Nov 24, 2004 - Arequipa again

Back to Arequipa for another day. We go to see "Juanita the Ice Princess". She was an Inca girl of about 13 who was sacrificed to the mountain gods on top of the volcano Ampato about 500 years ago. The guide takes us around the museum and explains how her diecovery and that of two other scarificed children, was only possible because the neighbouring was erupting and melted the ice that covered her. She was exposed for a month or two before she was discovered, so the sun and wind mummified her face, but the rest of here remained frozen in is...

Nov 23, 2004 - Arequipa´s lovely

Hello again! Have headed out of deserted Nasca, having seen the lines (which were every bit as strange as I thought they´d be) and come down to Arequipa in southern Peru up in the feet of the Andes. It´s a beautiful old colonial town surrounded by some fabulous mountains and volcanoes (my favourite one is called Volcán Misti and looks like an illustration of a volcano in a childrens book!) and is a lovely place to spend a few days. Tomorrow I´m going on a 2 day trip to Colca Canyon (apparently the deepest canyon in the world) to see some of...

Nov 21, 2004 - Arequipa

Awake at 5 am. I'm cramped and aching. The bus is stoppped in a queue on a foggy cliff road. No idea what's going on. John, who Charlotte and I keep bumping into wherever we stop, and was on another bus further up the queue, later says he thinks it was a landslide that needed to be cleared from the road. He's probably right. But at the time there is nothing to do but go back to sleep, so I do. Eventually we roll into Arequipa several hours later than planned and the hostel which we organised in advance is less than wonderful. But none of it...

Nov 18, 2004 - Arequipa, Peru

Arequipa was one of our favorite cities in Peru. The weather this time of year is gorgeous with bright blue skies and pleasant temperatures. The city also has a very pretty main square with big churches, palm trees and fountains. The best feature, though, has to be the snow capped volcanoes that overlook the city. (well, the one thing that tainted our stay here was that my finger got bitten in Nasca while I was sleaping and by the time we got to Arequipa it progressed to the extent that my whole lower arm was twice -not kidding- of its...

Nov 11, 2004 - Arequipa

Visited the Santa Monica Convent - quite pretty with colourful little alleyways. etc. I managed to loose our official guide which she, apparently, wasn´t very happy about. Don´t you love signs with bad English? There was an explanation on one of the Nun Cell walls, telling the history of one of the Nuns that lived there. Apparently this Nun had lived from 1805 to 1885, but "for the last 10 years of her life she was blind and paralytic". I reckon she should have kept away from the alcohol then! Also visited a museum containing a frozen mummy...

Nov 8, 2004 - Colca Canyon, the world`s second deepest canyon

After a great time in Cusco, we decided it was time to move on and headed for a city called Arequipa, which translates to something like, "Yes, stay." We quickly agreed with the assessment. From Arequipa, we decided to take a trip by bus to the Colca Canyon, the world´s second deepest canyon to it´s neighbor whose name I cannot remember. The trip to the canyon took 5 hours on a bus and after about an hour, we took a right turn and went offroading. I figured that it had to be a stop before continuing on, but after 30 minutes, I realized that...

Nov 4, 2004 - Arequipa & Cañon del Colca

NB. We have no pictures for this destination as a crap internet cafe in Copacabana managed to corrupt our memory card. After our first fairly comfortable night bus we arrived in ´The White City´ early morning. Arequipa is famed for volcanoes and the two deepest canyons in the world, Colca Canyon at 3191m and Canon del Cotahuasi at 163m deeper. The view from the Plaza de Armas is pretty spectacular considering it´s surrounded by three volcanoes... El Misti (5822m), Chachani (6075m) and Pichu Pichu (5571m). Alas we didn´t get the chance to...

Oct 27, 2004 - i haven't fallen off a mountain yet...

...but it's still early in the trip. I haven't written sooner because everytime we have free time I don't seem to be anywhere near a computer. Everything is going smoothly. Ricardo was there to pick me up from the airport and take me to my hostel. I stayed there one night. The hostel was overlooking the beach so I climbed down a cliff to take a walk along the Pacific Ocean. After that I went to the hotel where I met my group.There's 12 of us, mostly brits and aussies lead by our guide Jose. Sunday we left Lima around 2 and headed down the...

Oct 25, 2004 - Arequipa and Colca Canyon

We came to Arequipa early in the morning and spent one day there. It is a pretty city with white colonial buildings and we also visited the museum where they have "Juanita" the frozen inca girl/mummy that is so famous. It was a great museum, really interesting. Juanita was found on the volcano Ambato. She was sacrificed to the mountain gods 500 years ago and has been frozen since then. Therefore everything on her (except for a part of her face that was exposed to sunlight) is in perfect condition and she still has all her internal organs...

Oct 16, 2004 - Arequipa and the Colca Canyon

After a hellish 6 hour bus trip we arrived in the lovely town of Arequipa. The bus was packed, people standing in the aisles because of double booking of tickets. Luckily we had our seats! At every stop people ran on trying to sell food, gifts (you name it) to us. Then a guy stood right next to us and shouted at the top of his voice for 1 hour promoting some health food product. The IPOD went on full volume! Then (the story goes on!) the guy in front of us was sick out of the window so we no longer had a view! That night we had a nice meal...

Oct 2, 2004 - Arequipa

Ellen: When we arrived in Arequipa we were about two hours late, so we were told to just get on the next bus. We walked on, and it was, as Kevin so aptly put it, "a shithole". Not the "lujo" (luxury) class bus we had paid for (heavily) in Nazca. This was to be a 9-hour trip, and Kevin had a cold, and there was no way we wanted to cram in there. Several people from our first bus felt the same way, and everyone got off to see what the problem was. Turned out the luxury bus was broken and wouldn't leave until the next morning, so we were...

Sep 29, 2004 - Ariquipa

Ariquipa We arrived in Ariquipa at 10am after yet another interesting bus journey. The bus in all fairness was only two hours late this time, so we thought 'result'. It was also the promised Royal Class, complete with wonderfully comfortable reclining seats which promised a good nights sleep, and this was duly achieved. The galling thing was that the bloody thing didn't stop even for a fag break. At 7am, after seven and a half hours of incarceration and the ignominy of using chemical toilets, the bus stopped outside what appeared to be a...