Arequipa to Chivay 7 July

Breakfast at 7 for an 8 am departure for Chivay and the Colca canyon.

We battled the traffic to escape Arequipa in our 18 seater mini van.

As we neared the outskirts I was trying to get a decent photo of the very poor housing areas and instead I snapped this playground.

The local government spent 2 million on this playground when the houses behind don't have any running water.  The locals weren't impressed as 2 million could have been spent a lot better on improving the water articulation.

Below are a couple of photos of what we have seen on every bus ride since leaving Lima.

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We climbed out of Arequipa and our first stop on the altiplano was to say hello to some Vircuna.  The smallest of the Llama family and the animal that appears on the crest of Peru's flag.

Our next stop 90 minutes into the drive was at a tourist stop primarily for a toilet break but also to drink some Inca tea. A pint class of hot water with Coca leaves, Mint and Thyme.  It was quite enjoyable and supposedly good to ward of altitude sickness. We were now at the amazing height of 4000m above sea level and we are still in desert with a temperature of around 20 degrees ands it's mid winter.

Back on the bus and our next stop was at a small herd of Alpacas and Llamas.

An Alpaca at our tea stop.

Lindsey petting a Llama

Now onwards and upwards to today's most important stop. A geocache at 4900m (20,000 ft)  One for the stats.
All the tourists went one way and we went the other :)
Mind you, we didn't go anywhere in a hurry. The lack of oxygen hit us immediately as we left the bus. For the first couple of minutes I was quite short of breath.  But then life improved as we zeroed in on the cache. A couple of Aussies joined us in the hunt to find out what our obsession was all about. We were elated and relieved when we found it.
We even had time to pop over the road to the tourist side to check out the view of several volcanoes including one that was smoking.

We descended into Chivay and I got a minor headache which I think must have been a minor symptom of altitude sickness.

Checked into the hotel and then our group headed out to the local hot pools to bathe. Very nice. Temp  around 40 degrees.

Lindsey and I hit the town in the evening to find some food.  We decided upon this quiet little cafe which was empty. We ordered to takeaway. Lindsey ordered a sandwich with avocado thinking that it would be toasted. It was fresh bread instead and she ended up saving most of it for lunch the next day.

I ordered a pizza which was delicious. However the menu said 22 Sol and she charged me 23. When I queried it she told me the the extra Sol was for the box. After sending the order through to the kitchen she then disappeared out the front door reappearing a few minutes later with the box.

We ate back in our room and had another early night.