After much deliberation of our choice of route we decided to head from Lima to Arequipa. I must say here that South American Explorers have been a great resource on my travels, with the exception of one lady at the Lima office who decided that information about how her grandmothers knitted socks did not keep her warm on the bus from Lima to Cusco was more important than border crossings at Bolivia..
We caught a bus for 14 hours to Arequipa. The first photo uploaded on the first Arequipa section is a picture of what we drove through, which is pretty barron, and is an extension of the Atacama desert.
We met a couple of friends that Fanny had travelled with previously and we decided to head on a two day trip with them to Colca Canyon, one of the world deepest caynons. I will say that I was surprised at how developed Peru was but it started here at how annoying it can be to get a straight answer or in fact be given the right information from the Peruvians. We were suppose to be going on a trip and do some hiking with our friends. We were put onto a seperate trip and hiking involved a two day car trip with ony 1 and 1/2 at the most outside of the car when we reached the watch point for condors...so not exactly a walking trek but I did get a suberb picture of how touristy this place is, just look at the photo of the people taking photos of birds...and this was one of the smaller groups there.
Pan pipe music, who was the person to think of blowing into a tube covering songs by Celine Deion. On the way to Colca Caynon you pass a point at 4900m, yes I hit altitudes again. However when at lunch with a headache from altitudes the locals think it is a great idea to play piercing pan pipe music. Some how the two dont go together, and boo to the people who make payment to these guys and encourage this.
We reached our hostel and where at high altitudes the tempatures are freezing. No heaters and warm water for a shower. We were looking to the hairdryer as a makeshift heater. Anyone who thinks that taking a hairdryer on holiday as a luxury item can think again.
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