After a decent nights sleep in a good hostel we were ready for a trek through the beautiful Peruvian Andes, albeit waking up at 2am for a 3am píck up (plus the taxi was 30 mins late so we chilled out in the TV room).
Four hours later we jumped off at altitude for breakfast which was a weird cereal topped with strawberry milk, as well as some scrambled eggs. Anyway enough about crappy breakfasts, more importantly we rocked up to `Cruz del Condor`, a view point over a different part of the canyon. Spending 45 minutes here we watched the mighty condors soar through the sky and chill out on their perches trying to get the perfect picture. Literally 2 minutes before our minibús was leaving I captured this guy gliding not far above our heads. Hopefully you guys can appreciate how majestic this creature is, was a beautiful thing to see as they effortlessy swooped by with their 10.5ft wingspan.
At this viewpoint there were loads of women dressed in traditional attire selling pretty much anything they could get their hands on.
Jumping back on the minibus we arrived at our starting part of the our trek where we also grabbed lunch at about 3,200 metres above sea level. With a bit of time to explore the village we randomly bumped into our Scottish friends Scott and Holly we had met in Buenos Aires and had a little chat, only to be ushered into the place for lunch as we were running late. Was so random to meet up with these guys here as we had no idea they were here and we hadn`t seen them for 2 months!
Anyway, we saw some locals with their mules walking down the street which was pretty cool, said goodbye to our mates and sat down with our group of 6 and tour guide for lunch which was pesto spaghetti and alpacha which was actually pretty nice.
With lunch munched it was time to start the trek so off we set on a five hour downhill mission. The views of the Peruvian Andes were quite spectacular with our tour guide stopping to tell us about certain things such as the original langauge of the natives before Spanish was introduced and about a road they had built recently through the Andes to imrove trade etc (was all done on foot and with mules before).
With the sun beaming down we both went for the sunhat look, but we looked more like we had gone fishing.
Half way down the thin track along the mountain a dude was coming up the other way with his mules, meaning we had to try and get out the way by squishing into the vegetation on the side. Our tour guide would shout "to the mountain my friends", when there wasn`t exactly much `mountain` to go to.
Jen lost her footing at one point and hit the deck pretty hard, leaving a massive black bruise on her upper leg. One of the chaps gave her a walking pole thereafter to help her get by, however she didn`t like it much and gave it back 30 mins later. To be fair it was just an old broom stick!
Coming down from altitude had an unexpected effect on both of our hands, with our fingers ballooning out. No idea why this happened, something to do with coming down with the pressure relenquishing but all the same, the end result was sausage fingers. (These are Jen`s fingers if you couldn`t tell!)
There were pretty cool cacti on route, with this one having some pretty mean spines. Our tour guide told us about some parasites which lived on these cacti which were white, but when you squashed one it had a really vibrant red colour inside, which the natives used for dying things and also for tattooing.
After the five hour slog down winding narrow paths we were mealy at our pitstop for the night when we came across a tiny settlement where they hung up bits of meat on washing lines, their version of cured meat. Our tour guide told us that there was a ghost here, good job we were staying around the corner.
Finally, we had made it and posed for a group photo. There were literally two households perched on the edge of a creek in the valley, one of which would be our resting place for the night. Our group consisted of the two of us, a Canadian couple, and two Canadian friends. Oddly the Canadians had never met but discovered they lived about 30 minutes away from each other back home. Small world!
They had the cutest little puppy ever here and of course I couldn`t help put pick the little guy up and give him a stroke. He was dead shy at first, but my persist attempts to pet him paid off!
With two rooms with two single beds and one room with a double, we argued with the other Canadian couple as to who should have the double room......amusingly, we were both arguing as to who shouldnt have the double. Eventually we lost and set up for the night in our double room, which consisted of a stone hut, with two mattresses on a wooden frame. No eledctricty here, so candle light was the way to see, but we used our head torches more.
Leaving our room for a cooked dinner from the host family, the sight above us was spectacular with thousands of stars as bright as could be, with no cloud or light polution getting in the way of appreciating the natural phenomonem.
After a good nights sleep we were awoken at 6am for the weird srawberry milk topped cereal but this time we were treated to pancakes....shame they were literally 2cm thick!
Today was a six hour walk uphill to start with, but then a nice stroll on the flat (ish) through the Peruvian Andes visiting some settlements on the way. Getting to the high point we could appreciate some more amazing views.
After a hard push uphill we all took in a bit of sun whilst relaxing, and were treated to a cactus fruit which was actually pretty nice, albeit it quite sour. I took the opportunity for a lie down.
After a decent break, we posed for a team photo and set off downhill towards the villages we aimed to visit today.
Arriving at the first village we had a stroll around after leaving our backpacks with a local woman, and came across an old church, and an interestingly dressed cross, seemed it was quite a religious place.
Our tour guide would tell us some more interesting things about local plants such as ones used to tackle altitude sickness as well as one for a soar throat. Who needs Westernised medicines?! Just chew on a plant instead, Rogers medical advice 101.....you´re welcome.
Arriving at the second village, we saw much of the same, however we did come across some local kids playing football. This picture was taken just before the funniest incident of our Colca Canyon trip, with my arms out to catch the sun and our tour guide looking like a gnome infront. Anyway...the funny incident....as the kids were playing football, one of them kicked the ball away and over the wall they were playing behind and as they chased after it I picked it up and threw it back not thinking that they would run after it through the gate. But run after it they did, and with one bounce of the ball after I threw it back, it bounced perfectly into this little kids face. He took it like a little trooper though, without making a sound he scooped the ball up and ran back. Didn`t stop our group from pissing themselves though. Won`t be making a habbit of hitting small Andean children in the face so don`t judge!
With the option of carrying on for a further 2 hours for not really much of a reason but to walk more, we decided to just head straight down to the ´oasis´ where we would stay for our second night. It literally was a green patch in the middle of the valley with a swimming pool and a bar, and cute little straw hut thingies. It was a bit of a mission getting there with tired legs as they wasn`t really a recognised path in, instead we had to follow a little stream and hug a bush where the path disappeared. But anyway, we got there for lunch which was rice with alpaca, which Jen and I enjoyed, but the other four left theres and fed it to the dog which had followed us all the way from the first family home. The dog had to fight the cat at the oasis though, who persistantly jumped up onto our table to nick what he could.
With an afternoon to relax, I took a nap, whilst Jen took a dip in the pool and sunbathed. Didn`t last long though as the sun disappeared behind the mountain so she came back to wake me up and took this photo of me in my thermals.
Heading back out to the bar for happy hour, we grabbed a drink or two with our group and enjoyed a delicious pasta dish cooked by our guide himself.
Oh, here`s the little pescy cat who wouldn`t stay away from our food. The only way to stop him was to pick him up so the others could enjoy their food. He sat on my lap for most of the evening, whilst I forced him to stay there and out of trouble.
Another super early start, and this time we left in the dark with our headlamps on. The reason.....to get a good start on our 3 hour uphill trek before the sun came out to make things even harder. The other bloke in the group forgot his mobile phone, and after realising this only 15 minutes uphill, he went back to get it, leaving his girlfriend with the guide on the side of the path. Being as awesome as I am, the guide nominated me to be group leader and I trudged off at a slow pace with Jen and the other two Canadian girls in tow.
Not a whole lot to say about the mornings trek, other than the fact it sucked (in that it was super difficult, especially when the sun eventually came up). Little did we know this trek would prove to be good training for other altitute trekking we would take on. Anyway, arriving at the top, it was all high fives and cheers, followed by a nice group photo. You can see that we are all knackered with our tour guide not even with a heavy breath with his thumbs up.
Leaving the top, we came downhill ever so slightly and walked to the place for brekkie, passing by fields which had been farmed in the usual Incan way with terraces. Made for a pretty cool photo.
Grabbing brekkie we reflected on our mammoth journey across the Andes and were then ushered onto our minibus after a chat in the square with our tour guide. Just time for a few stops on the way back to Arequipa such as this viewpoint over the valley, where we could see more of the Incan and pre-Incan terracing.
Next stop was a small market village geared towards tourists. We got suckered in and paid a whole 2 soles (50p) for Jen to get a picture of a bird of prey sat on her head, not sure why the cowboy hat was needed.
Another stop was the hot springs, which were more like swimming pools pumped with the hot spring water. Anyway we chilled out here for a while, resting our achy muscles.
Penultimately we stopped at 5,000 metres to see a place where the locals had made loads of small rock piles for good luck. Wasn`t that interesting so no photo and left there quickly for our last stop, where there was a massive heard of lamas and alpacas, with this guy posing for us.
A good few days overall, but slightly tarnished when I noticed some weird green glupey stuff in the corner of Jen`s eye. Asking the Canadian girls if it was okay (as they turned out to be nurses), they said it was probably just a minor reaction to some dust. Days later the gamminess persisted and spread to both eyes which I found funny at times when we realised it was nothing serious, as it passed after 4 or so days.
With a few days to chill in Arequipa, we went and visited the museum that houses a famous mummy found on the mountains there which was more of a frozen body, but was interesting in that the mummy was a sacrificed 14 year old girl called `Juanita`by the Incan`s to appease their gods. Google it, quite interesting. We did plan to go to a monastry but bumped into Scott and Holly and drank the day away instead.
Arequipa done, next stop......Huachachina.
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