Cusco, Arequipa and the Colca Canyon (Again, lots of Condor pics!)

We arrived into Arequipa late afternoon and quickly checked into our hostel. We spent two nights in this absolutely beautiful city - a rival to the sights of Sucre. Arequipa is Peru's second major city, after the capital Lima. But thankfully it isn't over-populated, at around 1 million people. The buildings in the town centre are made from white volcanic rock from the surrounding area. The city is bounded to the north by high plains, and a range of snow-capped mountains and a beautifully conical volcano: El Misti.

Misti on the left, and mountains on the right. This pano (click for full size) was taken from the other side of the mountains from Arequipa, on the way to the Colca Canyon

Misti from Arequipa

There is a restaurant that has a terrace high over the main square where you can watch an awesome sunset.

Sunset over the square. Arequipa's main Cathedral is on the right

Shopping in Arequipa. The most diverse and comprehensive shopping since Santiago.

Terrace view

Plaza de Armas

After a couple of nights there, we did a two day trip to the Colca Canyon, to the north of the city. The second deepest canyon in the world after nearby Cotahuasi Canyon (although that stat is not exactly solid - there are purported deeper canyons in China and the Himalaya - Grand Canyon, eat your heart out), at it's deepest point, it drops 3,400m from mountain to canyon floor. Think about that for a bit. Almost 3.5km straight down. And it's not only famous for it's sheer size, it's famous for the fact that it's one of the premier spots to see Andean Condors in the wild. This is not like Samaipata, where you have to trek for hours to a prime viewing spot (though if you like trekking, the journey there is as good as the destination), but it's simply a viewing point called Cruz del Condor (that gets VERY crowded with tourists), where if you're lucky, the Condors fly meters over your head.
Of course, we were indeed very lucky, and as soon as we arrived, we saw well over 10 different Condors flying above us.. Tourists that arrived not 45 minutes later saw none.

Incoming!

This little bugger drew almost a hundred Condor happy people to flock around trying to take a picture. He knew what he was doing

Condor in Flight

Condor habitat. Deliberate underexposure by the way, before anyone thinks to correct me!

Above our heads

Condor in it's territory. I tried to get a few shots showing the birds in their environment, not just against sky

Kinda like this one

aaaand this one

The crowds. And yes, Condors are that big.

The trip to the Colca Canyon meant staying at the "capital" of the Colca Valley - Chivay. A hugely tourst-driven town, accomodation is strangely very basic, but the savng grace of the place is the hot springs just outside of town. Being able to chill out in 40 degree water, when there's a storm hailing on your head is a unique experience.

Great way to spend a rainy afternoon

Me and my new mates. I tried to teach them break dancing, but they weren't dressed for it.

Locals play local moosac

What I like about this picture is the woman in the bottom right contrasted against the bleak scenery. This was at over 4,000m amsl, and it was COLD. It's a hard life.

Condor country

Stopping at a village on our way to Cruz del Sur, ,and I've no idea what's on the right, but the bird on the left is a Black Chested Buzzard-Eagle (first encountered in the Torres)

Local girl with her pet Alpaca

A Colca Valley village

Condor Country..

Chivay

On the way there and back from Arequipa, you pass over an Andean ridge that hits 4,800m amsl. I think that's a record for the trip (excluding flights of course!) so far. From memory, not even the Bolivian south-west corner was as high. Thankfully we didn't experience any headaches or altitude problems. Either we are now acclimatised or we weren't up there for long enough!

Anyway, the Colca Canyon is so named because of the "Colcas" - small round containers in which the locals used to store vegetables, fruits and grains. The valley and canyon are lined with very small villages, and the locals farm along terraces etched into the canyon sides

Terraces

A view of the Canyon as it starts to get deep

We arrived back into Arequipa after two days planning on taking a bus over-night to Cusco, but things didn't go as planned. After we'd checked out and rushed to the bus station, we discovered that all buses to Cusco were delayed until the following morning because snow had closed the road over the mountain pass.

But we are now in Cusco, and this city is just awesome! Also hugely touristy, but VERY beautiful. Colonial buildings are well preserved, and the main centre of town is basically a large network of plazas linked by streets big and small. The nightlife also pumps, although there's an unhealthy proportion of hippies and rastas. It's also VERY expensive, and is probably the most expensive place yet on the trip. We've just booked onto a Galapagos tour which means money is now tight and which unfortunately means skipping some of the city's MANY museums and archaelogical sites (very expensive to get into). Also Craig and Laila introduced us to a stupidly expensive restaurant here, and we are addicted, so our money is also going there! Thanks guys!!!

I also haven't gone too hardcore in Cusco on the picture front. Sometimes it's nice just to look with your eyes instead of a lens.

Cusco

Slumming it.. backpacker style

Along the Plaza de Armas

Plaza de Armas

Cathedral on Plaza de Armas

Anyway, bar the pictures, I'm keeping this blog a bit short. Those of you who know what Cusco is famous for... well we will be doing "that thing" starting tomorrow. I'll blog post it when we get back.

P.S Nath: A couple of friends here saw a cat in Bolivia. Obviously nothing unusual about that. What was unusual was that the cat's front leg was basically a skeleton from the torso down. No flesh, nothing.
The zombie apocalypse has begun. Take Archie and Marisa to the mountains, and be wary of cats. I always knew they were evil.