Day 2 - Colca Canyon Tour

The alarm went off at 5:30am and after discovering the shower was ice cold I decided that yesterday's time in the hot springs would suffice. After a wholesome breakfast of bread, coca tea and some unknown juice, we were picked up in the mini bus and headed to Colca Canyon.

There were a couple of stops first though, in a couple of towns on route. It was very early and very cold and these towns are like every other small town in Peru so Si and I weren't particularly into it. In the first one there were some people doing some traditional dancing (it was only 7am) and some ladies offering the opportunity for a photo with more llamas, alpacas and domestic eagles. The eagles were pretty impressive but we decided against a photo. In the next town we did an obligatory walk down the short street and waited for the rest of our group to finish perusing the stalls. Before we left, our guide Lorena gave us some of the local cactus fruit to try. It's similar to a kiwi but really sour.

We were now finally on our way to the Cruz del Condor to see the canyon. The canyon was pretty but the condors definitely stole the show. They were incredible! With a 3 meter wingspan they are huge and we could see them really close when they flew past. We could have sat and watched them for hours.

After around an hour and a half we headed back to Chivay to grab some lunch before heading back to Arequipa. On the way back we stopped at a couple of lookouts to see the pre-Inka and Inka terraces. In Peru they create the terraces as its impossible to farm the hill otherwise. It also prevents the nutrients and minerals from being washed down the mountain side. These result in a gorgeous landscape and may even steal the show from the canyon (but not the condors).

All in all the tour was probably the least enjoyable tour we had done. We really should have done the trekking instead but we couldn't face more walking so soon after Machu Picchu. We didn't feel like we got the true 'experience' just being ferried around from place to place in a mini bus. These kind of tours also attract a different demographic of people (yes I am being very diplomatic) so it just wasn't as fun. Karma for us being so lazy!

The tour dropped us back in Arequipa so we headed back to our hostel as we had left our big bags there and got ourselves ready for our last overnight bus of our South American adventure.Read more