Arequipa and Colca Canyon

We arrived in Arequipa. Arequipa is nestled between Misti Volcano and Colca Canyon. We saw Juanita the Inka girl who was sacrificed over 500 years ago to the gods on top of one the close by mountains. She was discovered in 1995 and was still frozen and scientists were able to learn a lot about her sacrifice. She was of noble family and was killed by a blow to the head. The Inkas would have human sacrifices on top of the mountains to ask the gods not to be angry because they believed that earthquakes and volcanic eruptions are the gods anger. It was quite incredible to see. The Inkas also believed in duality - good and evil, black and white, sun and moon etc. A lot of which was reflected in the sacrifical rite with ornaments, offerings etc. They also believed in triliogy. The animal they admired was the duck because it was able to fly (exist in the heavens), on land, the present, and swim, the underworld.

We also stopped to see the Santa Catlina Monastery. This is called a city within a city. It is massive and beautiful. It took us almost 3 hours to walk through it.

Yesterday, we decided to take the local bus to Cabanaconde rather than joining a tour and climb down Colca Canyon to the Sangalle oasis on our own. It worked out really well. Kates and I climbed down, even saw a condor and lizards. Stayed over night in a bungalow in the oasis and woke up early at 430 am to climb back up. It was easy to make friends as there were 2 or 3 tour groups climbing back up and we all worked through it together. Apparently this hike is harder than Salkantay. I didnt find it too bad especially since the altitude only reached 3200m. (Salkantay we were climbing at over 4000m). It was easier in my mind because I could actually breathe but I think it was steeper. Katie and I are also getting better at this because it took us about 2 hours to climb down and 2.5 hours to climb back up! We will come back to Canada with massive leg muscles (or as big as my legs can possibly get ! haha)

The mountains and the canyon are beautiful. We were also surrounded by snow - capped mountains. And they just seem to go on forever. Some of the mountain faces look like they were just paintings in the background. They are so majestic but they seem scary and uninviting at the same time. When we have to leave the Andes I will be quite sad because they are a beautiful landscape.

Our time in Peru is nearing an end. We head next to Chile which will be an extremely long bus ride (hopefully it will not be too bad). But so far the journey looks like a bus to a border town in Peru, (5 hours) a train or taxi over the border to the Chilean border town (1 hour), then a bus down to San Pedro de Atacama desert. (15-22 hours). Wish us luck!