We have just arrived in Arequipa, after a two-day trip around the Colca Canyon in 4x4.
We got picked-up in Puno by a big Toyota Land Cruiser driven by Señor Armando and our guide, smiley Salomé. Señor Armando quickly became our personal hero, driving across extremely rocky and steep paths like a champion from the Paris-Dakar Rally. Salomé was extremely nice, sweat and always smiling… sometimes too much, especially when we were walking for hours under the burning sun at 4000 meters.
On the first day, from Puno to Chivay, we road across the Salinas y Agua Bianca reserve and saw our first volcanos… and of course more llamas. We visited the Stone Forest of Imata, where over millions of years, wind, rain and humidity have formed shapes of trees, animals and human figures… This time we managed to see them, the coca leaf tea from breakfast must have helped.
Afterwards, we reached the highest point of our trip at the Crucero Alto pass, 4910 meters above sea level (we have the picture to prove it!).
We also made numerous animal encounters along the way, and this time in flesh and bone: wild rabbits, flamencos, llamas, alpacas and the hard-to-find vicuña (their wool highly competes with cashmere).
Finally we arrived in Chivay, where we visited the local market. It was a very colorful experience which a huge variety of fruits, vegetables, and medicinal herbs… for the fish and the meat however, we really hope that the restaurants where we ate the last few days don't do their shopping in similar places, considering the hygiene.
After that, we had a well-deserved nap in a near-by eco-lodge, as we knew that we would be going out "late" for the first time of this trip… The evening program consisted of cocktails at the hot baths, dinner with traditional music and dancing and a planetarium visit to finish off the night looking at the stars. After all the walking of the day, it was great to relax in the hot baths with water above 40°C, directly coming out of the Geyser and strongly smelling like sulfur! We had to cut short on the music performance in order to arrive at the planetarium on time, but it was not a great loss, as we will see them again in Rue Neuve and le Fiere di San Donà. The planetarium was an incredible experience – we had an astronomy expert just for the two of us, explaining us the constellations and showing us the stars with his telescopes!
The next day, more bumpy road half asleep in the 4x4 to get to the Condor Cross… There we saw an amazing spectacle of condors paragliding around the second deepest canyon of the world (the first is not in Colorado, but another Peruvian one)…
After a few hours of extreme driving, we managed to arrive in Arequipa "the White City" alive, where we are going to spend TWO nights in a row in the same hotel. We can finally unpack a little!
Sympa la photo du condor! Marie
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