Arequipa, Cañon de Colca, Puno & Lago Titicaca

I know, I know, I’ve been MIA. Don’t worry here comes a SUPER POST to make up for it. (*Disclaimer: Super Post does not ensure that the quality of the post is higher, simply that it is obnoxiously long.)  

Arequipa: You can see why it's called "The White City."

So—our grand adventure started Tuesday, April 1 when we caught a combi to the airport. We flew out to Arequipa knowing only one thing: the address of a $6.50 a night hostel we wanted to stay in.

You see, this time around, we’d made a point not to plan anything before we went. I don’t know much about tours in other countries, but in Peru, everyone says it’s cheaper to plan things as you go. It’s a liberating approach to travel, but it can also be a little unsettling to buy a roundtrip ticket for ten days and have no idea how you’re going to spend them. Regardless, the “fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants” approach was our game plan, and I’m going to go ahead and call it a success.

El Misti, Arequipa's famous volcano. 

So—we flew into Arequipa and landed five minutes after the 8.2 earthquake in Northern Chili. Northern Chili and southern Peru (aka Arequipa) are both hot spots on the Ring of Fire where they Nazca plate collides with the South American plate. We’ve felt two earthquakes in Lima, and really, the whole country of Peru is quite accustomed to a few “temblores” here and there, but when you talk about major earthquakes, Arequipa is usually the region in question. Because of this, Arequipa is “bien preparada”—they all know when to evacuate, all of the buildings have thick walls and archways for support and a majority of the city is made out of a porrus, volcanic rock called white sillar; in fact, Arequipa is often called “The White City” because of all the white sillar used in its construction. So, we landed to a very peaceful airport and our cab driver subtly mentioned to us that there had been an earthquake just before arrived, as if he was talking about a spring shower.

Trying rocoto relleno (Arequipa style.)

The next morning we set about exploring Arequipa. On a whim, we hopped a tour bus that took us to lookout points of the city. The department of Arequipa is famous for its mountains and volcanoes, and we got a good look the three that surround the city: Misti, Pikchu Pikchu and Chachani. After our tour wrapped up, we had to eat the traditional Arequipena dish: rocoto relleno. Rocoto relleno is said to have originated from Arequipa and, naturally, they claim to make it better than everyone else in Peru. It’s a rocoto pepper, stuffed with beef and melted cheese, and served with potatoes and a creamy sauce. The verdict: delicious.

A condor in Colca Canyon. 

From there, we decided to slightly dismantle the spontaneity of our trip by booking a few trips: a three day trek in Colca Canyon, two days in Puno and one night on Amantani, an island in Lake Titicaca. I know, I know—it wasn’t very Peruvian of us to book tours. But our host family told us time and time again to read the story of Ciro Castillo, a guy that got lost and died in Colca Canyon… and that kind of made us value the benefit of having a guide.

So—we headed out to Colca Canyon at a chipper 3:30 a.m. with our guide, Roy, two girls from Holland, Yvonne and Nicole, and a man from Greece, Lazaros. Riding in the darkness through the altitudes and mountain roads, it took me about 20 minutes to get motion sickness, but I’m proud to say I held out for about three hours before barfing into a plastic sack. From that point on, our guide called me “Princess” and made me sit next to him in the front seat of the car. I am the soon-to-be Queen of Vomit!

Anyway—we stopped at a number of interesting places along the way to the canyon, including a lookout point called in Cabanaconde called Cruz del Condor. Condors are a big deal in Peru and were a major symbol of the Incas (along with the puma and snake.) Condors are huge and their wingspan is supposed to be over 3m—so it was wonderful to finally to see them in action.

Colca Conquered: Lazaros, Nicole, Ynonne, Roy, Katrina & I.  

After condor watching, we began our first day of trekking, 8K, all downhill into Colca Canyon. Colca Canyon is twice as deep as the Grand Canyon. Unlike the Grand Canyon, people still live there and it’s not uncommon to see children running down the hiking trails, or mules carrying supplies to a village.

Our trek was slow and steady and I’m slightly ashamed to say my wish was granted; before we left for the canyon I told Katrina that I was really hoping we’d have someone slower than me in our group. Turns out Lazaros from Greece is 60 and has a pacemaker. So kudos to Lazaros for still doing the trek, and yay for me for being SECOND to last!

We stayed at a cute little cabin our first night in the canyon, then headed out the next morning for a 6K trek to an area called, “The Oasis.” The Oasis is incredibly fertile ground that is a bit of a mystery to the canyon. Our guide Roy said it’s speculated that a long time ago, people spent nearly two years bringing the fertile earth into the canyon. The area was full of flowers and fruit trees, but perhaps the best part was that there was a POOL down there—so I got to swim in a pool in the bottom of the canyon.  

We spent the night in The Oasis, then day three of trekking was completely uphill—6K up and out of the canyon. We’d been told the trek was hard, so were slightly horrified starting out, but within two and a half hours nearly our entire group had made it out of the canyon. After we had a nice breakfast in Chivay, we headed back to Arequipa (and I’m proud to report that the Princess of Barf did not vomit on the ride home.)

The Oasis: Complete with swimming pool! 

After braving the canyon, we had a night in Arequipa to recover our strength, then hopped a bus to Puno the next morning. The bus ride was six hours, a length we’ve become somewhat accustomed to, and I’m happy to report it didn’t have many twists or turns. Once we got into Puno we found the hotel our tourist agency had booked—which ended up being a four star hotel that completely blew our minds. We’ve become accustomed to having unreliable hot water, no toilet paper in the bathrooms and one lumpy pillow everywhere we go. Here we had a pillows on pillows on pillows, a heater AND a bathtub. It was ridiculously fantastic.

The next day we were off to Lake Titicaca. Lake Titicaca is shared between Peru and Boliva (60% is Peruvian) and is the highest navigable lake in the world.  Five major rivers feed into the lake and it’s right on the edge of the Andes, so some of the islands in the lake end up being over 4,000m above sea level. The lake has been home to a number of groups over the years, so it’s full of three different languages: Aimara (more common on the Bolivian side), Quechua (the language of the Incas) and Spanish.

Elsa lives on Los Uros and gave us a tour of her house.

On Lake Titicaca we visited three islands: Los Uros, Amantaní and Tequile. Los Uros is a group of about 40 artificial islands made of floating reeds. When the Spanish came to Puno, the indigenous fled to the lake to get away… and never left. They originally fled in boats, but after some time were able to make islands out of the roots and reeds found in the lake. While Los Uros is a bit of a tourist trap today, it was still fascinating. You can jump on the reeds of the island and feel their natural spring and visit all the little houses that use solar energy to power their light and televisions (yes, televisions.)

After leaving Uros, we headed to the island Amantaní, where we stayed the night with our host mom Luisa and her family. Two other Americans, Jo and Amanda, who were backing packing solo through Peru, ended up staying the night there with us. We spent a little time hiking to the temple of Pachatata (Father Earth) but the highlight of the night was a celebration we had in a community center where all the tourists sported the traditional garb and danced to a rowdy (and probably slightly intoxicated) band of locals.

Jo, Amanda, myself and Katrina dancing on Amantani. 

The next morning we headed out to our last island of the trip, Taquile. Like Uros, Taquile was full of solar panels, but other than that it was stepped in tradition. Many of the people on the island seemed to live off the land and the men had a tradition of sewing beautiful hats. For lunch, we had the best trout I've ever eaten in my life there, then made our journey back to Puno.

Returning from Lake Titicaca marked the last of Katrina and I’s planned events, so from there we had a little more spontaneity. We opted to tour a place called Sillustani near Puno, which is both an Incan and pre-Incan burial ground. After coming back from that, we made a point to try chuño (freeze dried, old potatoes) which are surprisingly better than they sound.

Katrina trying Chuno Negro in Puno.

After that we bussed back to Arequipa, and spent the day milling around the city, eating a couple more typical foods including, Ocopa Arequipeña (potatoes in a spicy, peanut sauce), Queso Helado (ice cream in the shape of cheese) and some locally grown chocolate.
Arequipa is also known for its churches, so we were sure to tour the main cathedral, Basílica Catedral de Arequipa, which has stood the test of time against earthquakes, and Santa Catalina Monastery. I know a monastery doesn’t sound like the sexiest thing to take a tour of, but it was fascinating. Santa Catalina isn’t your traditional monastery; the nuns all lived in separate houses along little streets with red painted walls and heavy Spanish influence. After one last stroll around the city, we reluctantly trekked back to the airport to catch our flight back to Callao.

Ringing church bells in Arequipa. 

Overall our trip was fantastic—it wasn’t your typical touristy vacation of Peru; obviously the hot spots here are Machu Picchu and the Amazon. But, I feel like we got to know a whole new side of Peru and we learned a lot more about Peruvian culture. For example, our guide in Colca Canyon, Roy, went on and on about how he isn’t Peruvian, he’s “Arequipeño.” The people of Arequipa are incredibly proud and, frankly, consider themselves above Peruvians. Arequipa is an affluent department in Peru and they value tradition, character and loyalty. The have their own flag, anthem, coat of arms—they even have their own beer. They also adamantly state that their Spanish is more pure and beautiful than the Spanish spoken in Lima (and both of those dialects of Spanish are a lot prettier than the mess of Spanish that I speak.)

As for Puno—I loved that part of our trip as well, and again, Puno seems to have its own interesting culture. The belief in Pachatata and Pachamama (Mother and Father Earth) are super popular in Southern Peru and I find it fascinating. Puno has its own array of traditional food and my personal favorite is the tea, Mate de Muña. While on Amantaní, Luisa would seriously walk outside, pull some muña leaves out of her backyard and throw them in a cup of hot water for us; it's the best tea I’ve ever had (take THAT Teavana.)

So—in retrospect, I love southern Peru, and I’m sad to say we don’t have any more trips planned to visit there. As for now, we’re back in Callao and Katrina and I have made a mission to get to know Lima a little better. Now that we’ve learned so much about Southern Peru, it’s high time we learn a little more about our stomping grounds in Lima.

 So—for those adventures, and for another post about how CHURCH was last weekend—stay posted to the blog. I’ve got another entry coming your way this week!