PERUsing with Rebecca: Arequipa and Colca Canyon

I would like to first say that I am so sore. So. So. So. Sore. Okay, now my whining is done. Yesterday I got back from my wonderful trip to Arequipa. I went with my friends Anna and Sofia for our four-day hiatus. We started out for Arequipa on a 10-hour overnight bus, which was a little rough with the smelly, snoring peruano next to me, but nonetheless we got there excited for our adventure.

DAY 1:

After our adventure of trying to finding breakfast at 6:30 in the morning, we sat down to a cafe on the plaza del armas. Arequipa is beautiful. It actually reminded me a little of Irvine. Palm trees line the clean and organized streets. It was a nice break from the pollution in Cusco. After breakfast, we went on a tour of the city on the top of a double decker bus. We got to see everything in the big city. We found lunch in a perfect little place that had amazing tomato basil parmesan pasta and headed off to see the famous monastary. The monastary is now just a tourist attraction, unfortunately there were no monks for tourist guides. The place was huge! It had hundreds of little rooms and scary catholic paintings that lined the walls. After we got lost in the maze of the monastary, we met Juanita the ice princess in a museum. There are 6 volcanos that surround Arequipa and during the Incan times they would sacrifice a child to the gods on the top of the volcanos to protect them from natural disasters. A couple of years ago they found Juanita on one of the volcanos. She was special because the cold of the snow had frozen her body to make her a natural type of mummy. We finished off the night early because we were exhausted.

DAY 2:

I woke up early in the morning to go to church, which luckily was just a 15 minute walk away. It was probably half the size of the ward in Cusco, but they made up for their size with their kindness. Practically everyone shook my hand and introduced themself to me. They even introduced me in sacrament meeting as a visitor and had me stand up. Oh how I love these people :) Most of the tourist attractions are closed on sunday, so we took the day to relax and spent a lot of time eating. We tried this place called Crepismo. Oh my goodness it was amazing. They had over 100 different kinds of crepes. I had the avacado chicken crepe and the pear, apple, lime, cinnamon crepe for dessert. Needless to say I was well fed and happy.

DAY 3: Start of Colca Canyon trek

We had to wake up at 2:45 in the morning (if you can even call it morning at that point) and get on a tourist van. The drive to Colca Canyon was 3 hours long and very bumpy. I never get car sick, and I really thought I was going to vomit. Finally we arrived at a look-out to see the ¨condors¨. We didn´t really see any. After an hour and a half more, we started our trek. We had our own tour guide to tell us all about the canyon and the people that live there. The canyon is like the peruvian version of the grand canyon. It´s absolutely gorgeous. The hike down was 4 hours of a very steep slope. My knees started to give way because I have tendonitis and I ended up falling flat 5 times. I´m good though, I laughed most of them off. I´m used to falling. It comes naturally. Once we got to the lunch site we were utterly exhausted. We had alpaca for lunch and it was actually quite tastey. We got an hour and half break and then hiked another 3 hours to our huts. This part was probably my favorite because it was like a little garden of eden. There was a stream running beside us and we had to push through trees and bushes. There were peach, pear, avacado, and lucuma trees that followed along the path. If only that could have been the whole 3 hours. Unfortunately the second half wasn´t so nice and easy, but we made it. We stayed the night in the oasis in the middle of the canyon. It was beautiful and we ended up going to sleep at 7:30.

DAY 4:

Wake up at 4:45. Ouch. My whole body hurt. A lot. The tour guide was just a little too peppy for that early in the morning as we started climbing. We hiked up the mountain for 3 hours. To say that it was difficult is an understatement. To say that it was crazy is more like it. We climbed up 4600 feet on a 6 km trail. Pretty much the hardest hike I´ve ever done, but oh how it was worth it. Once I got to the top, the sights were incredible and I got to see some condors! We got lunch at a buffet a little later and headed back to Arequipa and then to the bus station for another overnight bus back to Cusco. I got back yesterday and slept most of the day. I´m still having troubles with stairs. My whole body hurts, but it was so worth it. I love a challenge.