We didn’t spend much time in Lima, but it seemed like a nice city, particularly if you are into paragliding .. but we will go straight onto Arequipa. We met Jack on the bus who became our travel partner through South Peru. We hadn't read much about Arequpia, but thought it might be good altitude training for Machupicchu. However we discovered that Arequipa was a stunning city, with volcanos overlooking this desert setting. The main attraction here is Colca Canyon, the deepest canyon in the world (the highest point being 4900m). We set off on a three day trek, which started with a early viewing of the condors in the area. Our pictures were a bit shit but it was very cool to see in real life. We then went down the canyon, half way up the canyon, half way down again, and then all the way up. Sounds like hell, well at times it was, but we had a brilliant guide and the scenery was amazing. On the second night we stayed in the "Oasis", which is a lush green village with natural swimming pools. However, we had to wake up at 5am to start the trek up, but fortunately we found a willing donkey to carry our bags on the three hour hike up, thank god because our recent all you can eats and the altitude made us extremely unfit. At the end of the trip we went to some hot springs and soaked our tired muscles in the 40 degree water.
