Arequipa - Colca Canon and Rafting

In Arequipa, we visited the Colca Canon. On our way to the Colca Canon, we passed through a national park called Pampa Canahuas, in this park we saw Vicunas which are similar to alpaca but have less wool. We also saw whilwinds in the sand, they must have been at least 20 feet tall and there were about 15 of them throughout the journey. There was also a point on the journey which was covered in ice, this was the highest point on our tour and we could only stop for a few minutes due to the alltitude. We also saw many churches and local villages, with local people and alpacas. For lunch we went to a buffet restaurant where we tried Alpaca meat (an animal very similar to a LLama found in the Andes). It was pretty disgusting, it didnt have a pleasant taste at all. We finished the first day in a town called Chivay. In the evening we went to a local restauraunt and watched traditional dancers. At the end of the night, the final dance involved a woman being hit by a length of rope and being flung over the mans back. Samantha funnily enough was chosen as the nervous victim and got beaten by the rope. Luckily she got no bruises. On the second day, we saw a brilliant view of Colca Valley, and the terrances used for farming. We passed through a tunnel in the rock face which must have been at least 400m long, no lighting, and no asthetic work, just jagged rock. The Colca Canon is the largest canon in the world, with a depth more than 3400m, we stopped here and patiently awaited for Condors, the largest flying bird in the world, with a wing span of 3m. Sam perched himself on a rock in the valley wall, and got amazingly close to the Condor.

On returning to Arequipa, we spent the night in our hostel and the next day completed a level 3 river rafting expedition. The River Chilli, is the most popular in Arequipa and our run lasted one hour. We were accompanied by just 2 guides, making the raft itself very light in comparasion to a more full raft. This made the run faster and more fun, as the guides were more adventurous. During the run we went backwards into rocks, spun around and went down a 5 foot drop.