South America and South Africa

The lasting three days I spent in Arequipa and the Colca Canyon. Unlike Nasca I haven’t planned the visit of these two places from the beginning but on the Galapagos Islands cruise somebody recommended to go there. Arequipa is the second largest city in Peru and beautifully located below some volcanoes. The most famous might be the Ampato where the famous Inca-mummy “Juanita” was found in 6,300 m altitude.

Arequipa has some old monastries of which the larger part of the Convent Santa Catalina was made accessible to the public after  the earthquake in 1970. The convent is like a little town in the city and it was restored and coloured typical for that region. While we were there, I was together with the two spanish flight attendants I met in Nasca, a film-team was shooting a scene for a film about a nun of this monastry.

After two days I left in the early morning for a two-day tour to the Colca Canyon which is deeper than the Grand Canyon but apart from that cannot compete with it. The tour started with a visit of the Cruz del Condor, the deepest part of the canyon, where each morning condors rise in the morning thermals. Thereafter we went to the rim of the canyon and started our hike to the “oasis” at the bottom of the canyon where we stayed overnight. As my feet were completely messed up by my hiking-boots I decided to make use of the offer to waive the next morning climb for a ride on a mule back to the rim. After the breakfast we continued our tour with visits to several villages with great views of the scenery, a bath in the hot springs of La Calera and finally a visit to the Aguada Blanca National Vicuna Reserve about one hour out of Arequipa. (See photos “Two-day tour to the Colca Canyon”)