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So then it was time to bid a sad farewell to Bolivia, somewhere we´ve both loved spending time, and head on to Peru. We boarded a bus for Puno which is a town on the Peruvian side of the lake, planning to stay there for a couple of days and explore the islands on the Peruvian side while Si and Jim went straight on to Arequipa. I´m not sure whether it was the thought of losing our travelling companions for the last month or the sight of hundreds and hundreds of horrible concrete buildings in Puno that did it but we decided it looked like a pretty horrible place to stay and joined the boys on their bus to Arequipa...
... which was definitely the right choice! We arrived quite late at night so went straight to a hostel and to bed only to wake up to a stunning view of El Misti volcano from the roof terrace we didn´t even realise existed the night before, delicious breakfast and, most importantly, somewhere warm! Everywhere in Bolivia is so high that we´d been constantly cold for weeks so coming somewhere a bit lower and feeling hot was a wonderful change. We were all so excited by the novelty of being able to wear shorts we spent almost all day sunbathing up on the roof and generally chilling out.
Arequipa itself is a really beautiful city with lots of the main buildings made from white volcanic stone so it looks beautiful in the sunshine so we happily spent plenty of time sightseeing and eating good food. Then it was time for a bit more activity and so we booked ourselves onto a three day trek through the Colca Canyon about three hours away from Arequipa.
Colca is the world´s second deepest canyon; the deeepest is also in Peru, about 12 hours from Arequipa but as it´s only about 160m deeper, less scenic and much harder to get to almost all the tour groups go to Colca! Our trip started at the horrendous time of 3am so that we could get out to one of the highest points above the canyon early enough to see the condors flying below. We weren´t disappointed and saw several very close up which is an amazing sight. Then it was on to the town of Cabanaconde for a very early lunch so that we could start our descent of the canyon. Our group was pretty much divided on our appreciation of the walk from then on: Si and Liz loved the walk and the view, whereas Jim and Jamie were both suffering from vertigo so really didn´t enjoy the winding path along the edge of a very steep drop!
After about a three hour descent we crossed the river at the bottom of the canyon and had a short climb up again to reach the village of San Juan where we were staying the night. The area around San Juan is all irrigated so the people are able to grow loads of different fruits and plants so we got to try a few locally grown fruits before chilling out for the evening in lovely surroundings. Day two was by far the easiest day and saw us set off early in the morning along the edge of the canyon. We stopped off at a local museum on the way to learn more about the way people live in all the villages and to try chicha - a local speciality of fermented corn beer. Then after only around three hours walking we arrived at our next stop - Sagalle - an oasis down at the bottom of the canyon and were treated to a whole day lounging by the swimming pool to prepare for day 3 where we unfortunately had to climb back up the canyon again...
The climb back up to Cabanaconde is meant to take around three hours so all the groups start at around 5 in the morning to avoid having to climb up in the heat of the sun. Having impressed Luz our guide with our speed on the past two days, we managed to negotiate a bit of a lie-in so left at around 5.30 instead with torches at the ready. Before we left Arequipa, a friend from Bolivia had mentioned that she did the climb in just over two hours which was all the boys needed to instill a competitive spirit and pretty soon after leaving they had all gone off ahead leaving Luz and I to take a more sedate route stopping to admire the view (nothing to do with the fact that I had to stop as I was much less fit than all the others!). Walking uphill non-stop has never really been one of my favourite things but as soon as it started to get light it was a really nice walk as you can watch the sunrise coming across the side of the canyon. I´m pleased to report that despite my slower pace, I still made it to the top in about two and a quarter hours, apparently much quicker than average (although I also have to point out that all the boys had been waiting at the top for about half an hour having completely smashed the two hour mark!) Then, after a well-earned breakfast, it was back on the bus to head back to Arequipa, via the thermal baths to sort out any aching muscles from the climb.
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