Cuzco to Arequipa

I spent a day or two mucking around in Cuzco just catching up on sleep and planning my next move. I did a decent backup of my photos with a DVD burn and basically just pottered around the hostel with a few guys. I spotted the Aussied heading for my chicken joint which I had given them directions for so I tagged along with them. They were stoked with the value which was awesome. That night I met a couple of Kiwis in my dorm. Rowan and his girlfriend were from Christchurch and are on a 3 month trip before Rowan started work at Russell McVeagh in Wellington. I quizzed him about a few firms in Christchurch and we just yarned for a bit. The were doing the Inca Trail in a day or two with Peru Treks so I wished them luck and gave them a few hints. I took them the Italian restaurant I had been to several times with Max, which they were stoke

The next morning I decided it was well time to leave Cuzco so I booked a bus ticket for that night. It was an overnight ride so I went for semi cama with the best bus company given I would not be paying for a nights hostel etc. It was well worth it, the bus reminded me of those in Argentina which I did not expect. I had heard bad things about overnight buses so was pleasantly surprised by the hot meal and blankets etc. Superb!

Arriving in Arequipa was great. I had been given directions to the hostel by Sidsel, who i had previously met in Puno, and turned up around 8am to check into a comfortable dorm room. Sidsel would soon make and appearance and we would have a nice breakfast on the terrace roof top. Arequipa has an amazing backdrop with two large volcanoes, Misti and Amapoto around 6000m and higher. Misit is perfectly conical and impressive!

We figured out a plan of attack for the next day or two, which would involve a Colca Canyon trek at some stage, as well as a music festival in a few days time. Arequipa has some lovely architecture and a beautiful main Plaza de Armis. We did a walk down to the plaza through the pedestrian streets. We would bump into Lara and James from the Inca Trail trek which was nice. They pointed us the direction of the museum where the frozen mummy is located. It was an interesting tour and gave us a good idea of the landscape as well as the cultural aspects of the Peruvian society. Tourism doesn´t seem to really have fired up at this time of the year so we were often in bars with very few other gringos and the owners of the bars and restaurants were doing there best to drum up business. At one point a bar tender almost crashed through the doors literally running out of the bar to get to tourists walking down the alley, not wanting to be beaten to them by other operators!

We would make a few walks around the city to various view points and cheap lunch spots. The next morning we split up to do our own things as Sidsel did not want to pay the 30 soles to get into the Monasterio Santa Catalina. I thoroughly enjoyed my walk around the 600 year old monestary which is basically like a small citadel inside the city, with fortified walls and many streets, all named after Spanish towns. It took around 3 hours in total!

That night we decided to hit the bars new San Fransisco. After a meal at Istanbul, a nice Turkish place, we hit a total of 8 bars and night clubs. It was a pretty interesting night a whole lot of fun. One louge bar with couches and a terrific view over the city was one highlight, as was a Swedish pub with live music. We got back in around 5am, although we almost got mugged as a guy started to chase us near the hostel reaching into his jacket pocket for something!

We spent the next day hungover going around a music festival at various places in the city which was a bit of a let down. We made a trip to the bus station to buy our tickets and got the most dodgy taxi home, with no official plates and every surface spot welded, classic stuff.

Sidsel and I had organised our Colca Canyon trek, a 3 day 2 night affair with a group of around 15 other people. We has a pretty early start to kick things off, around 430, which turned out to be totally unnecessary given the days walking would only be a few hours and we had plenty of down time before and after lunch. I had my bread, banana and jam sammies ready to go for the 3 hour shuttle ride into the valley. We stopped at Chivay on the way to pay the entrance fee and pick up a couple of saltenas for breakfast. Our next major stop was the mirador cruz de condor. It is an absolute tourist mecca now with large buses and shuttled occupying every spare section of roadside. We were lucky enough to see 4 of these incredible birds fly over, some within pretty close distance. It reminded me of Singapore zoo where they have a condor show with the birds swooping over the crowd´s head!

We would start our trip from (NAME), a tiny little village with a plaza de armis (of course!) and not much else, although our lunch of alpaca steaks was pretty enjoyable. Our guide, Victor, was a young passionate 21 year old keen to learn more English and share his local knowledge so we struck it pretty lucky there. The first day´s walk was simply a downhill plod into the valley where we would stay at a very basic lodging for the night. We had amazing views of the canyon from above, looking down to the Oasis where we would spend the second night poolside and amongst lush trees. I was reminded of trekking in Nepal, with rocky tracks cut into the hillside above dusty valleys dotted with small villages. We would, like Nepal, have to give way to animals coming up the track servicing the needs of the villages.

The first night was enjoyable, with a few hands of German Rummy and an amazing sunset from the lawn and garden area. The rumours and stories of scorpions on the trek turned out to be true, with the girls discovering a small scorpion on the door frame of their lodging, although it is apparently not poisonous. We played with a small dog from the neighbouring property and got a pretty early night for a 5am start the next day.

It was a pretty reasonable plod to get the second day started, heading up to the second village (NAME) and a small but very interesting museum. From there, it was simply downhill to the Oasis! Stopping for views and photos on the way, we arrived at the Oasis a little after 1pm and settled in for the afternoon. The pool area was pretty awesome and tropical, albeit with pretty cold water. We passed the time in the afternoon playing some more Rummy and Arsehole. Now power at this place so a cosy candle lit dinner with the group before another early night. The shack I shared with the Brazilian chap was very basis, with bamboo walls barely offering any protection to the outside world with a thatched roof that would not hold back even a light shower. We had scorpions on the earth floor mincing around! Closing the door before bed was more of a psychological move given there were gaps in the walls big enough to walk though anyway.

People had been dreading the third morning because of the thought of a large climb back to the top of the valley. The guide suggested 3 hours although it looked like a pretty easy climb with many zig zags to the top so I knew it was really only going to take an hour and a half or something, being only a gain of around 800m or so. Pretty good guess, as the Brazilian, the young Russian chap and I pushed on to the top with only a break or two in a little over 1 hour 40 minutes. We had to wait for the rest of the group, which would be around an hour and a half more haha. The aussie lady, Geneane, managed to hire a donkey which bought her to the top in about 2 hours, leaving her partner to walk up by himself haha.

We returned to the plaza de armis and hung around for our much needed breakfast, which we did not have before leaving early that morning so that was well deserved. The ride back to Arequipa was pretty uneventful, broken up by a HUGE buffet lunch at Chivay with llama, alpaca and other meats and local dishes. We also went to the hot pools, which was a bit odd given it was like 35 degrees and the water was pushing that also. The Brazilian guy I was with managed to talk his way to a discount for half prices for us into the pools and even a discount for his buffet meal; if you don´t ask you don´t get I suppose.

That night I packed my bags and met up with the crew at the Istanbul restaurant again for drinks before heading to the bus stop to meet Sidsel. I decided that if I could change my ticket to the next day I would, allowing me to head back into Arequipa that night to party with the reset of the guys, which turned out to be a pretty entertaining evening. Not a late one but good enough for a laugh.

Prior to my bus that evening which I managed to change for free the previous nigh, I took it very easy, having a solid admin day in the internet cafe getting photos backed up, blog updated and my CV sorted also. Pretty productive but not a lot of fun really but needs to be done. I also got a copy of batman and watched that with a bag of bulk bin chips from the shop next door, which had become a bit of a popular cheap snack!

I made my way to the bus station around 730, to find a bit of food before the overnight trip. Some awesome chifa for only 4 soles (2nzd) with all the trimmings went down pretty well really, filling a gap before the bus. My last overnight bus ride!