Arequipa and the Colca Trek

We got to Arequipa at 5.40am and checked into a hostel then spent the day wandering through Santa Catalina, a monestery filled with gorgeous courtyards then headed to Casa Verde, a cafe where the money goes to help the 25 street children they´ve housed who also help out in the cafe. I´ve never done so much good just by eating chocolate cake.

The next day we went to the museam of Juanita one of the girls found in the mountains sacrificed by the incas. It was really interesting to learn about the sacrifices of the children but obviously very eery as we actually got to see the girls body which had been preserved by the ice on the mountain where she was buried. The chosen child had to trek up the mountain with only sandles on their feet, surviving on nothing but vegtables and coco leaves. 8 hours before their death they were only allowed to eat coco leaves and right before the fatal blow to the head was given, they were made to drink large amounts of chi cha, a strong corn beer.

On a much less morbid note we woke up at 2.30am the following morning to get ready for a trek through the colca canyon, which was amazing. We began with a buffet breakfast and then started the trek which was only 3 hours and really easy the first day. Walking through the dusty mountains was amazing and for the last 20 minutes we scrambled up the rocks to a lodge with the most amazing view of the canyon where we relaxed in the sun had dinner and slept. The lodge was made of mud bricks with a bamboo door, the roof was made of palm leaves and the floor was just earth, there was no electricity. It was a really sweet lodge though and I loved it there. Breakfast was at 7.30 and then we began the next bit of our trek to the oasis. After 3 hours of trekking in the hot sun it was amazing to arrive at the next lodge which had a swimming pool with a waterfall! We got in our bikinis and swam in the pool straight away then lay in the sun until lunch. Once again our sleeping arrangments were basic with no electricity (but plenty of mosquitos) and we had to get up at 4.30am the next day to begin the 3hour trekup the steepest part of the mountain. The trek up was really hard but me and my friend Tracey were the first from our group up and actually did it in 2 and a half hours- yay! Then we all had to walk across corn fields for 20minutes before getting our well deserved breakfast. After lunch in a town called Chivay (a buffet that I really made the most of) we spent an hour in hot springs which was amazing for our aching muscles.

We got back to Arequipa at around 6.30pm and afew of us got together later to begin making Pisco Sour coctails using the blender in our hostel. That evening we went out to sample Arequipa´s nightlife and the verdict is that it´s very fun!