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The weekend really was like a weekend…I spent my days chilling, walking around the town, took a visit to the monastery (which I must add was well worth the visit despite it being 35 soles), eating good food and meeting Alex who had just bid farewell to her boyfriend Oli, who unfortunately for him, had to return to Germany for work (we all walked the Salcantay trek together) J…
and then on Monday I bumped into Chelsea, a girl I met in BA! We had a quick chat but then I had to leave to book myself onto a rafting trip 5 minutes before they were leaving. Yes, well done Kelly, always leaving things to the last minute….still! I don't think this trait will ever change…but it all worked out, and the rafting was great fun. I think the river was on scale 4…so I was told. It wasn't too scary, I will definitely try again on a faster river J Wetsuits and spray jackets were provided which was useful as we did get rather wet, and half way down we all stopped to jump in the river anyway. When we arrived back in town, I managed to find a local restaurant that was jam packed with locals, and the menu del dia only cost 6 soles- we received a soup to start, and then I choose lentils and rice for a main dish and then we received a drink and a small bowl of chopped banana! It seems like banana is a common thing to eat alongside a main dish…and in all fairness it didn't taste too badly at all. The food was very good, the staff were very friendly, which sometimes is hard to find in local places like this, and it was so cheap I have returned 2 more times with Alex since discovering this place! A good find I think, and Alex likes it too J
Exploring the Colca Canyon...
On Tuesday 7th January, Alex and I were packed and all ready to jump on the 8am bus to Cabanaconde. However, we soon came to realise that this wasn't going to happen as when we got to the bus terminal, all the buses were full and we hadn't reserved any seats. We had walked about a mile wondering up and down the 2 bus terminals in search for a bus that wasn't full. To our relief, an hour later, we managed to find an agency that had spaces on the 2pm bus. So after booking ourselves onto this bus, we decided to jump in a combo back to the centre to enjoy the morning. I stopped off to enjoy a delicious egg sandwich and then went back to my hostel to munch on a mango (which by the way, are so delicious and so cheap here…I can buy 2 mangos for 3 soles) I decided to stroll around a rather more sophisticated area of Arequipa, called Yamamaba. I spent 2 hours walking around cute cobbled streets with very expensive looking houses and even came across a shopping mall. I can't remember the last time I saw a proper shopping mall or a big supermarket...it actually felt good to walk around, just to be a little more like reality I guess. Alex and I met back up for lunch at midday and I took her to the cheap local restaurant. This time the meal consisted of a beetroot and potato salad, a pasta and pesto type main course and a juice. It was delicious and so filling. Quite satisfied we made our way back to the bus terminal for our 6 hour journey to Cabanaconde (try saying this out loud...Alex and I are still trying to pronounce this correctly, having had to say it over 30 times to the different bus companies in the morning you would think we were perfect, but...hum, not quite just yet! We now get the name confused with Copacabana…it's not easy this travel business J)
The bus journey was fine...until we were half way into the trip and arrived at a popular village called Chivay. This is where all the tourists stop in the morning to have breakfast before they move on to see the condors, so I thought we would have a few more people join us when we arrived here. Much to our surprise, when we arrived back to the bus from the toilet, we literally could not step back onto the bus. It was heaving with locals on the seats and all down the aisle. We even had to ask 2 men to move out ofour seats. It was literally impossible to move anywhere on the bus...so dangerous and so illegal! 3 hours of being on a jam-packed bus, we arrive in Cabanaconde. We jumped off the bus and grabbed our backpacks...and then looked around to see signs for a hostel. It was spooky town! We could not see further than our noses, we were in the clouds!
I had no idea how big this village was or how far away from the hostels we were. It was 8 o'clock in the evening so the darkness did not help either. Luckily the bus driver was able to point us in the right direction and after just 5 minutes of walking we stumbled across Pachamama hostel. It was a sigh of relief to arrive and to find that it was a nice cosy little hostel with a bar and restaurant which served pizzas, salads and delicious soups...and the atmosphere was great. We were able to negotiate with the lady to pay 15 soles for a dorm room and then enjoyed a coffee and soup in the restaurant before heading to bed.
We were enjoying our free pancake and egg breakfast at 7 in the morning...yes we were up early to start our day trek, only to find that the weather hadn't cleared up at all. We still couldn't see a thing and wouldn't even be able to tell if we were in the mountains or not! After a 2 minute discussion, Alex and I decided it would be best to stay put and hope for better weather tomorrow. After all we were here to trek in the mountains primarily for the views, so it would be a little pointless walking 5 hours in the clouds just for the sake of walking. So we chilled in the hostel, went for a walk around the village (every building looked like it needed to be rebuilt, every calle was pretty much dug up with some sort of road works, every dog looked drugged sleeping on the side of the road, they didn't even bark), we had a nap, read and attempted to read my Spanish book that I bought in Arequipa. We ended up relaxing in the bar in the evening with a few too many drinks, whilst chatting with the bar staff and trying to practice our Spanish. The pizza was delicious, and the pisco sours too. By 11pm, everyone had gone to bed...and so it was just Alex and I left at the bar. The guys attempted to teach us salsa, but they soon realised that was a mistake! It was a little too romantic for me and a little too close, I was much happier to jump around waving my hands in the air the good old English way. It was a great evening had by all, but by 1am we were wise enough to leave the guys and get a good nights sleep.
On the 9th January we woke up to clear blue skies! Yipee :) After breakfast and bidding farewell to our friends from the bar (including an Italian girl and her Peruvian friend) we set off on day 1 of our Colca Canyon trek! Ok so the first hour was slightly difficult finding the right route (we decided not to take the classic route that the tour agencies do, but instead make our way to Llahuar.) The trek was a very peaceful 5 hour walk downhill. We got to see the mountains at their best...vibrant green plants, red, yellow and grey rock faces with the sun was shining down and there was a strip of floating fluffy clouds hovering just below the snow top peaks. At the beginning of the walk a dog started following us...and he stayed with us through the entire trip. We were the three musketeers; Alex, me and Bob, the dog. We passed just one couple walking up the mountain and walked through one small village before arriving at our destination. We were pleasantly surprised with how nice the accommodation was. We stayed in a lodge that was 20 soles plus 10 for cena and 8 for desayuno. As it is low season you can barter really low for hostels because they are all competing with each other, but Alex and I didn't feel the need to in this place because it was so clean and comfortable we were happy to pay the amount they asked for. We were in a really cute cabin with the most comfortable beds with real duvets (not these rubbish blankets they have everywhere else) and a proper fluffy towel for drying ourselves after chilling in the natural hot pools by the river. The evening was very enjoyable taking in the views of the mountains around us, chatting in the hot pool, playing with Bob, resting our tired bodies in our heavenly beds...and then to top off the evening we were served a delicious pasta soup followed by rice, vegetables and an omelet type thing,
DAY 2: It was another glorious day so after enjoying pancakes and tea, we decided to walk to Fure...it was a beautiful place surrounded by huge waterfalls, the powerful and rather loud river and an abundance of cacti and other plants. The walk was tough as we were constantly climbing up the mountains! We passed a town of 40 families in a town called Llatica built next to the river, then crossed a bridge and chatted to an old man who was organising his crops and then spent the next 2 hours climbing up the mountain to find the little, underdeveloped town of Fure. We were both exhausted by the time we arrived but we still wanted to check out the waterfall that was another hour and a half further along the mountain. So after finding a lady called Nancy to check in to the only hostel (or room) available for travelers, we treated ourselves to some avocado, tomato and cheese wraps and then trekked onwards to see the waterfall. We had an incredible view of the canyon whilst eating lunch and it was here where I really thought "wow, this place is amazing"...the canyon looked huge from where we were sat and it seemed to go on forever into the distance. The different colours of the rocks and all the variety of plants add another dimension to the place, it really is spectacular. You just feel like a tiny particle amongst the mountains. A strange feeling to sit there and realise how small you are! The trek to the waterfall was tough just because my legs were really starting to feel tired, and then it started raining a little which made it a little more challenging getting there. Alex fell over twice on the way back because it got rather muddy and slippery....so we were desperate to crash on our beds at the end of a 7 hour day of trekking. Nancy kindly cooked us up some quinoa soup followed by rice, vegetables and yes, another omelet. It wasn't much longer after this that we were in bed resting our bodies!
DAY 3: We left Fure at half 8 in the morning and made our way across the mountain to Malata where we stopped to have lunch. Again, we couldn't have been luckier with the weather...I was in my shorts and t-shirt again. We could have stayed relaxing on the grass all evening but we knew there was a big climb to come and the clouds were getting darker so we set off for part 2 of the hike. We were very unsure if we were actually walking in the right direction because there were no signs for the village we were heading for, Tapay! Despite this, we kept walking along a path that seemed to lead us up the mountain. We knew it would have to lead us to somewhere so we just hoped that it would be Tapay! After 2 hours of hiking up, we bumped into an old man with his muller (donkey) and to our delight he was able to confirm that we were heading in the right direction and told us that if we kept going up we would reach Tapay within 30 minutes or so. The last bit of the trek was like we were walking up to see the most powerful person on land because we walked up beautiful cobbled steps and passed well maintained fields/gardens full of all kinds of colourful flowers and cacti. It really wasn't anything I was expecting to see on the top of this mountain which can only be reached by foot. We arrived in the village...and this was just as magical with a church and faultless plaza and a hostel that was owned by an old man of 65 years. He welcomed us to his hostel and showed us the room he had to offer. It was cute, everything was handmade, even the lamp, which he had made out of wood. And this was our first time in 4 days that we were able to take a hot shower! It was the best feeling ever. We walked in the village, passed a bunch of old drunk locals (I guess it was a weekend), bought some crackers and then ate dinner back at the hostel. The old man came to join us, and he told us about himself…he was a trooper; at the age of 65 with 6 kids he was still working...he loved his work and was the happiest, most joyful man I have met :).
DAY 4:
After eating some bad crackers/hard bread (yes, no pancakes today) we said goodbye to the old man and thanked him for his hospitality. It was then an easy downhill walk to San Juan. We stopped and chatted to local along the way and then chilled in village eating a mango and banana. We had a quick rest on the grass enjoying the sunrays before making our way back up the mountain to Mallata...we then followed a path for just over one hour straight down the mountain to Sangalle, Oasis. There were 4 different hostels, but only one of them had a swimming pool with water, so we checked in and jumped straight into the pool to cool down. We had a nice nap before dinner was served at 7pm. We had another nice vegetable soup and was happy to be served something a little different to rice…spaghetti with tomato sauce. It was strange to be around other travelers as for the past 3 days Alex and I have been completely on our own in the villages, and have only met 3 other groups of travelers on route. Nevertheless, it was nice because we enjoyed the company of 2 German lads during dinner. It was also strange to see the clock at 11pm...I can't remember the last time I was up so late, but we were quite relaxed as we knew that we didn't have to get up early the following day...just for a change :)
DAY 5: Was a vacation! We were served pancakes for breakfast and sunbathed by the pool. It was a wonderfully hot day, so decided to wait until later in the afternoon to walk back to Cabanaconde. After eating lunch in the hostel, we packed our bags and headed back to town. By this time the clouds had arrived so it was a perfect temperature to start the climb. We didn't really even get any rain! It was a solid ascent the entire way back to Cabanaconde…but I did manage to see 3 condas fly over us which was cool. When we reached the top, we celebrated with cookies and took some team photos with the dog of course. We could see the village ahead so knew it was an easy 30 minute walk to Pachamama hostel…or was it! I am not quite sure how, but somehow, we managed to get lost…and ended up walking through fields of crops, past some donkeys and into a farm with a tractor and huge gates! So I thought it would be ok to sneak past and go through the gates, until a big scary dog creept under the gates from outside. I thought he was guarding the farm so got a little scared, especially when he started growling almost under his breath, a kind of threatening growl…luckily Alex seemed to take control and we quickly passed the dog and escaped through the gates. And then we walked faster than we had ever walked before away from the farm so as not to get caught, or maybe even shot at by the local. Haha. We were rewarded at the top with some apple pies that were being sold by a very friendly lady in a van…and then enjoyed a hot shower and pizza back at Pachamama!
On the morning of the 14th, we took a bus to see the Condors at 6.30am. It was perfectly clear skies so we thought we had a good chance of seeing the birds…in all fairness we did see 3 in total but they were far away. It was here that we were also asked to pay 70 soles each for the park entrance fee (we thought we had got away with this.) The views however were beyond description…we took some jumping photos and then tucked into our little picnic whilst looking down at the canyon in search for the birds. At 10am we jumped on the Andalucia bus back to Cabanaconde and arrived at 3.30pm. We slept for most of the way! I spent the evening in a café catching up with emails whilst Alex went to visit the monastery.
It's now the 15th January…it's been a wonderful relaxing girls day out! Alex and I have thoroughly enjoyed pampering ourselves with a hair cut (colour for Alex), good food, and a GREAT massage! In fact, I'm going back tomorrow to get another one, the lady was so good and she tried to relieve some of the tension I have in my back. We also booked ourselves onto a cooking course tomorrow which should be good fun!! I have spent a while in Arequipa now, but I love it J
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