Arequipa, white water rafting and more trekking

Arequipa is Peru's second city but thinks itself above Lima! It is framed by three enormous volcanos and is subject to frequent seismic tremors.

Cathedral in Plaza de Armas

Protest by the retired (jubilado in Spanish, we like that!)

Inglesia la Campania (1660)

Arequipa's cenre is affluent and energetic with an astonishing number of colonial churches and original buildings. In particular the huge Monasterio de Santa Catalina, almost a separate walled town within the city which housed 200 nuns and 300 servants from the late 16th century onwards, was very impressive. Now about 30 nuns remain.

El Misti in the background.....

Room of a wealthier nun ...

Arequipa is also renowned for its food:

Quinoa, prawn, avocado and mango salad, very few food miles!

Nic has always wanted to do whitewater rafting and the Grade 3 Chile river was on offer which just met out travel insurance limit. It was great and we never really felt we were about to tip over... really ...

Carolyn hides in the bottom of the boat!

Trekking was also back on the agenda, so to the Colca canyon, claimed to be the deepest in the world and more than 1 km from rim to the bottom. The trip there took us back up to just under  5,000 metres but our bodies seemed to have retained our higher haemoglobin count. More mindblowing scenery especially the pre- Inca terracing near the canyon.

The area also has a renowned spot for condor watching, they were only a few feet over our heads at one point. The Andean condor has a wingspan up to 3 metres!

The trek into the canyon involved an exhausting descent in the heat of the afternoon of some 1400 metres. Whilst the rustic hut accommodation in the oasis at the bottom lacked hot water, windows etc, it did have a swimming pool fed by the river which was very welcome. It was not so wonderful trekking back up under the stars at 5 am the next morning but we did it in under 3 hours and we can admit to a certain (well concealed obviously) smugness at our time; it was a big walk for us as there was a degree of pressure to get up well before the sun was fully up and as part of a larger and much younger group.

Oasis Paradise (?!)

We made it!