Lima, Arequipa and the Colca Canyon

October 3rd to 8th

I arrived on October the 3rd to Lima, and was welcomed by Lou, a friend of my brother’s. I spent the day walking around the historical center.

Lima

Lima – Peruvian specialty: quail eggs

On the day after, I went to La Punta, another neighborhood of Lima, along the sea.

La Punta, Lima

I didn’t stay longer in Lima. Several places make it a great city, but it is disorganized, and with the horrible traffic it’s difficult to go from one place to another. On wednesday the 4th, I took a night bus to Arequipa, in the south of the country. It’s a pretty nice city.

Arequipa

On friday the 6th, I left early (3am) for the Colca Canyon, the 2nd deepest in the world with 3,400m at its deepest point. To go there I went through an agency, but instead of taking a guided tour I bought just the transportation. The van stopped at a place called Cruz de Condor, where it’s possible to see condors flying.

Colca Canyon – Cruz del Condor

Canyon del Colca – Cruz del Condor

Colca Canyon – Cruz del Condor

I was shoked by the amount of tourists there, and realized I was now in South Peru, a lot more touristic than most places I have been to… I didn’t like it much.

Welcome to touristland

The van kept going and dropped me at Cabanaconde, where the canyon treks start. In the bus I talked with an israeli guy, he had originally booked a guided tour but then decided to join me to do a solo trek. We started walking at 10, heading to a village called Llahuar, with hot springs. The village is down the canyon, so a lot of going downhill on that first day.

Colca Canyon

After a lunch break near to some geysers (not very impressive, but still: boiling water coming out of the ground) we arrived in the afternoon to Llahuar, and enjoyed the hot springs.

Colca Canyon – Geyser

Arriving to Llahuar

Llahuar

The day after, we walked to another village in the canyon, San Juan de Chuccho, and on the way we enjoyed beautiful views of the Canyon.

Colca Canyon

Colca Canyon – There seems to be a french Victor established here

It took us 3h30 to get to San Juan instead of the 6 hours we had been told, so we decided to walk a bit more, and went up to Cabanaconde in the afternoon.

Colca Canyon

Colca Canyon – A condor came to say hello

Colca Canyon

Colca Canyon – Terraces

On october 8th, we hitched a ride back to Arequipa with a french couple that we had met in the canyon, in their rental car. We were able to stop on the way to enjoy the countryside and its inhabitants: llamas, alpacas and vicuñas.

An erupting volcano not far away

Vicuñas

Alpacas

Misti volcano

“Vicuñas Zone”

Be careful, vicuñas and alpacas

Back to Arequipa, we visited the impressive Santa Catalina Monastery, the biggest convent in the world. It takes a whole block in the city. Inside, there are streets between the different places.