Arequipa and the Canyon

The "white city" of Arequipa is known for a few particular things: its' white walls and buildings made from local rock called sillar, the proximity to the massive Colca Canyon, and the Peruvian delicacy called cuy, or guinea pig.

Most of this portion of the trip was spent away from the city, though there was one day of exploration to see what the white city was all about. Recently acquired English travel buddy Alex joined me for a day of scoping out the city center. Like all Peruvian cities there was a Plaza de Armas with a large church facing it. We walked through the mass of pigeons in the area and ended up finding the Monasterio de Santa Catalina, also called "a city within a city." Since the late 1500s nuns have inhabited this large complex. The architecture within included styles from many eras and cultures, mostly because it has been damaged and rebuilt due to earthquakes. For our purposes it served as a place of refuge from the honking taxis and busy sidewalks of Arequipa.

Next Alex and I chose to take a bus ride out to Colca Canyon, which is the second deepest in the world. It is much much deeper than the Grand Canyon, and a completely different place to visit. We started off staying in small Chivay for a night, followed by a good 16 km hike through a few other towns along the Colca River. There was a hot spring we stopped by on the way, and an endless expanse of magnificently terraced hills leading down to the canyon walls. The canyon region has been inhabited for a very long time, and fortunately much of the original culture lives on in the clothing of the women. Colorful hats and flowing dresses were a common sight in the villages. At the end of our trek a happy couple with a dog picked us up and brought us to the sleepy town of Cabanaconde, where the real hiking began...

That next day Alex and I, along with our new friend Barbara the Belgian, took morning buses to Cruz del Condor, where the iconic Andean condor can be found riding thermal air currents up from the canyon between 8 and 10 am. The viewpoint did not disappoint! We saw at least 7 condors swooping and soaring along. I have never seen anything like it in my life! There were a ton of other gringos snapping thousands of pictures, but it remained enjoyable. To my bird-loving friends that want to see Andean condors, COME TO THIS SPOT.

The rest of that day was spent hiking down into the canyon - not an easy task! There were a few forks in the trail, and at each fork one path had rocks with "NO" spray-painted on them. After some trial and error picking trails we discovered the "NO" paths were the right way. Despite the confusion, it took only 6 hours to reach the oasis of Sangalle at the bottom of the canyon that day. The hike was beautiful in too many ways to describe: sheer canyon walls, madly terraced fields of color, huge mountains looming in the background, and a river cutting through it all. The oasis at the bottom provided Alex and I an opportunity to jump in a pool and grab a beer with Barbara, who hiked in on a different trail. Early that next morning we rode mules out of the canyon, partly because, well, why not? and because hiking up just didn't sound so fun. The guys leading the mules shouted "Mula! Mula!" a lot, which was pretty silly.

I should mention that herpetology (reptile and amphibian stuff) finally reared its head at Colca Canyon. On day one I found a very large toad (Rhinella spinolusa?) in a gutter outside the village of Chivay. In the canyon itself we spotted a few large lizards that remimded me of the Chuckwallas of the US southwest and Mexico. Alex saw a black snake, but I missed it. It was lovely to finally be in nature!

When we finished up the canyon activities the three of us returned to Arequipa for a day. As a final goodbye to canyon country, Alex, Barbara, and I found a restaurant that serves the aforementioned cuy. It was basically a deep fried rodent with all the body parts still there. Not much meat... I was not impressed. We spent a few days getting hyped for the meal, hence the immense letdown after the first attempted forkful. A few days before in Colca Canyon we saw a little guinea pig stable, so people definitely do find a way to eat them. Not I. Foods I did enjoy were alpaca (5so good), and cactus fruit (favorite fruit ever). The latter is usually in the green-red color range I have so much trouble discerning, so I will leave the description at that.

Next stop is Puno and Lake Titicaca!