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After the 10 hour night bus we made it into Arequipa at the respectible time of 5am. Knocking on the door of the hostel and asking to check in at this time seemed a bit cheeky but when you don´t understand what it is thay are shouting at you about anyway its less of a problem!
We spent the day looking around the city and sampling the local cuisine (beer). It was decided that we needed a bit of culture in our lives so we visited one of the many museums where they have the mummy of a young girl sacrificed by the Incas on top of the mountain overlooking the city. She had been completely preserved by the ice and was wierdly interesting if a bit creepy. It was also quite interesting to learn how they selected and killed the sacrifices. Normally they got the prettiest and purest girl drunk and hit them on the head, harsh but effective, pehaps modern society could take note?
The following day we got on a local bus heading to Colca Canyon. Having being my birthday the day before we may have indulged in a couple beers and were not feeling fresh. Little did we realise that the local buses stop for every man, woman and llama. The four hour trip turned into a six and a half hour journey with a bit of vomiting on the way. Classy travel!
We stayed the night at the top of the Canyon in a hostel costing about two quid. It became apparent why when we got inside. They had certainly used their artistic licence on the advertising brocher! I personally thought the childs bloody handprint above my bed gave the room some character......
In the morning we headed down the Canyon. We were told specifically to take the middle path as right hand one was where the cobras were. This perplexed us a little as we were unsure how the cobras knew only to stick to the right hand path, as we had no idea which path started where in any case we walked the first path we came accross.
The canyon is one of the deepest in the world and took over two hours to walk down however at the bottom was a small oasis with a few buildings, beautiful pools and most importantly a bar! It reminded me of a tropical island in the middle of the desert, worth the walk down. We stayed the night in grass huts which neither kept the insects or the cold out. Bloody freezing!
After a wonderful nights sleep we headed back up the canyon,... when you are walking a vertical kilometer its hard to find inspiration knowing the only thing waiting at the top is another 6 hour bus journey in a hot box, but as I was told, pain is only weakness leaving the body, we eventually made it back minus a few litres of sweat.
Tonight I´m off on another night bus to Ica and hopefully some more stories. I´ve formulated a rough plan through Peru now so have some idea of where i'm going..... I'll keep you posted.
Gibb
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