Day 48
At 7.15am Tom and I grabbed the bus from Puno to Arequipa, supposedly one of the most dangerous bus routes in South America due to a combination of high altitude, mountain roads and driver fatigue. I slept most of the way so can´t really comment. In Arequipa we met back up with the girls.
Arequipa is Peru´s second largest city and is nicknamed La Ciudad Blanca (White City) due to its distinctive grand colonial buildings constructed out of sillar (a white volcanic rock). As might be inferred, Arequipa lies at the foot of three pretty gigantic volcanoes.
The volcanoes dominate the skyline and can be glimpsed above the roofs of the buildings.
The big surprise for me though was how posh this city is. Our hostel lies in an incredibly wealthy neighbourhood of grand gated houses with guards outside, neatly trimmed gardens and upmarket boutiques. The centre is full of expensive clothes shops, coffee bars and delicious restaurants. Most impressive though is the supermarket. I have never seen anything on this scale before. There are whole aisles dedicated to the most obscure products, shelves stocking every type of fruit imaginable and troughs full of sugar and rice. It made quite the contrast from Puno, let alone Bolivia. I´m informed that Arequipeños think of themselves as intellectually and culturally independent from the rest of Peru and their obvious wealth translates into a more right-wing political slant.
That evening we treated ourselves to dinner at Chi Cha, a restaurant run by one of Peru´s most famous chefs Gastón Acurio. Trained in Spain, Acurio applies his knowledge of international cuisine to update and ´Gourmet-ise´ traditional Peruvian food; a style known as Novoandina. The restaurant was rather posh with highly attentive waiters.
Tom ordered ´Cauche´, a creamy potato stew with onions, tomatoes, rocoto chilli and cheeses.
For my starter I had the ´luxury ceviche´, which was raw silverside fish filet and octupus marinated in lemon juice; Peru´s most famous dish. It was incredibly light and refreshing. The fish was softer than the raw fish you find in sushi and melted in the mouth.
For my main course I had another Peruvian classic, ´Rocoto Relleno´ (a stuffed rocoto chilli). The chilli itself was pretty powerful and I turned bright red, but the true highlight was the the filling of chopped beef and pork with raisins and olives served on a bed of creamy potato. It was like a lucky dip as I kept on pulling out more and more exciting ingredients from inside the chilli (culminating in a soft boiled egg at the bottom).
Josie ordered a lemon pie for desert which came in a martini glass
I had a coconut and chocolate fondant.
Day 49
By a long distance, the highlight of Arequipa must be the Monasterio de Santa Catalina. Founded in 1580 by the incredibly rich daughter of a conquistador as a convent for the daughters of only the richest Spanish families, the complex is a city within a city. Surrounded by chastity-protecting high walls, the convent occupies a whole block in the centre of the city (an impressive 20,000 square meters) and was sealed off to the outside world from its foundation until the 1970s. The nuns were eventually forced to open their doors when it was struck twice by earthquakes and they required the financial assitance of the government to repair the damage. The place is architecturally stunning, full of bright blue and red quadrangles, high vaulted cells and all the facilities that a self-sufficient community might need. As proof of the scale of the place, it took us a few hours to wander around its many passages.
(A map of the city within the city)
The calming influence of the convent gave Tom and me the courage finally to go to a Peruvian hairdressers and tame our manes. The language and cultural barriers had their effect and Tom and I walked out with a pair of matching mohawks, rendered solid with tonnes of gel. I may have spent a few minutes in the toilet mirror with a pair of scissors repairing the damage. I bear no hard feelings though as I had a great conversation with the hairdresser about the Peruvian political situation (the results of the election have been most interesting).
Day 50
Arequipa is also famous as a jumping-point for the 100km long Colca Canyon; the world´s second deepest canyon, being TWICE as deep as America´s Grand Canyon (having a depth of over 3 km). Tom and I fancied trekking through this wonder and so we once again separated from the girls. We were picked up from our hostel at the unbelievably early time of 3am and started our day admiring the canyon´s condors. These are giant birds of the vulture family which stand over a meter high and have an average wingspan of 3.2 meters (10.5 feet). In other words they are much bigger than humans! For that reason have little fear of flying very close to us. Standing on the edge of the 3km fall to the bottom we realised that one flap of an angry condor´s wing was all that separated us from certain death.
We spent the next five hours trekking from the top to the very bottom of the canyon. The views down were amazing in their scale and beauty. Our knees may have hurt a little by the end.
Aside from the narrow paths an amusing added danger were the large numbers of donkeys that passed us. Not only was there the risk that one might kick us over the edge, but every now and again one got spooked and started to gallop down the mountain. Twice we had to jump out the way to avoid being mown down.
At the bottom we reached an oasis with a swimming pool fed by the river. We spent the evening relaxing in candlelight. Two of our trekking group were from Belgium and had brought in their backpack a box of delicious Belgian chocolates (Port Royal Corné) which were rendered even more amazing by our intense post-trekking hunger. We fell asleep at 8.30pm utterly exhausted.
The next morning we had a comparative lie-in until 4.45am and began a true test of human endurance; the 7km trek upwards out of the canyon. Climbing at an angle of about 30 degrees up precarious rocky paths
in the dawn light was tiring to say the least and with every step the air pressure dropped, meaning that our tired limbs were fighting for less and less oxygen as they needed it more and more. I was a bit disheartened when Tom ran off into the distance in front of me, but the old adage that slow and steady wins the race was proved once more as after an hour I passed Tom and several others lying panting on the ground. Reaching the top I felt a surge of euphoria and pictured below is our team´s victory photograph.
To celebrate we tucked into all the fresh fruit we had collected as we ascended the path (a mixture of figs and various cactus fruits). I ate until my hands were covered in cactus spikes and then attacked a whole packet of Oreos. Then we went for a buffet lunch where I ate nearly a whole alpaca. A whole day later I am still ravenous.
The afternoon was spent recovering in some geothermal baths at the summit.
Day 52
Today was to be a true lie-in, but the sum of the previous few days meant that my body woke me up at 6am. A chilled morning at the hostel was followed by a visit to one of Arequipa´s museums to see another Inca mummy and then an afternoon of book shopping. This evening we are catching a bus to Cuzco.
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