We were picked up by our little tour bus yesterday morning at 8:00. The bus/van held about 18 of us. There were people from Italy, Sweden, England, Peru, and us. So many languages on that van....
Our driver said everything in Spanish and English which can actually make you a bit crazy when you understand them both.
The tour was quite the adventure. I know I will leave things out because we stopped many times and saw many things. I will try to include the highlights.
We stopped several times to see herds of Vicunas. They are a beautiful animal with very fine fiber. Clothing items made from their wool are quite soft and very expensive. We also saw more llamas and alpacas. I am becoming very fond of the suri alpaca. They look like a mop with wool down to the ground. I want to bring one home. It took us five hours to get to our destination of the town of Chivay. We stopped several times along the way stopping to take pictures. At many stops people were selling things, textiles and food. I bought a scarf because it was starting to get very cold. We did not realize that we were once more going to be at a very high elevation. Our guide gave everyone a lesson on the coca leaf. Some people were chewing them but since Moyra and I had already been in Cuzco the altitude was not bothering us even though it was around 16,000 ft. We did see some puking and people feeling really bad. Luckily we were not at that altitude for long. By 2:00 we arrived in the town of Chivay and stopped at a restaurant for a buffet lunch. We were delighted with all the vegetarian options and ate a lot. Then we checked into our hostal. Our group all stayed in the same place. Moyra and I had our own room with our own bathroom which seemed quite adequate (more on that later). We unpacked and given that we had two free hours we walked to the center of town to check it out. We took pictures in the main square and then found the market. There was produce and all the wonderful sweaters, scarves, mittens, etc. that we have come to love. After exploring we went back to our hostal and got our things together for a trip to the hot springs. What a wonderful time! Picture a swimming pool of sorts full of hot mineral water surrounded by mountains. We brought our swimming suits to Peru knowing we wanted this adventure. We ordered drinks, a pisco sour (because you must try them in each new place), and a glass of sancayo juice which is made from the fruit of a tall cactus. We spent about an hour in the water thinking we were pretty darn lucky.
The van took us back to the hostal where we changed and got ready for dinner. The van picked us up and then promptly deposited us a block and a half away, we thought that was pretty darn funny. Why didn't they have us walk? Dinner was delightful. We were able to pick two dishes and then dessert was the same for everyone. We both had quinoa soup. Moyra had spaghetti and I broke down and finally tried the grilled trout which is a popular dish here. Despite my feelings about eating meat I must admit it was tasty. During dinner we were treated to live Peruvian music and dancing. At one point I found myself out there dancing, don't know quite how that happened but it was fun and I had lots of other silly tourist company.
When dinner was over we walked back to the hostal and got ready for bed. We were pretty tired after our exciting day. Chivay is dusty and we had dust on us, in our hair, in our mouths. I decided to take a shower before bed. I decided that if the water was warmer than our frigid room I would get it. It warmed up to almost lukewarm so in I went. I quickly put shampoo in my hair as hot water is never a given. After about 30 seconds it turned ice cold. I had shampoo in my hair so rinsed with cold water.....brrr. I got out onto the cold tile floor and put on my pajamas. My hair was still wet when I crawled into bed....big mistake. We both had socks on and our beds had two thick Peruvian blankets. I spent the first three hours shivering under the covers unable to get warm enough to sleep. The room was pitch black. I could not see my hand in front of my face. At about 1:00 AM Moyra got up to use the bathroom and I took the opportunity with the light on to put on my jacket with the hood and bury myself again under the covers. They knocked on our doors at 5:00 to wake us up for day two. We had a normal breakfast of bread and coca tea. I was so happy to hold the hot cup. There was a tiny bit of butter and a very tiny bit of jam for us all to share. The owner of the hostal also made us fresh pineapple juice that she put in the blender....nice and frothy.
We packed up and left the hostal at 6:15 on our way to the canyon and to see condors. Colca canyon is either the deepest or second deepest (depending on who you ask) canyon in the world. Our guide said it was twice as deep as the Grand Canyon. It was breathtaking. Moyra and I went on a little 1.5 hour trek with part of our group. Then we started looking for condors. Condors are the second largest bird (the albatross being first). They are endangered and many of them live in Colca Canyon. They don't flap their wings to fly but rather glide in the air currents. We quickly saw many but they were down in the canyon and far away. We were just happy to have seen them. Later we were looking over a veiwpoint and this nice Peruvian man started talking to me and pointing out the condors. Within minutes the condors were passing close overhead, swooping so close that a man next to us joked that they were picking out their lunch (us). Condors can soar for hours at a time. They can fly up to 18,000 ft using oxygen very efficiently. They put on an amazing show today that we will never forget. The song El Condor Pasa has new meaning for us.
Finally, we went back to Chivay for another buffet lunch. We could get used to those. Most of us slept the 31/2 hours back to Arequipa. Well, except for the time a bus was passing in the other lane and almost hit us head on. That woke us up for a bit. Those solid yellow no passing lines don't seem to mean much here, nor do red stoplights. Tomorrow morning we fly back to Lima and spend the night at El Patio which is the cutest hostal around. Then we will take a 5:30AM flight to Ayacucho to unite with GeGe. Cheers to you all. We love Peru! (and all of you) More pics to come....I promise.
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