Peru Part 3 - Colca Canyon & Chivay - April 3-4, 2012

Volcano

Alpacas

Once we left Arequipa we headed even further into the highlands to continue with our acclimatization the town of Chivay, a couple hours away from the Colca Canyon. The trip from Arequipa to Chivay took the better part  of a day  with several stops and some exploring along the way. We started out checking out all of the Volcanoes in the area as we circled around them and climbed higher into the mountain. We also had our first glimpse of heavily terraced agricultural areas as we climbed higher into the Andean mountains. Along the way we saw numerous Llamas, Alpacas and Vicunas; very cute!

Llama

Weaving Woman

 About half way along our journey we stopped at a tea house to have some Coca Leaves and Coca Tea to help with acclimatization. The tea was good but chewing the leaves made my mouth numb and tasted weird. Along the way traveled through a high pass that was at 4910m EL, my highest elevation ever! That night we stayed in the town of Chivay at 3600m EL where we enjoyed a tasty Peruvian Buffet and relaxed in some hot springs just outside of town.

Little Peruvian Girl

The next day (April 4, 2012) we woke up to a cool morning of only 5c with fresh snow on the surrounding mountains. We headed into the Colca Canyon to explore the outdoors for the day and go for a bit of a hike.  We started with a 2hr drive to the Cruz del Condor where we saw the Condors catching thermals to lift them out of the canyon and over the surrounding hills. They were huge and amazing to watch.  The Canyon was also amazing, incredibly deep with little villages within it.  We spent about an hour hiking and exploring the canyon while we were there as well. 

Colca Canyon 

Condor

Once we left the Canyon we stopped at some view points and little towns on the way back to Chivay to explore the markets, villages and local Cathedrals. Once back in Chivay we hiked up a small hill in town to check out the pre-Inca burial tombs at the top. They were huge, tall cylinders and were pretty cool to see. There was also a great view of the town from the top of the hill. That night we went to a Pena for dinner and enjoyed some Peruvian Music and Dancing after dinner.


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Market

Burial tower

Peru, Part 2 - Nasca and Arequipa

Mummy in a burial tomb

Bones scattered on the desert floor

 Sunday April 1 was our 2nd day in Nasca and also the day of the infamous Nasca Line Flight! We started the morning off with a trip to the Chauchilla (Pre-Inca) Burial Site were we took a guided tour through the dessert and saw 1500 yr old tombs and mummies that had been discovered and unearthed.  It was very cool to see, but a bit creepy with random human bones strewn about the hiking path we were following.

 Once we left the cemetery we stopped in at a pottery studio where we learned about the traditional pottery making methods and checked out a some spectacular pottery pieces.

Ready for the Nasca Lines

                                                                                           
                                                                                   That afternoon we headed to the airport for our flight over the Nasca Lines.  We divided into3 separate Cessnas and took off for a viewing of 15 of the enormous Nasca lines, including the Monkey, Astronaut and Hummingbird. The flight started out OK, but it was screaming hot in the plane and the banking left to right turned out to be too much for me.

Astronaut

 I spent the second half of the flight checking out the barf bags instead of the Nasca lines. Nothing like paying $100 to barf in a bag!  Seeing the Lines was still amazing though, so its all good. It still amazes me how they would have made the lines so perfectly without being able to see them from above. After the flight we headed back to our Hacienda to take a dip in the pool and relax before our overnight bus ride to Arequipa.

Santa Catalina Courtyard

Santa Catalina streets

                                                                                   

Santa Catalina 

Arequipa is an awesome city located in the mountains in Peru at 2300m EL above sea level.  It is surrounded by 3 volcanoes, making it incredibly scenic.  It is one of my favourite cities so far on the Peru portion of the tour. We  arrived in Arequipa at 9am after and overnight bus trip and after a tasty breakfast at a little creperie, Crepismo, we headed out to explore the city.

Roof Top Cervazas

We started out at the Santa Catalina Monastery, which was absolutely beautiful with all the stone work, art, bright colours and architecture. There are even nuns still living there, just not in the section that we took a tour of. Next we headed to the Andean Sanctuary Museum, which houses the Mummy Juanita who was a young girl who was sacrificed to by the Inca’s high on a mountain top and who was discovered a few years back in the ice in a perfectly mummified state.  Unfortunately, Juanita was “on vacation” while we were there so we didn’t get to see her, but we did learn about her story and see another mummy that was almost as cool.

We ended our day with some cervazas on the hotel roof top  looking out at the surrounding volcanoes at sunset and with a crazy dinner of cuy!


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Cuy!

Peru - Lima, Paracas (Pisco) and Nasca

Lunch in Lima

 On Thursday March 29 we said goodbye to Ecuador and took a 2.5 hr flight to Lima, Peru. We arrived to our hotel in Lime, the Britania Miraflores, at 10:30 am. Once we were settled we walked down to the Larcomall to have lunch on the Oceanside. After lunch we met up with Dave, Debbie, Wendy and Richard at Starbucks and enjoyed a coffee in the sunshine

Lima, Peru

Pisco sour

We spent the afternoon exploring the Miraflores neighbourhood of Lima, including some churches and the city square full of cats and then we relaxed of some Pisco Sours. Yum! That night we met the rest of the group that we are going to be travelling with for the next three weeks and then spent the evening at a local park that is filled with 15 water fountains and a dancing
water laser show.

Dancing Water Show, Lima

Paracas Sunset

The next day was essentially a travel day.  We left after lunch for a 4 hr bus ride to Paracus, which is a small port town near Pisco, Peru. The trip started out eventful for Simon who was in a cab where the drive asked him to steer while he messed around with the electrical panel in the car that proceeded to start on fire! Luckily he made it to the hotel safely! We stayed at a hotel just a block from the beach, so after watching the sunset we headed to a beachside restaurant for our first group dinner where we had grilled shrimp and got to know each other over a few beers.

Paracas, Peru

On Saturday Morning we had breakfast overlooking the ocean where we saw dolphins playing in the harbour and then we set out for a full day of activities. We started out with a trip to Pisco factory where we learned how Pisco was made and we got to taste Peruvian wines and Pisco Sours. The factory also had a fabulous little chocolate shop that we indulged in.

Desert & Dune Buggies

Oasis

Our next stop was a town called Huacachina, which is actually an Oasis in the middle of the dessert between Pisco and Nasca. This is where we had an awesome afternoon of Dune buggy rides and sand boarding. It was so much fun! We took the dune buggies into the middle of the dessert, down some crazy steep dunes and finally we got to get out on three different dunes and basically toboggan down the sand dunes. It was so fast, but so much fun!

Sand Boarding

Dune Buggies

Nazca Lines

After a tasty lunch back in town we continued our journey to Nasca. The drive to Nasca was spectacular, going from being surrounded by hills and sand to lush green valleys appearing out of no where near every water source. On the way to our hotel we stopped at a Nasca Line viewing platform and got to see the tree and the frog.  The Nasca Lines our crazy, they are so big and perfectly drawn, it’s a complete mystery as to how they were created. That night we stayed in a Hacienda in Nasca with a great pool and courtyards and spent the evening relaxing in the warm evening air.

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Galapagos!

Baby Sea Lion

 For the second leg of our trip Mike and I went on a boat tour in the Galapagos Islands in Ecuador.  They are absolutely amazing!  The 4 days we spent there were not nearly enough and I will definitely head back there one day!

Circle of Life

On Sunday, March 25 with met up with our group from G Adventures and headed to the airport for our flight to the Galapagos.  We arrived on San Cristobal Island at 10:30 am where we were picked up by our guide, Hanzel and transported to the closest dock 5 min. away.












  The adventure started right away as we had to step over the sea lions that were sleeping on the dock and climb into a zodiak to be transferred to our boat, the G4.Once we arrived at the boat we met the rest of the group (7 people were already on the boat when we arrived) and were assigned our room. We lucked out with an upper deck berth which was awesome we had great views and were further away from the engine noise.  One we settled in we had some lunch in the dining area of the boat headed out for our first excursion. 

San Cristobal

The first excursion was to Isla Lobo which is covered in Sea Lions. We went ashore and were instantly greeted by 5 baby sealions basking in the sun. After a short walk across the island we saw millions of brilliantly coloured red and black crabs on the jet black rocks, lots and lots of sea lions and black Marine Iguanas, which live on land but eat in the ocean.  We also encountered our first set of blue footed boobies; they are crazy looking birds! It was such a cool experience to get within a few feet of all these animals and have them not care at all. 

Eagle Ray

Shark!

After our walk we went for our first snorkel trip. We took the zodiaks to the rocks around Isla Lobo and jumped in. The water was so warm and clear, around 25c.  We got to swim with a whole group of sea lion pups. They were crazy, swimming all around us and biting and pulling on our flippers. There were even a couple of the pups playing with a stick; so cute! We also saw tonnes of multi coloured tropical fish and a sea turtle that swam right under us. It was awesome! We ended the night with drinks and dinner on the boat and watching the sun set from the boat deck loungers.  

Male Frigate Bird

On Monday, March 26 we started the day with a quick breakfast and a zodiac ride out to North Seymour Island. North Seymour was covered in birds, we saw lots of Blue Footed Boobies and Frigate birds of all ages from babies in the nests to the mature adults with their red chest pouches inflated. After our hike we went for a snorkel and this time we saw a white tip shark and eagle ray along with fish and more sea lions.

Isla Lobos Sea Lions

After our snorkel we headed back to the boat for lunch and while we were relaxing on the deck we saw some huge Galapagos sharks in the water. So cool! After lunch we headed to Mosquera Island, which was quite small but covered in beautiful white sand beaches and hundreds of sea lions. This time we saw a huge 500lb male bull sea lion. He was massive; no messing with him!

Land Iguana

That night after dinner the crew put a spot light on the water off the back of the boat; it was the coolest things I’ve ever seen. We spent about an hour watching the light attract fish and then sea lions who were eating the fish (including the really cool pencil fish) and then 6 sharks showed up and continuously circled around chasing the flying fish. It was so awesome!

Blue footed Boobies

On Tuesday March 27 we spent the morning on Isla Santiago where we hiked along a huge lava flow. The black lave stretched on forever until we reached the hills where it turned into bright red lava due to the iron in the soil. We discovered a lava tube along the way and made Mike crawl inside for some photos.

Zodiak fun

After the hike we took the zodiaks and hunted out some Galapagos Penguins to  take photos of and promptly after that we went for another snorkel, this time with penguins, sea turtles, sharks, sea lions and lots of fish and sea cucumbers.  After lunch we hiked to the top of a volcano for great views of the surrounding ocean and islands.

Lava Tubes

Group shot; Volcano Hike

 On our last day we said goodbye to the part of group that was staying and headed to Santa Cruz Island to visit the Charles Darwin Research Facility. At the Facility we got to see the Giant Galapagos Tortoise breading program. We saw eggs, little baby tortoises and giant 120 year old Tortoises. We even say Lonesome George who is the last of his tortoise sub-species.  After the tour we headed to the airport for our trek back to Quito, Ecuador where we enjoyed one last Ecuadorian dinner before jetting down to Peru in the morning!

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Penguin

Giant Tortoise

Baby Giant Tortoise