Colca Canyon

This morning Miguel and Angel our driver picked us up, and we stopped to pick up agua pura (filtered water) on our way out of town. We drove through the foothills of the Andes, a nice easy 4 hour drive from Arequipa. We drove through a lot of scrub land, still desert. Some of the roads were cut through volcanic rock. We saw wild vicuna, a small relative of the alpaca. And some herds of llamas and alpacas. Some of them had bright red ribbons to show who their owners were. There was a small wild strange looking cross between a rabbit with a raccoon curly tail.

We stopped for coca tea, which is supposed to help with altitude sickness, which a few in our group was feeling. Coca tea is made from coca leaves, and yes, cocaine is made from the same leaves. No wonder it helps with altitude sickness! After our tea and snacks (bananas and snickers!), Anton waited in the van and Frankie kept Heather company while she shopped at some outdoor vendors. The vendors started to cover their stalls and Heather thought they were all going for lunch, but they were covering their wares from the giant dust devil that was blowing through. Lots of people got caught in it. We saw dozens of them on our drive.

We stopped at Pacapampas, the highest point in our journey at over 16,000 feet (4900 m).

We arrived at Chivay, the Andean village that we are staying in, which is one of several hundred villages built in the canyon. After lunch (a touristy buffet place), the two of us walked to the market and bought bathing suits. We had to try them on over our clothes. Miguel took us to a hot springs. There were several pools made from the springs, and the water was 39C.

Back in town, we walked through all the market stalls and looked at the unusual collection of stuff for sale. Dinner. A walk through the town square where a guy was putting on a marionette show. It was time to go back to the hotel, and Pete and Keegan decided to take a moto taxi. They wanted a ride around the village first, but the driver ended up taking them once around the square and they arrived at the hotel at the same time we did.

No internet in this canyon, or at our next few stops. Might be a few days before we can post our blog.
Sent from my BlackBerry.