Hospedaje Home Sweet Home, where I spent last night has great backpackers atmosphere but was noisy last night – I did not sleep well. Arequipa is very tourist place. You will find here many hostels and every hostel offers inexpensive tours… I decided to take such a tour to the Colca Canyon – it will save me a lot of time and also – some money.
Two day tour with one overnight and breakfast included costs only 25 USD. They took me in the morning from the hostel. Our minibus went out of the town and started to climb mountain road to Puno. Arequipa lies on the level 2200 m above the sea, but we were still climbing up. Great views on the way. Desert at the beginning, then, further up green pastures with lamas and alpacas. I saw also vicunias.
After 2 hours drive paved road ends and we continue on hole-by-hole gravel road. Rain comes, then snow! After another 1.5 hour on this bumpy trail asphalt appeared again and we reached in the snow the highest point of the road – 4800 m above sea. Nobody went out of the bus. Do you know what is soroche? – that’s how they call here altitude sickness. We got it too. Our guide distributed coca leaves to chew them – it helps! It was still raining when we went down to the village of Chiway. Here we will spend the night before going to the canyon.
