Colca Canyon

24/25 June From Arequipa, I signed up for a 2 day tour of Colca Canyon. Colca Canyon is a canyon of the Colca River in southern Peru, located a few hours from Arequipa. It is more than twice as deep as the Grand Canyon.
On the way to the Canyon we stopped by Pampas Cañahuas, a National Reserve where we saw Vicuñas & Alpacas. Unlike the Alpacas, Vicuñas are wild animals, and still can be seen running freely on these high plateaus.

After that stopped by a little restaurant where we had coca tea, to help with the altitude. We would be going to a lookout point that was 4,800m (15,748ft) high. From there you can see 6 different volcanoes. I don´t remember the names of them.




Later we went on a hike and saw the canyon. But it was not at its deepest point. We saw some ruins of some pre-incan homes on the side of the mountain and a small pre incan town.


That night we stayed in the main village of the Colca Canyon, the Village of Chivay (3600 m / 11.811 Ft). We got to go to the hot springs after the hike. And for dinner we enjoyed traditional Peruvian food with traditional music and dance perfomances.



The next day we stopped by this place so everyone can take this silly picture with an andean eagle on your head next to a llama.


After that we went to Cruz del Condor to view the Andean condors. It is a very popular tourist attraction that helps the area out with tourism. However the condors are pests to the locals. These condors are massive. Their wingspan is 3 meters. It was amazing to watch them fly through the canyon. This was the best part of this tour.



After watching the condors, we went on another hike. He showed us how the fruit of the colca cactus was used to make a popular drink, colca sour which is very good. Not as good as a pisco sour though in my opinion.

Arequipa

23-June

From Nazca I took an overnight bus to Arequipa. Arequipa is known as the ¨White City¨ because the city has many buildings built of sillar, a pearly white volcanic rock. As with any city in South America it seems, there is a Plaza de Armas, the main square.

There I met up with my friend Kim from spanish school in Quito. She unfortunatly had hurt her foot and was in a cast. She had to stay in Arequipa longer than she had planned. I went to visit her and we went to lunch. It was her first time outside of her hotel. She showed me the courtyards of La Compania.

I also did a tour of the Santa Catalina Convent. It was built in the 17th century. It looks plain from the outside. But inside it was beautiful - beautiful courtyards and tapestries.

On the tour we learned about the lives of the nuns - the simple room they had in training, the coffins for the poorer nuns that couldn´t afford a closed casket, the simple kitchen. Their beds were always under an arch. Arches were important structures for places that were prone to earthquakes. At one point in the tour we could hear the nuns over a wall playing volleyball.

Nazca

22-June.

After Huacachina, I went to Nazca, which was only a few hours away. From there you can take a 30 minute flight to see the Nazca Lines. The Nazca Lines are geoglyphs located in the Nazca desert that can only be viewed from the sky. It is believed to have been made between 200 BCE and 600 CE. Dark red surface stones and soil have been cleared away, exposing the lighter-colored subsoil, creating the "lines".

There are different theories as to why the lines were created. "The geometric ones could indicate the flow of water or be connected to rituals to summon water. The spiders, birds, and plants could be fertility symbols. Other possible explanations include: irrigation schemes, giant astronomical calendars, or landing for spaceships."

In the flight we saw a whale, trapezoids, an astronaut, a dog, a monkey, hands, a condor, a humming bird, a heron bird, a tree, a spider, and a parrot. Unfortunately my pictures didn´t turn out so great. But here are the ones that came out decent.

Man or Astronaut:

Monkey:

Spider:

Huacachina

Huacachina is built around a small natural lake in the desert. Called the "Oasis of America".

The town consists of a lagoon, and hotels and restaurants around it. The lagoon was beautiful. You can paddle boat or rowboat.

But the most popular thing to do is to take a sand dune buggy tour and to sandboard. The sandboarding I thought would be somewhat easy since I sort of know how to snowboard. But it wasn´t quite the same. I tried it a few times and then decided to just go down on my stomach like everyone else. It was way more fun. But the really fun part was the dune buggy ride. It went super fast, up and down steep hills of sand. It was like a roller coaster ride, scary at times.

And we stopped to catch the sunset. It was a great day.

Ica, Peru

On Saturday morning I travelled from Lima to Ica, which took about 4 hours. I actually stayed in a town close to Ica called Huacachina. That afternoon I went on a wine, pisco, and chocolate factory tour in and around Ica. Ica is known for their Pisco, a brandy type of drink that is about 40% alcohol. It is distilled from grapes. Ica is also where grapes, cotton, asparagus, olives and other produce is cultivated. It is known by Peruvians as the land of the sun.

There were about 7 of us on this tour with two funny taxi drivers. The other tourists were Brits and Norwegians. I was the only American. We went to a chocolate factory..... well it was more like a store where we sampled chocolate from a place called Helena. It was good, but not really tour worthy.

Then we went to Tacama, the oldest winery in South America. We saw some workers leaving for the day, and viewed their entire property from a bell tower. We sampled some red and some white wine and one pisco drink. Whoa. Pisco is really strong stuff. I was already feeling tipsy.

Then we went to a place that made all different types of Pisco, Catador. He explained the process of making pisco- the pressing, fermentation, distillation, condensation, and separation. Then the tasting. We must have had almost 10 different kinds of pisco. And they weren´t stingy with the portions.

The last place was Bodega Lazo. It wasn´t really very touristy. It was one of the local bodegas. A really nice Peruvian couple joined us in the middle of our tour. They even had relatives in New Jersey. Here, we had more wine and of course more pisco. ¨Arriba, Abajo, Al Centro, Adentro!¨

With all the drinks, (there were a lot of drinks had), the tour only cost me about $7. The wines we tried were mostly sweet. Not really my thing. The piscos didn´t really taste that great, and it smelled like tequila, but when in Peru, drink Pisco. It was a blast!