A quick splash down the tranquil class III rapids on the ‘Ria Colca’ is a nice way to start my Arequipan adventure. This region is known for its trekking, mountaineering, and outdoor sports.Most famous is, the deepest canyon in the world, the Canyon de Colca, which must surely be Spanish for “why the F*#$ is the canyon floor no closer”. 3-4 hours of walking at about 30 degree incline on a rough rocky path to reach the bottom a few more hours exploring the
place and then sleeping in an oasis with swimming pool, very nice. Only problem is now i am sore, sunburnt and not-at all ready to start my inca-trail to matchu pitchu.
To get there a range of buses will take you at some ungodly hour of the morning in the freezing cold for 3 hours of road and 2 hours of bumpy dirt road to see some condors and start walking. From there you ask farmers where the hell the trail went
and in our case where is san Juan de choo-choo. In order to get the trail we tried to follow an epically inaccurate map and ended up walking through paddocks and along aqueducts through cliff faces and along precipitance landscape – not the Gringo route.The other day I was relaxing on the main square when riot police escorted in about 500 protesters. These were armed with bits of wood and metal poles which they were banging together and shouting something Spanish. They do have frequent strikes, and no one seemed very interested, this one as far as i could tell it was that mice and/or vampires should not be allowed to negotiate building contracts... my Spanish may need some work.
No comments:
Post a Comment