Arequipa & Colca Canyon

Back from a trip to the Colca Canyon. Well as you might have noticed I am a succer for nature and neautifull views. So I got lucky again! Peru has, as well as Bolivia, Argentina and Chille, have some pretty amazing nature. The trip alone to Colca Canyon, which took 4 hours, was really nice. So far it brought me to the highest point I have ever been in the open air, to an altitude of 4900 meters. They resommend you to chew Coca leaves to deal with the altitude. I had Coca tea before. Now I tried the leaves as well. They are really bitter. I don´t really like the taste. The Peruvians, like the busdriver, use an catalysator to speed the proces of addmitance of the active substances of the Coca to the body. This is made of ash, lime and anis.

The Andes is, so to speak, still on the move. There are still some active vulcanos, geysers, hot springs and bubbling mud pools. We spent the night in Chivay, where we arrives in the afternoon. After lunch we went to the aquas thermales. Really nice, since it gets quite cold in the mountains. After we drove along the Canyon, which is really deep and therefore offers great views. You see terraces for farming al through the Canyon. A lot of them aren´t in use anymore. The people in the Canyon are slowely shifting their activities towards tourism. The people are really colourful dressed and most of them wear traditional clothing.

One of the other thing Colca Canyon is famous for are the Condors. And that you can see them upclose while they glide on the upwinds in the Canyon. Unfortunately I didn´t get to see them upclose. I saw a few in the distance, which was a beautiful sight as well.

After Colca Canyon we got back to Arequipa, where we took the bus to Puna the next morning. Puno is situated on the borders of lake Titicaca. Today and tomorrow we will go see some of the sights out here. However since it is raining today and is cold without the sun we will probably move to Cusco in two days. Before leaving Arequipa to see the Canyon we spent one day in Arequipa. The center is quite ols with lots of churches and a huge convent. We checked it out. It was beautifull and nuns were still living there. However this convent seemed to lack a soul. Like the place had never properly lived. I am not sure whether this is a good or a bad thing. Some of the churches, convents and castles I visited in Europe seemed to have a heavy energie. Like it had been properly lived and people suffred there. This convent lacked this, maybe for the better. There are also quite some musea in Arequipa, we visited the museum of contemporary art. Maybe to get away from the Inca and pre-Inca stuff. It also gives you a nice image of the artitsts and what they are about. Often quite evealing in my experience. That all for now folks.