Chivay and the Colca Canyon

Chivay here we come - after the joys of negotiating the strikes and road blocks, the following four hour bus journey on the edge of a mountain road to the town was nothing!

The road to Chivay is pretty high, probably as high as we´re going get during the rest of our journey throughout South America, 4,900m above sea level. The road lends itself to the best scenery, on one stop we were surrounded by eight volcanoes, not including El Misti, along with plently of Llamas and Alpacas (they´re like upmarket Llamas!). Luckily Rich and I weren´t that affected by the altitude but some people were really ill when we eventually reached Chivay - I think the local brew of coca tea actually worked!

Chivay is ace, a really small quaint place but over-run with the likes of us unfortunately. Lots of locals in traditional dress and another strikers march around the Plaza! We had a gander around town and market, bought a much needed woolly hat then grabbed our towels and headed striaght to the hot springs just outside town. The soak was well needed after a day on the bus and it was getting pretty cold once the sun went down so it kept us pretty toasty. After a beer and a nice Alpaca steak (aww!) we hit the hay ready for another early start.

5.00am start and we´re back on the battle bus heading to the Colca Canyon. Colca is the second deepest canyon in the world behind Cotohuasi which is also in Peru. At certain points, Colca is more than twice as deep as the Grand Canyon .... we didn´t get too close to the edge! It´s also home to the Andean Condor which fly through at pretty close range. LP mentions that you have to be fairly lucky to see the birds but we managed ten of the bad boys at the same time so we did well!

Really enjoyed both Chivay and the Colca Canyon and really pleased we decided to go through Arequipa. Next stop, Cusco.