Colca Canyon and Arequipa
We started a 2-day tour to Colca Canyon from Arequipa.
Arequipa is the second biggest city in Peru. Looked pretty much like Lima, and
we didn’t feel like going around much despite the main plaza.
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Once again, we woke up early, to take a bus tour, this time to the Colca canyon. Landscape was truly amazing as we got to drive from dry pampa (rocky desert with cacti) to snowy mountains, as high as 4900m (higher than the Mont-Blanc). The trip also goes through small towns in the valley, and stops for the night in Chivay. There we were happy to get to hot springs, as we missed some on the Machu Picchu tour. We had fun during the dinner as both of us had to learn some local traditional dancing :)
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The highlight of this journey was on the second day: reaching Cruz del Condor and watching those Inca gods from very close. Also along the roads were ancient terraces and ancient tumbs (pre-Inca).
Bus ride can sometimes be very long, but as we found nice people from Argentina, back seat was very merry. We even got invited for a home barbeque in Buenos Aires, but unfortunately our new friends won’t be there at the same time with us. :(.
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After a short night sleep we took a morning bus to Puno.