Arequipa & Colca Canyon Tek

November 13, 2009

Arequipa was a really cute city, quite clean and nice looking. I liked it. The Plaza de Armas was really beautiful! It had a gorgeous fountain in the middle which I proceeded to take about 10 pictures of. :) Finally decided to buy a book to read during the trip and decided on Jane Eyre, a true classic..also one of the few books in English in the bookstore that actually struck my fancy! :) We then spent some time getting a tour of Monasterio Santa Catalina which was pretty interesting. Our "English speaking" guide was pretty hard to understand but a sweet woman. It was cool to see how the nuns lived and survived. I, of course, considered joining the convent while I was there.

......Sure! Anyways, another favorite of that day was going on a sunglasses hunt with Tom. He needed my expert opinion (haha) and it was hilarious watching him in action. We´d walk into a shop and he´d quickly say ¨"No!" and walk out..hilarious. After trying on about 300 pairs, he settled. :) Nice job, Tom!

From Arequipa, we headed on my first ever trek in life to Colca Canyon. This was a 3 day, 2 night trek. Started with a 3 am pickup time, ahh. Consisted of seeing Condor Crossing (birds arent my thing), meals, then began our trek in Cabanaconde for 3.5 hours of downhill hiking. Once we arrived to our simple accommodation, I hung around chatting with some of the other trekkers talking about traveling, life, etc. Had some beers before dinner, and later went to bed by candlelight since we didnt have any lights! P.S. The beds were kind of yucky so I slept with all my clothes on and through my jacket over my pillowcase :)

Banana pancakes with caramel sauce on them ---soo yummy!! We set out for our 3 hour downhill hike at 8am to the oasis. I bonded with the guide, Jessica, as we taught each other scandalous words in both of our languages--was definitely entertaining and passed the time! I saw where we were headed--palm trees, pools, bungalows, and I sped ahead listening to my i-pod. For a little while, I was in the lead and was singing aloud and feeling awesome. I got to the bridge, where I had to wait for the others, and rocked out to a classic Nirvana song--felt amazing! (See me there...Im feeling fantastic :) )

It was awesome because we got to spend the afternoon at an awesome pool relaxing, swimming, laying out, reading, lunc, playing cards and drinking beers...was a fun night because there was no electricity and it was pitch black so we had to use headlamps and flashlights to do anything!

The next day we had to get up at 430am to begin our 3 hour UPHILL hike at 5 am!! Ahh!!We rested along the way, ate snacks to stay fueled, and basically climbed uphill for hours!! Tom and I hiked together during the whole time. During it, I must admit I was really proud of myself and thinking of this Dr. Seuss quote:

"Step with care and great tact And remember that Life's a Great Balancing Act."

Also thinking about the Little Engine that Could who kept thinking "I think I can, I think I can.." and at the top he says "I thought I could, I thought I could." :) I was sweating up a storm, drinking lots of water...it was awesome seeing everyone at the top cheering and happy. We all had breakfast together and some Michael Jackson music video DVD was on and we were all singing along and happy. :) Spent the remainder of the day heading back to Arequipa listening to tunes, feeling really good about the day, etc...and then got an overnight bus to Cuzco!!