Arequipa, Chivay, Colca Canyon. Peru

Driver and Guide, Freddy

We were up early to be ready for our pickup at 9:30. Had breakfast, made sandwiches with the items we bought at the market the day before and waited in the lobby until the call came that the van had arrived. The porters from the hotel had to wheel all our luggage up 2 steep blocks as the square is only for pedestrians. It was quite a slog for them.

Our driver , Freddy, was very friendly and had good English. We slowly headed out of Arequipa through the morning traffic. Freddy told us about the three volcanos called Misty, 5825 meters, Pichu Pichu,5644 meters and Chachani which has 5 craters, 6075 meters.
Arequipa is at the end of the Atacama Desert, that runs from Chile along the coast up to Arequipa.
We passed through the town of Yura where there were box like houses that were built for the tourists after an earthquake, but no one came, and they had no kitchens, so they stayed empty. Yura is a mining town(copper) and very dusty because of all the trucks that pass through. They only work in the mine at night because of the pollution. The highway passed through rock walls chiseled out in solid formation. Our ears started to pop, and we were now at 3200 meters. At about 11:00 we saw our first wildlife sightings of Vicuna, a protected animal with very valuable wool. We entered the National Reserve where they have patrollers constantly watching over this animal. The yellow grass is called Ichu which the Vicuna love. These animals come in a white and fawn colour only and live on high ground. They cannot be kept in captivity or tamed as they will not breed.

Our first stop was at Chinitos Patahuasi the highest point of our journey so far at 4018 meters. We all needed the Banos (washrooms) and then had Inca tea, which is a combination of Coca, Muna and Chachacoma leaves, good for altitude also for warming up. We bought Peruvian knitted hats here and were glad to wear them as it was getting colder as we continued upwards.

The next leg of our journey we saw more animals, a large herd of Alpacas, and then many groups of Vicuna. Vicuna usually are 5-6 in a group one male the rest female and babies.
Our next stop was to look out at all the surrounding Volcanos. When we got out of the van it was snowing and blowing and at a higher altitude than we had experienced and we all got the wobbles. We had to walk about 50 meters to the washrooms over rough paths and it was quite an exercise. There were a number of vendors at this point and even they looked cold and the shawls they were selling looked enticing. Back in the van our driver said he had something to help Mike as he was really feeling lightheaded. He opened a bottle of alcohol and because of the pressure change, it literally exploded all over Mike and back into Freddy’s face. A complete surprise to both and we all had a good laugh after we realized they were both were alright.

We drove through flurries and then we started our descent into Chivay. The land was all terraced and really beautiful, each switchback brought a new exciting view both up and down the valley. When we reached Chivay, at 3635 meters, we thought we were in the valley and saw agriculture and people working the land. However, from there we continued on switchbacks down, down until we finally came to our resort at 3250 meters.
The Colca Lodge was beautiful with lovely swiss like interior, open beams and lots of red upholstery. It sits on the banks of the Colca River and is surrounded by hundreds of Pre-Inca terraces that have been declared a Peruvian national heritage. The lodge has 4 or 5 hot tubs fed by the natural hot springs and a small Llama farm across the river. We each were in rooms away from the main lodge with king size beds. Don, Judy and I went down to enjoy the stone tubs, each at a different temperature of hot. Very peaceful ,only a few others there. 2 fellows from Germany and another man from Switzerland.

We had a lovely Peruvian dinner, no alcohol tonight because of the altitude, but fresh minted lemonade which was delicious.Read more