One of the key reasons to visit Arequipa is to visit the Colca Canyon. The Colca Canyon is one of the deepest in the world. I’ve heard some conflicting stats- either that it’s the second or third largest. In either case, it’s super deep: twice as deep as the Grand Canyon.

There are a few different ways you can see it depending on how much time you have and your appetite for hiking, so I opted for a three-day trek. The bus picked us up at 3 AM for a four hour drive to the start of the hike. Along the way, we stopped for breakfast (it was lame- just bread and jam in a freezing restaurant) and at a viewpoint where you’re supposed to be able to see condors, but we didn’t glimpse any. It still offered some great views though.

At about 8:30, we got going on the trail. Our group had eight people in total. Myself, Trace (a girl I met on the Peru Hop bus), a Belgian couple, an Australian couple, a guy from the states named Jason, and our guide, Giancarlo. Giancarlo decided that our group would be called The Pumas, and our catchphrase was “Hakuna Matata.”

The first day we just walked down, down, down for about 3.5 or 4 hours. I thought going downhill was easy, but it was actually pretty rough on my butt!

We hiked allll the way down to the river in the middle of this photo

Once we reached near the bottom of the canyon, we stopped at Familia Gloria, our rustic homestay for the night.

We were all pretty hungry for lunch, which unfortunately turned out to be a pretty small portion of lomo saltado. For the rest of the afternoon we just chilled out- figuratively and literally- it was really cold down there! There was of course no Wifi or TV or anything, but luckily someone brought a pack of cards so we played a few rounds to kill time. Dinner was a small vegetarian meal, so we all went to bed a bit hungry :( Breakfast was a little more filling, and much cuter:

The next day was another 3.5 hour hike to “The Oasis” - it was more of a mix of uphill/downhill and flat, and we started at 8:30, not 3 AM, so I was in much better spirits! The Oasis is truly that, a small lodge with green grass, fruit trees, and even a pool! It wasn’t super warm, but we all jumped in anyway to celebrate making it to the bottom of the canyon (and, at least for me, to wash the sweat and dirt off myself!).

For those that do the trek in two days, they walk all the way to The Oasis in one day; I was really glad I’d opted to do the longer, slower version of the trek. The lunch portions were similarly small, but at this point we’d come to have lower expectations for the food on this trip. After lunch some of the guys played soccer, I read a book, and then took what ended up being a super long nap! The Oasis had some games, so we played a little Jenga. Then our guide Giancarlo but on some Peruvian music and taught us a dance, which seemed to mostly consist of jogging in place with an occasional kick. It got our heart rates up, that’s for sure!

For dinner, we finally had a big plate of pasta to prepare us for the hardest part of the trek the next day! We started the hike at 4:30 AM, and it was 3 hours of an unrelenting uphill climb. We all took it at our own pace, and even though I was one of the slower hikers, I finally made it to the top, with the help of some podcasts on my cell phone to distract me. Once we reached the top of the canyon, it was another 30 minutes of walking on flat ground to our breakfast destination (yes, we did that whole hike BEFORE breakfast, but don’t worry we all had snacks).

After a hearty (well, for Peru) breakfast, we hopped on a bus back to Arequipa. We stopped along the way at a restaurant with a lunch buffet. The guys in the group went crazy eating everything they could after our meager meals over the last few days. I took it a little easier than they did :)

After lunch we stopped at some hot spring pools, which felt AMAZING after three long days of hiking. I didn’t feel sore the next day, and I definitely credit the pools for that!

The hike was challenging at times, especially with the early wakeup times, but it was definitely one of the highlights of my trip so far. The views were amazing, I got to push myself physically, and I loved the people in my group. There’s nothing like accomplishing something together, and a lack of technology, to bond with new people. I had a great time getting to know them, and we all hung out again once back to civilization.

Back in Arequipa, Trace and I shared a hotel room back at Casa de Avila, where I enjoyed the longest shower ever, and then we treated ourselves to a nice Italian meal before collapsing to bed after our big hike!

Greetings from the Peru Hop bus (actually not really that’s just where I drafted this)! We are in the middle of our journey between Arequipa and Puno, slightly delayed because there is currently massive flooding in the north of Peru, where our bus came from. Luckily, it’s been a smooth ride so far.

I spent a total of five nights in Arequipa, a beautiful city that also serves as the base for visiting the Colca Canyon. The first day, our bus arrived at about 4:45AM from Huacachina, and I paid my hotel $10 extra to be able to check in early: money well spent! I was able to go back to bed for a few hours, and wake up rested and ready for some sightseeing. I stayed at Casa de Avila, a pretty reasonably priced place with AMAZING service. Shoutout to the night receptionist, Juan, who made our stay extra pleasant.

After catching some more shut-eye, I went on a free walking tour, where our hilarious guide Karo told us more about this history of the place and we got to see some of the highlights. Arequipa is known as “the white city” for two reasons: first for the stone that their most prominent buildings are made from, and also, Karo told us, because the people are have more white skin due to intermarriage between hispanic and indigenous people.

After the tour, I went to lunch with Allana, another American girl who I met on the Peru Hop bus. We went to a “picanteria” called La Mundial, a local eatery where we enjoyed some HUGE portions of potatoes and rocoto relleno, a stuffed pepper

One of the most popular local goods in Arequipa are alpaca sweaters, hats, blankets, and more. So we went on a short walk to Mundo Alpaca, a store recommended by our guide to find authentic and good quality baby alpaca items. Baby alpaca wool doesn’t actually come from baby animals, but rather refers to the wool from the first shave- it’s extra soft, and very expensive! I was in the market for a hat to wear on my trek, and a baby alpaca one would have cost me about $60. Instead I bought something lower quality and cheaper in a less nice shop in town.

It started thunder-storming during our shopping trip, so we quickly walked back to our hotel, where we’d booked a cooking class. The class was led by another woman with a great sense of humor, and we learned how to make causa, a potato and chicken salad tower, and lomo salted, beef cooked in pisco and soy sauce with onions and tomatoes, served with rice and fries (Peruvians know how to carbo-load!)

Then it was off to bed early because we both had a 2:30 AM wakeup call for tours to the Colca Canyon. Read about my three-day trek HERE. I’m going to keep all the Arequipa info in one place, instead of being chronological, since I’m writing this all after the fact anyway!

After returning from the Colca Canyon trek in the evening, I took the longest shower ever, and Trace (my friend from Peru Hop and the trek) and I went to an Italian restaurant, Il Fornellino to treat ourselves to lasagna, cake, and a tasty bottle of Peruvian Malbec (I didn’t know they made wine in Peru!)

The next day, I needed to do some planning for the last week or so of my sabbatical (WHAT? How am I already in my last days??), so I set up camp in an amazing coffee shop called Palacios Coffee a short walk from my hotel. While enjoying an iced mocha I figured out an itinerary and lodging for my time in Cusco and the Sacred Valley.

Trace did the walking tour that morning, so we met up afterwards and visited the Santa Catalina monastery, a huge monastery in the center of Arequipa. We opted to pay an extra $3 each for a guided tour, which was WELL worth the cost. Our tiny guide Susy took us around for about an hour, and explained the history of the convent, which dates back to the 16th century.

I was surprised to learn that it was common for upper class families to send their second daughter to become nuns, and that there was even a social hierarchy among the nuns based on how wealthy their families were. The families paid for small apartments to be built for their daughters, so the more wealthy the family, the sweeter the apartment and they even had servants to do the dirty work for them!

The monastery is still functioning today, but nuns have to practice a more austere lifestyle, without big private apartments or servants, and visitors aren’t allowed in the part where nuns are actively nun-ing.

We enjoyed some lunch at Crepisimo, a crepes place, continuing my trend of eating mostly non-Peruvian foods in Arequipa. There, we met up with some of the other people from our trekking group, and made a plan to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day that evening.

I headed over to the market, which we first visited on the free walking tour. It’s relatively small for a marketplace, but well organized, with different sections ranging from fruits to hats to herbal remedies and even things like llama fetuses for practicing certain rituals.

I wasn’t in the market for any llama fetuses, but wanted to return to try some fresh made juice- I had a smoothie made of strawberry, passion fruit, mango, and orange juice. YUM!

Like good foreigners, we put on our green clothes to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day at a hostel called Wild Rover, a chain famous for its party scene. They didn’t disappoint! They had a cover band playing American songs, the bar tenders were dressed all in green, and they even had a bunch of festive accessories and face painting. They also had Guinness, but it was $7 a can, super steep for Peru, so we stuck with the local beer. It was really fun to get our little hiking group back together and hang out for one last time before we had to go our separate ways.

The next morning, some of us, including me, boarded the bus to Puno, which is where I’m headed now, to explore Lake Titicaca for a day, and then onwards to Cusco!

Welcome to my blog!

South America...and beyond!