Arequipa and the Colca Canyon

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  Arequipa and the Colca Canyon, Arequipa, Peru
Friday, April 22, 2011

In Arequipa we stayed in a great hostel and partied with the staff. Later we hiked for 3 days in the Colca Canyon. We were picked up at the ungodly hour of 3.30am and drove out to near the canyon where you see giant condors with wing spans of more than two meters flying as they hunted for food. Ocassionally they would fly right over your head... amazing! Colca is not a wild west type of canyon, but one with old villages far from anywhere only passable by foot or donkey. It was incredible learning about their methods, for example they make candles out of llama fat and use all sorts of plants as medicines. The villagers leave once a week for their weekly trading/groceries up the 1000m ascent and back down.

On the hike we visited a village where the locals told us about their life and showed us a little museum to demonstrate. On the last night we stayed in a place called Paradise and paradise it was! It had a pool, hammocks, tropical flowers and even large rocks that look like those fake ones you see in resorts that formed part of the pool. We got to spend the whole afternoon there in the sun. The only negative was the spiders in the huts, some people even found them in their beds!

The last morning was an early one, a 5am start to hike 3 hours up a mountain. We got ready by candlelight as they don't have electricity down there and started hiking by torchlight towards the top for a well earned breaky!

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Arequipa	Giant jenga	Silliness	Arequipa central plaza
Arequipa plaza	This is the breakfast we got day 1 of hike. WHAT?!   Comments!	Colca Canyon - condor	Tourists looking at condors
The condors were cool   Comments!	Very cool	This is the last condor photo - promise	Colca Canyon day 1
Finally the bottom of the canyon	Colca Canyon	Cactus fruit	Corn varieties in Peru
Two types of traditional dress from the area	A sweaty man	Oasis below plus path on left back up the next day	Bring on the oasis
Jeff in 'Paradise'	The 5am 3 hour hike	Colca Canyon	Colca Canyon
Colca Canyon, the winding path	Made it!	This is how they carry the babies	Colca Canyon
Colca Canyon

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