Colca Canyon, Peru

Hi all! Well were back from the Colca where we have been for the last 2 days.
We went on an organised trip, with about 18 other tourists, there were a few religious Americans, some Ozzies (as you would expect) a Lithuanian, a French Canadian and some other Nationalities that I couldn´t fathom.
It´s about a 5 hour drive from Arequipa through the desert, you see some stunning scenery and lots of wildlife, we also passed the Misti Volcano which stands very proud in the middle of nowhere.
We stayed overnight at a place called Chivay, it wasn´t a very nice place with lots of poverty, luckily we were only staying one night.
We went to the thermal baths in the evening, I´ve never been to one before so was a bit apprehensive, especially being a non swimmer as I don´t really like water, but they were great!
We got chatting to some USA medical student while we were there who had been in Bolivia carrying out minor surgery as part of their studies!!
Anyway one of these guys had been to the UK about 8 years ago, after a lot of questions and trying to find out where he´d been it turned out it was Hull of all places!!
He wasn´t very impressed with the place (it was 8 years ago) although he was mortally embarrassed when I told him that´s where I was from.
The baths were lovely, we were outside bathing in the warm water under the stars, how romantic he he!!
After the baths we arranged to meet some of the other tourists from the trip for dinner, we went to a local place that was reccommended by the guide on our trip.
We walked in and we were the only ones in there, plus it was freezing, there is no heating anywhere in Peru, and in some places (Chivay being one of them) night time temperatures drop below freezing (this night was no exception)
We were a bit unsure wether we should stay or not, but decided to brave it out as nobody else was complaining.
Within about half an hour the place was full of other travellers and tourists and it was quite jovial but still fluffin freezing!!
Anyway we had our meal, I ordered spaghetti with pesto, well in Peru they have no idea what Pesto is (after my 2nd attempt with this dish) they just serve you a dish of spaghetti with a dollop of radio active green stuff on the top, with no taste whatsoever, I left it.
After our meal was over it got a bit noisy as a Peruvian Band came on with the pan pipes etc and started banging out some Andean music, to be fair it turned out to be a good night, with Peruvian men and women in their local costumes dancing and singing and trying to get the tourists up too.
To say they don´t have a pot to pi55 in between them they sure know how to enjoy themselves and make you feel welcome.
The next day we were up at 5.30 to get to the Colca Canyon in time to see the condors in flight, apparently there is a particular time that these are best viewed, which is early morning once the sun is up.
Again the drive there was stunning through the mountains, bright blue sky and sunshine, although really chilly.
We saw the condors and they were a sight to see, they are massive and move so gracefully, they just glide through the air, I´m not really a bird lover to be honest but it would be difficult not to appreciate the condor in full flight.
The size of them you would think they would pick one of us up and fly away, they are HUGE!
Matt took some pics of them but they don´t do the setting justice, the Canyon is 1200 metres deep and they just fly overhead.
After that we were back on the bus and then dropped off at various photo points and small towns to buy souveniers (we didnt buy any and we didnt take many photo´s)
The highest point that we reached on the trip was 4910 metres, which is pretty breath taking believe me.
One of the girls on the bus was really ill and had to dash off to be sick, it really does make you feel ill.
Luckily because we had previously been in Cusco (which again is really high) we didn´t feel too bad, just a little light headed.
Tomorrow we are heading for Puno which is even higher so I dread to think what it´s going to be like there.
We get the bus which will take us 6 hours, once were in Puno we will visit Lake Titicaca and The Floating Islands, after that we are off to Bolivia so we should be there by the weekend where we will definitely need our woolies and hat´s as the night time temperatures there can fall to -15!!