Kelly's Visit Number Two

The Gringo Couple at Colca Canyon

Kelly came for her second visit a couple weeks ago, mostly to help me celebrate my 25th birthday. As if her coming here wasn't a good enough birthday present, she treated me with a vacation to Arequipa, Peru, a beautiful Andean city (and the second-largest city in Peru) surrounded by snow-capped volcano/mountain peaks in the far south. After a couple nights in Lima and my work site, we jumped on a 12 hour, bus for an overnight trip through the mountains to Arequipa. Comfortable, fully reclining seats (called bus cama) usually make sleeping easy, but, like on my Easter trip to Ayacucho, another zig-zag trip full of hairpin turns kept my body from laying still and me from sleeping deeply.

Arequipa Plaza and Church at Night

Our first day in Arequipa was a lazy one. I was tired from the bus ride, Kelly was tired from 3 straight days of travel, and, at almost 8,000 feet, we were both adjusting to the thin air. We checked into our hostel, an old, colonial style mansion, slept, ate, and drank some of city's very own beer, called what else? Arequipeña. We both enjoyed it, but my initial reaction was that it tasted like Natural Ice while Kelly thought it was similar to Heineken. Hm? Unfortunately, it isn't sold outside in other parts of Peru. Los ariquipeños, as people from the area are called, maintain a sense of superiority, thinking of themselves as separate from and better than the rest of the country. They're sort of of like the Texas of Peru, but not. They have cleaner streets, less stray dogs, more money, alpaca hair (mmm...soft), issue their own Arequipan passports as a joke, and make their own beer but refuse to sell it to others.

Volcanoes Outside the City

We spent three total days in the city, walking around, trying the food (rocoto relleno, hot peppers, stuffed with seasoned beef, cheese, and onions was a favorite) and drink, and visiting local hotspots. Early in the trip, before we'd tired of being tourist mode, we checked out an ancient, pristine convent that offered as many photo opportunities as it did creepy stories (nuns not allowed to pass beyond the walls). Later we made our way to the huge, smelly market, where we found everything from puppies to goat heads for sale.

View From Inside the Convent

"Goat Heads! Get Your Goat Heads!"

Later we visited Colca Canyon, an immense canyon twice as deep as the Grand Canyon that lies about 100 miles northwest of Arequipa. Colca Canyon has been in the news lately because a Peruvian man has gone missing there after venturing into the canyon with his wife over a month ago. After the woman resurfaced a few weeks ago, there have been rumors that she pushed him over a cliff edge. We didn't descend into the canyon but rather traveled up and up, at one point over 16,000 feet, to look down upon it from it's rim. The scenery and environment were pretty incredible. Huge condors and the biggest hummingbirds I've ever seen before (3 times the size of a normal one) were flying around an amazing backdrop of mountains and canyons. The air was thin, though neither of us got sick. Between water, altitude medicine, and coca leaves, the worst that happened was Kelly going pee every 10 minutes. Compared to the Peruvian couple, I'd say we did alright.

Condor Coasting over Canyon

Me and the Canyon