I think this is a lama.
I am not sure if these are Alpacas or Lamas - apparently it has something to do with the neck.
The Uyo Uyo ruins.
One of the many photograph stops.
The church in Maca.
The bus arrived almost an hour late to collect us for our two day tour. This should have served as a warning for things to come.On our bus was a very friendly and very tall Dutch man called Marco (also very attractive – this blog entry is being written by Karyn by the way) and some German sisters who are medical students doing a placement here. According to them the medical uni course in Arequipa is better than those offered in Germany. I find this very hard to believe but I guess they would know better than I would. The fruelines brought along a Peruvian pan pipe playing pal who wouldn’t put a plug in his pie hole (the pan pipes started to drive me nuts… or should I say potty). There were also some others on board as well.
On the way to the Colca Canyon we stopped for some coca tea and then again at the Salinsa and Aguada Blanca National Reserve to see yet more lamas, alpacas and vicuñas. This consisted of pulling over to the side of the road and taking snaps of distant hairy shapes. We then continued across the altiplano (high Andean plateau) before descending into Chivay.
The Colca Canyon is one of the deepest canyons on the planet, reaching a depth of 3400 metres (the Lying Planet states it is 3191 metres deep). In the valley, which incidentally is 100km in length, are 16 villages including Chivay where we hastily ate a terrible noodle soup (two minute noodles are a culinary delight compared to what we were served). Jon and I were then taxied to Yanque as we were doing a slightly different tour to the rest of the group.
When we arrived at the hovel we were to sleep in I refused to get out of the taxi insisting it was the wrong place - unfortunately it wasn’t. The 14 year old girl who greeted us at reception (if you could call it that) spoke no English and had no idea about the guided four hour hike we were supposed to be going on. I was not impressed, more so, when she wanted us to pay her to be our guide. I refused and said we were told we had to pay 10 soles for the hot springs and that was it. Her cunning little eyes lit up as she thought of a way to extract our money from us and then she agreed to take us for no fee (more about this later).
So, we set off, past the main square and the few houses that constitute Yanque. We made our way down to a suspension bridge that crossed a ravine. The girl pointed over the edge to some circular ruins built on the side of the ravine walls and said ¨Inca cemetery¨. Turns out they are pre Incan colcas (food storage areas) as the ravine is cool and preserves the food. Anyway, I recognized them as being in one of the photos we were shown back in the tour office so I knew we were going roughly the way our guided tour was supposed to go.
We continued on past numerous terraces and amazing views of the countryside. Eventually I started thinking we should be seeing some ruins soon (were shown pics of them in the tour office) but they were no where to be seen. Thankfully Jon spotted a sign that we had walked past that said ¨Conjunto Arqueologico De Uyo Uyo¨. We decided this looked promising and should go back and explore. We gestured to the girl that we wanted to follow this sign so off we went up a very obscure path (especially considering the giant size of the sign). After half an hour of scrambling up rocks and terraces we arrived at the ruins of a pre Incan village that looked just like the photos we were shown. I don’t think the girl was too excited as this had added an extra hour to her itinerary. The ruins were very cool: aqueducts and numerous houses all overgrown with cactuses. Apparently over 100 people once lived here. I could have stayed a lot longer but we had limited sunlight left and we still had to get to the hot springs.
We took another discreet path to the thermal baths. I thought this odd but it all made sense when we arrived. These weren’t the public baths we were supposed to be going to but another set (there are many along the edge of the river) where no one was collecting entry fees. Yet when we arrived our girl guide said 10 soles please (she was going to get the money from us one way or another). We were a bit slow on the uptake and handed our cash over and a tip to boot! Once in the pools we realized we had been duped and explained this to the English speaking Peruvian guy in the hot spring with us (the only other person there). In a strange turn of events, it turns out he was supposed to be our guide but had never received a call from the tour office. He was not impressed and I think he tried to get some of our money off the girl who was hiding from him – they were having words when we got changed. I was actually pleased as I was pissed off with the conniving little girl - they teach them young here. By the time we left the hot springs it was almost dark. We had to cross a rather terrifying wooden suspension bridge across the river to get back to town.
For tea we ate in some tiny restaurant which really shouldn’t be called a restaurant – more like the front room of someone’s very humble house. The food was very basic and the meat tasted like soap but it was dirt cheap and lady was very friendly. I think she tried to make us a special Peruvian dish - a different combination of beef and potatoes to the versions we ate in the soup and main meal. We ate it out of politeness because she was eagerly watching us as we forced spoon after spoon down our throats (it wasn’t bad we were just stuffed). She was very excited when we gave her a four sole tip (the meal only cost 12). Afterwards we headed to the main square where the sounds of explosions were coming from. Turns out there was yet another Catholic festival happening (they seem to occur every second day) and a big bonfire had been lit in front of the church. A brass band was playing, locals were dancing and fireworks were being let off.
The following morning we were collected at 7am by the tour bus. I had been up since the fireworks started again at 5am. On the way to the condors we stopped at the church in Maca and at various lookouts. At one mirador we tasted some cactus fruits. The pink one was surprisingly tasty whilst the green version (similar in appearance to a kiwi fruit on steroids) was the sourest thing I have ever tasted. It is supposed to be good for the liver and helps with weight loss but I am not going to be starting a diet of them any time soon.
After a few hours we arrived at the Mirador De La Cruz Del Condor (the Cross of the Condor – not sure why the cross part). At first we could only see three condors flying a few hundred metres below us. This continued for half an hour and we wondered if it had been worth coming all this wall, especially when you could get a better view from a postcard. However, unlike the Amazon, we were not to be disappointed. The condors were just teasing us. Slowly they made their way closer and closer to where we were standing. Eventually they were soaring just metres above our heads and were practically dive bombing us and were just plain showing off! Luck was finally on our side.
These birds are enormous (two metre wing span) and although they are rather ugly, they are amazing to watch gliding through the air. After an hour we boarded the bus and returned to Chivay for lunch and then back to Arequipa. At the end of the tour I went back to the tour office and demanded the cost of the guide back. I had been thinking of all the threats I could make and rehearsing them over and over. I was a bit disappointed when they gave me my money back with no issues.
That night we got on the bus for Nazca. We were down the bottom, up the front – the worst seats in the whole bus. We had approximately 30cm worth of leg room before there was a wall. Even a little Peruvian mountain man couldn’t have fitted their legs in that space - it was most suited to a double amputee. I tried in vain to sleep with my legs sticking vertically up the wall (I had to wait until everyone had finished watching the movie which was playing on the tv directly in front of us). Alas, nothing worked.
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