Canyons, Condors and a Mule

Characterised by old colonial buildings, plazas and courtyards all built in white stone, Arequipa is Peru´s second city. Situated beneath several huge snowcapped volcanoes the city is surrounded by poor slums and the streets are packed full of tooting smelly taxis all day long.
We are still enjoying being with Katie and Shay, and have based ourselves here for quite a few days. Amongst other things we all visited the rather macabre museum display of the frozen body of a 12 year old Inca girl who was sacrificed on the summit of a nearby volcano over 500 years ago and discovered in 1995!
Yesterday (Sat) we completed a 3 day trek into the Colca Canyon some distance north of here - at over twice the depth of the Grand Canyon it is reputed to be the worlds deepest. We travelled by mini van over a high pass at a breathless 4900m and arrived at the canyons edge in a place where Condors nest, and were lucky enough to see half a dozen or more at close quarters as they rode the morning thermals. This was real Peru, with pre-Inca field terracing and the locals working the land in their traditional dress...and only traditional food available comprising of vegetable soup followed by diced vegetables with a few scraps of Alpaca amongst it if you were lucky. Anyway, this seemed sufficient to power us down the horribly loose and rocky paths into the base of the canyon and then onwards to travel between basic huts blessed with wonderful comfy beds.
Sarah did brilliantly well but the huge haul out back to the village on day 3 would have been very demanding so once we saw a mule was on offer she recognised this as a good option. At first light she joined a few others in setting off up the hill behind the rest of us who were on foot. It was a fantastic moment when she caught up with us and then tore ahead up the steep, rocky and exposed path ahead compltely at the mercy of this powerful beast! We weren´t sure who was more shattered when we reached the canyon rim!
Now having a few easy days and will head down the Cuzco Coffee Company (a Starbucks rip-off) for a coffee and a cake....

Culture shock in Peru

We are now in a lovely old city, Arequipa, at 2300 m altitude at the foot of some huge mountains and 5800m high volcano. Feels like we are on holiday at last and were grateful to have our first proper 8 hr sleep.
Lima was a shock -after our city of 45 000, a city of 9 million, most of them taxi drivers  tooting their horns. Food was excellent and fortuneately avoided eating the great delicacy of guinea pig as they had run out !!
We were keen to leave Lima but had to stay an extra day as the bus was cancelled due to a labour protest on the main road south.
Eventually arrived in an oasis in the middle of a real desert with massive sand dunes, no camels but two giant tortoises in the garden of our hostel. We did a sand buggy tour which was very exciting, being driven at high speed up and down the dunes and then stopping to sand board down the dunes. Katie and i came a cropper and were covered in sand but fortuntely not injured.
Its great having Katie and Shay with us - they are both able to communicate well in Spanish which has been most helpful as everyone is so friendly and it is frustrating not being able to say more then gracias and hola.
We re heading to a big canyon tomorrow to do a 3 day trek involving a 1000 m ascent to altitude of around 5000m.
We are now feeling more like backpackers  as we survived an overnight bus ride, did our washing in a bucket and are typing on a keyboard with most of the letters rubbed off!
Still can t believe we{re in Peru!
Keeping in touch by Mark s phone when we can get free internet at hostels.
Lve from us in Peru ; ))

Inspiration for the final week

"To dare is to lose foothold for a while
Not to dare is to lose oneself"
Soren Kierkegaard