Into the Andes

Today’s start wasn’t too early; 8 a.m. and our guide and driver met us to head up into the Andes. Arequipa is already at a high altitude (2,235 meters) but we were heading much higher. We had started our altitude pills yesterday morning and were advised by Victor that we’d be doing supplementary herbal things to ensure that we had a comfortable climb. In order to prepare for the ascent, we stopped at a shop that sold coca leaves as well as herbal pills.

Once we reached around 4,000 metres we stopped for coca/inca tea. When we reached 4,400 meters, our guide Victor instructed us how to get the coca leaves ready for chewing. We did as instructed and were surprised at how soon we felt our tongues slightly numbing as Victor had predicted they would.
We were grateful for Victor‘s coaching.

We made a number of stops along the way to admire the landscape and to look for wildlife. We succeeded in seeing vacuna as well as Andes rabbits. We stopped at a llama farm and went to a lookout where we saw numerous volcanoes. Once we’d seen the volcanos at the 4,910 altitude level, we travelled downward to a town where we’ll spend two nights. It’s called Chivay, has a population of 7,000 and is a gateway to Colca Canyon, tomorrow’s destination.Read more