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Ed's Travels
After the long jpurnay from Arequipa we eventually arrived in Chivay in time for a loate lunch. The drive to get to Chivay was a real experience. The views on the first partof the drive were absolutely stunning, of the surrounding volcanoes which were capped with snow.Then after about an hour and a half we turned off the nice smooth tarmac road onto a very rough and uneven road for the rest of the journay to Chivay. Even in the nice comfortable bus we were in it was still not very comfortable. This was twinned by the fact that we were going to be passing over the highest point of the trip at 4920 ft. So we all began to really fell the effects of the altitude. We were encouraged to chew on Coca leaves which we duly did. The only problem was that they taste absolutely disgusting. Any way, with the chewing of the leaves and gallons of water i did not fell too bad, i just had a dull headache.
When we reached Chivay we had a late lunch in a local restaurant before heading over to the hotel which was really nice. It would not have looked out of place in the alps. It was a sort of chalet with a roring log fire with seats around to keep warm because as we were in the mountains it gets very cold at night. A couple of us felt well enough to walk halfway up the big hill behind the hotel, but even though we were felling well, at about 3800ft it was quite tough on the lungs.
Supper was a buffet affair and was really tasty with a huge spread of local dishes. I then retired for an earlly night as we had to be up at 5 the next morning because we were going in search of Condors.
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