Day 9: 9/7/12
Slept in d 6-bed dorm last night. When muireann got in she said it smelled like the juice farts, whatever green stuff they were having. She was not impressed. One girl had done the colca canyon trek and said it was mighty. Were ot trekking tho. Two others in the room, but didnt really see them cos they were out late. Chatting to a family of germans in d kitchen aswell who were trying out sauces they bought in the market- very spicy it seems!!
Up early this morning and we were collected for our colca canyon trip. Drove through Arequipa and headed for the colca region which meant driving up, up, up, up and more up. Lots of mountains and valleys and lots of windy roads round he side of them. Not as bad as Tenerife though Shell, plenty of room for the bus this time. I thought it was better that we weren't looking out at the sea and Muireann said 'oh yes, falling down rocks is so much better!!' But of course, we didn't fall down anywhere!!
We entered a national park which had wild vicunas, llamas (which Muir has decided to call limas), alpaca and some other similar lad beginning with g- cant remember his name! The llamas and alpacas are kept as pets and kept for their meat and wool. The other two are wild. Apparently the vicunas have the most expensive fibres and only local people living in the reserve are allowed capture them and only in the month of October. It seems like the have a big festival, capture the vicuña, take its hair and let it go again! They were all over the place on the mountains- we even had to stop while a crowd of llamas crossed the road!!
We stopped in a little shop and were advised to have a matte triple, which is a drink good for altitude. Coca is one of the popular things for altitude but the triple had two other good leaves aswell. It was really boiled water in a cup of green leaves. Tasted middling! Local men and women outside the shop with stalls of hats and ponchos and things. All have the local rig out- skirt, cardigan and hat, all very colourful.
We went further up the mountain. Our tour guide showed us what to do with the coca leaves. You get about 10 leaves, break off a but of a catalyst thing to put in the middle of them, roll them up and chew! After bout 15 mins you spit them out and go again! Apparently they all eat them up here! Before he told us this, we had looked at ours, a stone fell out which we presumed got in the bag somehow, so we threw it on the floor. However, this is actually the catalyst and we had to rescue and clean it!!
So I attempted the coca leaves- they were absolutely vile. The texture was rotten- bits of leaves and twigs going back your throat. They were actually quite juicy which meant you had a mouth full of green gunk! I was not happy with mine do it was spat out after 10 mins and even still I had green lips for ages! Muir enjoyed hers much better.
Stopped a few times on route to see animals and birds and random trying to get tips- looked like they had walked miles!
We stopped then at the highest point which was 4910m high- the highest we will be on the whole trip. You could feel it alright- would be out of breath after a few steps and then okay again a minute later, until the next few steps. Our heads were bushtin aswell!! Seemed to put a lot of pressure on the nose! All grand though after a while.
Got class photos of all the mountains, some of which are actually volcanoes! When we were that high, everything was covered in snow- it was freezing!!!! An hour before that it was deserty looking hills and later on it was green hills- madness!!
We went down the mountain then to a town called Chivay. You could see the town down at the bottom of the valley while we were driving all the way down! We were brought for lunch there first, which was a buffet. They had lots of strange food- queer looking things! I tried a quinoa mixture with veg and probably llama which was lovely- the bean/onion salad was unusual but lovely too. Muir stuck to the rice but it went down well.
There was a hike after this but our heads were pounding a bit, so a group of us skipped the hike and went to rest in the hotel. Heads a bit better after a lie down. The hotel is lovely- rooms feel like a little cottage by the mountains. Gorgeous Views out the window.
We were collected again an hour later and brought to a thermal spring outside the village. There was an outdoor pool. I went in for a dip- it was I we 35 degrees celcius and toasty warm. It was class to be swimming around with big massive mountains all around. Definitely one of the highlights so far!
Back the hotel then for an hour. My head had gotten much better but Muir was still suffering.
Went for dinner then in a local restaurant with local entertainment. The food is lovely- veg soup and lomo saltado. This seems to be a popular dish, it's kinda like a beef stir fry, but this was made with alpaca meat. It was quite chewy a bit too 'tugh' for my liking!! Muirs headache lifted so we're both flying it again! We got the better of this altitude business for today!!
There were local Peruvian musicians, drums, guitar, mandolin thing, flute things and pan-pipes (just like shop street!!). They were really good and lively!! There were dancers aswell. They had very exquisite costumes- long skirts, lots of layers, hats, sequins, etc. A man and a woman danced at the same time- sometimes dancing opposite each other, sometimes swinging round. They were doing the hop 234567 quite badly!! Mostly they were just jumping around. For one dance the fellow had a scythe type thing without a big blade which they danced with. Then they acted out a big dance where he took a piece of fruit she was holding. Then hecollapsed and she proceeded to whip him!! Then it went vice versa and then they brought people from the audience up to whip them( they were really only hitting the floor!) He had a weird balaclava on for this dance! For the last dance they brought out lots of people to jump round on circles. They dressed up two guys in women's outfits- was quite funny!!
Our group is nice. There's a man and his son originally from Peru but loving in California, so they have good English. There's also a Canadian couple- the woman is very cheery and Muir is reminded of tommy tiernan- here comes the happy f.......!! The other people speak all Spanish. They seem nice but we cannot really talk to them!
Back in here hotel again. Early night has we have to be up for 5. It's fairly cold here do Muir has about 40 layers on for fear she wouldn't sleep with the cold. Her feet are like icicles, even though she's two pairs of socks on! I have no socks on and I'm not frozen! Our body temperatures are definitely very different!!
Just realised there's a skylight above the bed and I can see the stars- this is the life!!