This past weekend we did a 5 day trip to Arequipa: volcano and canyon country!
The beautiful snow-capped Chachani volcano in Arequipa.
Our trip included a 2 day tour to the Colca Canyon:
We enjoyed the scenery on the way...
...and all the llamas, alpacas and vicunas freely roaming about.
The highest point we reached was 4910 m! Sjo, it was hard to breathe up there!
We spent the night in Chivay in the picturesque Colca Canyon.
We were up very early the next morning to descend into the canyon and to see the majestic condors fly on the thermals. It was cold so I borrowed a scarf!
We also stopped in some of the small towns on the way back to Chivay, like the one with this small quaint church.
Back in Arequipa we enjoyed exploring the city and seeing the sights such as the Plaza de Armas,
the Santa Catalina Convent,
And the Museo Santuarios Andinos where Juanita, the ice maiden, is on display.
We also enjoyed trying some of the local food like this queso helado (directly translated it means 'cheese ice-cream' but it actually tastes like milk tart filling, yummy!),
and alpaca meat and these hot stuffed peppers called rocoto relleno.
We learnt a lot about the 4 different camelids found in the Andes, prized for their soft and warm fibres: the vicuna, the guanaco, alpacas and llamas. My favourite is the Alpaca Suri, aka Rasta Alpaca!
More about our adventures in Arequipa and Colca to follow soon!
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