We would spend all day Tuesday on the bus travelling to the Colca Canyon. The deepest canyon in the world. Our journey began with a drive through the Inka abd pre-Inka terracing. We had several stops along the way and were able to see vicunes, alpacas and llamas roaming wild in the national reserves. Randy was suffering from either a bad case of food poisoning or stomach flu, so tried to sleep through the entire trip. Seven hours later we arrived at a small hamlet called San Antonio. A quaint little village that is definitely working to capitalize on tourism as Gap had several groups staying there for the night. Several of us took a hike around the village and found ourselves climbing up the short hill to the peak of the mountain for a look at the the entire valley. You would think we should be tired of hiking uphill but it seems if there is a path to walk it is always uphill and yes we decided to take a look.
Hidden away in the valley is a great hot springs, so after our hike we got back in the bus and headed for the hot springs. It felt so good climbing into the hot (less hot than Radium) springs for a relaxing soak. Even though Randy was still feeling ill he decided to come to the springs with the group, but it was right back to bed upon our return to the hotel. The next morning he was feeling better as we were up at 5am and headed to see the Condors.
Condors are the second largest birds in the world and part of the vulture family. We arrived at Cruz Del Condor at about 8:15, where we would sit on the side of the mountain hoping to see Condors fly by. Neil indicated there was an 80-90% chance we would see the birds this time of year. When we arrived there was probably over 200 tourists at the site waiting to see the great birds. Fortunately there was one bird perched on the side of the cliff. At first we wondered if it was real, but within a few minutes saw it move. Several minutes later we saw another Condor fly directly overhead. They are huge yet extremely graceful birds. Then the bird that had been perched on the side of the cliff took flight and we were again amazed by the grace of the Condor. An hour later with no further sightings it was time for us to board the bus for the long drive back to Arequipa. Neil promised us a barbeque dinner on the rooftop patio of the Hotel Solar that night. I never had so much meat in one sitting as we did that night. Chicken and sausage as the appetizer and steak for the entree. It was all excellent.
Thursday was a free day to explore Arequipa. We slept in until 11am, packed our bags for storage and headed out to explore the city. For some reason the bakery was calling us and we started the day with a cheese bun and an eclair. As we wondered the streets we encounter the Junior Achievement trade fair. How cool to see the young adults selling the same sorts of crafts that we see at the Calgary Junior Achievement fairs. From here we headed to the museum displaying "Juanita" the virgin sacrifice mummy that was found in almost perfect condition having been frozen for more than 500 years. Then back to the central square where a gentleman asked if he might speak with me to practise his English. For the next half hour he asked me questions and told me about himself. He was a teacher of mechanics and had been studying English for 2 months. Only 2 months and he was able to carry on a very good conversation. It made me question why I couldn't do the same in Spanish, since I have registered for at least 3 Spanish courses in the last 4 years, I guess the issue is I registered not necessarily finished. I am bound and determined to try again when I get home. Anyways while we are sitting in the park it appears we may witness another demonstration. We learned that the miners were holding a meeting in the square, although to me it looked like a protest of sorts. While it appeared peaceful and no fighting broke out there were policeman everywhere holding their shields. This does start to seem like a reoccurring situation..lol. Shortly there after the group dispersed so we decided to head back to the hotel to relax. Pizza for supper and then we would be boarding the night bus to take us to Nascu.
The bus left the station at 9pm and we would arrive in Nascu at 6am. The seats were very comfortable. Lots of room and we even had a stewardess that served drinks, a late night snack and buns for breakfast. Pretty impressive.
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