tried a Colca Sour. This is the same deal as a Pisco Sour but made with the fruit of a cactus and raw egg and was really yummy! Next up were the stinky hot pools - yet some more thermal springs. There are 2 different man-made pools of different temperatures but we got in one and stayed there too tired to move! This really made our legs go to jelly sitting in 38 degree water. Thankfully as we were starving we were taken to Chivay for lunch, an amazing buffet! From here we were to make the journey back to Arequipa stopping to see a few things of tourist interest along the way. Firstly we stopped at the volcano view point. You can see the 8 (it think) snow capped volcanoes all around you from here - it’s spectacular!! We drove on and suddenly stopped to see the llamas aka we got a flat tyre and had to stop on the side of the road next to a field on llamas!! As always our driver was a maniac and drove at horrific speeds along the rocky winding roads and ended up getting a flat tyre. Everyone one was more interested in watching them manoeuvre rocks to prop up the mini van then see the llamas! Without hesitation we speed off again and me and Shaun were making silent prayers that the wheel was on correctly! Finally feeling exhausted and tired we arrived back in Arequipa at 6.30pm. We ended up really enjoying the trek, Roy turned out to be quite chirpy in the end and we had a fantastic group with us plus it was an amazing achievement to reach the end ... next up Machu Picchu! A la perchoine, Jodie & Shaun xx