Colca Canyon

I'm finding it hard to make time to keep this diary up to date so am not going to write as much as last time, sorry, but hopefuly this will mean it gets updated more regularly.

We got ourselves a tour guide for a trip to the worlds deepest canyon. Fortunately this was less of an organised tour and more of a geezer who spoke spanish taking us around. He picked us up from the hostel in a taxi and then we had a bus journey on a locals bus for about 5 hours through the desert. Unfortunately the road stopped after 40 minutes so the rest of the way was over rough ground so we got shaken to death.

It took us 30 minutes to walk down the canyon by which time night was falling so we stayed in a local ladies house for the night.

Next norning we walked along the canyon bottom. Pretty amazing, think of the Grand Canyon in height but it is very narrow so the view is WOW. There is a waterfall some way along which the locals have channeled into a swimming pool, so we spent the afternon lazing around that. The only problem was the animals. Rach went to the loo and a great big Alpaca started to eat grass right outside the door trapping her in it. This thing is a cross between a Lama and a sheep, so looks like a massive sheep with a 2 foot neck. Not really dangerous (we think) but all the shooing I could manage wouldn't shift it and I was too scared to push it away. Thankfully it left on its own accord.

Got up the next morning to walk 3 hours in the dark back out of the canyon to see the Condors that circle the top at daybreak. Condors are massive massive birds and where we were they swooped down so low you could feel their wind. However it is hard to take good photos of this so they don't do it justice.

Next our guide got us on another local bus to Chivay and then haggled for cabs to take us to the hot srpring. When I think of hot springs I think of pools of water bubbling out of the ground surrounded by natural rocks etc like in Iceland. Not in Peru. The water comes out of the ground red hot from the volcano and smells of sulfer, but they have then built a 1960s butlins style resort round it. They channeld the water away into a concrete pool surrounded by changin cubicals. The pool is painted blue, but is all chipped so looks rubbish. However the water was very hot and relaxing after the walk.

Took a cab and bus back to Arequipa, tomorrow Puno and Lake Titicaca