So after arriving to Arequipa at 9am we checked in to the Wild Rover, very first impression was that it looked like a nice, fun hostel.. We wandered around Arequipa for a bit and booked the Colca Canyon trek 3days 2nights, leaving 3am that following morning! Exciting but BAD move. We went back to the hostel to find a packed bar watching the football, everyone was drunk.. Great! We had to be up at 3am and everyone in the hostel by the looks of it at lunchtime wouldnt have even been to bed by then! Ha! We did well thou and just avoided the hostel in order to avoid getting smashed with everyone else!! and ended up in the BEST restuarant EVER that evo! Peru's version of Nandos!! Chicken Palace! Took us about 30minutes to find it, (we'd seen it earlier in the day) but boy was it worth it!!
We were half right about the people not going to bed! People came to bed but got up at random times, like 2:30am! People came running in the rooms etc! It was a little annoying!!

So anyway after a hurrendous 'sleep' we got on the minibus and off we went on to the canyons! It was a four hour journey to the start of the trek in Chivay three quarters of the way up I suffered my first dose of altitude sickness, and OMG i did NOT enjoy it! First my ears went all blocked and wierd then i just felt incredibly sick and light headed.. Like i was about to faint. Oh and i was SOOOO HOT! And seeing as the windows in the minibus were FROZEN because it was that cold, it was such a horrible feeling! I had to open the window, which immediately made people hate me.. :-( ha!! And start giving me altitude sickness tablets and look at me as if i was insane because i didnt have any myself! (1st buy after this trek!)

So after my morning drama we had breakfast where i necked about 3 cups of coca tea (meant to help altitude sickness) and off we went.. First stop was to see the Condor birds! f*** ME they were massive! Like im not joking flew literally metres above your head, with a wing span of 3 meters! They were TERRIFYING! I hate birds anyway, always get the feeling they are about to fly straight into me so this was scaryyyy!

So after that terrifying experience we started the trek. 3hours downhill! Sounds like an easy walk but it wasnt! It was longgg and boring! Yeye the first look at the view was immense but try looking at the excat same view for 3 hours.. Yawnnn! After that we arrived at the hostel which we were staying for the night.. It was nice. They had no electricity so we had candles and all played this card game called s***head. We were all in bed for 8:30 and slept straight throu til 7!! Party onn! Haha!

The second day was better we walked up and down hill and we walked round the canyon so the view changed!! We went throu several villages too which i couldnt actually believe people lived there! No tv, no elecricity, no internet... No nothing!! We also ate catcus! Wow it was amazing! We obviously didnt eat the spikey stuff but the inside looked a bit like a kiwi but was sooo sour! After about another 1:30hours walking we then arrived at Paradise Lodge. And OH DEAR LORD, it was beauuuu-ti-ful! Right in the middle of the canyon, boiling hot (until about 4pm then f***ing freezing) swimming pool in the rocks and then little bamboo huts that we slept in! Amazing!! Could easily stay here a few days but only got one afternoon! :-(

So after our afternoon at the paradise lodge we had to get up at 4:45AM! It was pitch black, freezing and i was NOT happy! Then we had to start a 3 hour trek up the SIDE OF A MOUNTAIN! (quite literally)! It was a killer.. Thing that annoyed me was that was no end result, no point to it! We had already seen the views into the canyon so we were really just walking to get out.. Once we finally got to the top, attempted to regain oxygen, we had to walk a further 25minutes to get breakfast!! NOT IMPRESSED! Ha! Egg and bread thou so i was happy enough when we got it! :-)

Then we started the drive back to Arequipa, stopping first at the hot springs, which smelt so bad of rotten eggs I didnt go in.. You had to pay to go in as well, and the people that did go said that the showers were hotter than the 'hot springs' which meant the springs must have been like a lukewarm bath.. Niiiaaaaccceee

Then we went to another little village (no idea what it was called) and had photos with Llamas and Alpacas, sooooo CUTE!!

Then we headed off again for food! Omg this buffet was aaaammmazzing! £5 for all you could eat! Went up about three times ha! (to the point that i did actually feel so so sick!)

The bus then continued up to 5000m to see some volcano things.. It was freezing, i got out for 30 secs and got straight back on the bus, and you couldnt even see what or where these volcanos were.. Pointless!!

Finally then we actually returned to Arequipa and we got straight on a 10 hour overnight bus to Cuzco! Oh the joys! Overal we did enjoy the colca canyons and were so so glad we did the three day trek otherwise i wouldnt be here to write this! It also made me realise that i am going to have to pay some poor pervian guy to carry my rucksack when we do Machu Picchu because it hurt so much!!

Speak soon! Muchos love

XxX