Arequipa is awesome! On Sunday, I went to a beach town a couple hours from Arequipa called Mollendo. I relaxed on the beach for a while. It was hot; the sun is really strong here. I think I have used about a bottle of sunscreen in the past few days. The beach was covered in umbrellas. Tons of children. Many families brought little wadding pools to the beach for the babies. It was cute.
Then Monday morning I left with a tour group for a 2 day trip to Colca Canyon. It is more than twice as deep as the Grand Canyon. It looks completely different though. It is a beautiful green valley. The highest point I was at was over 7000 feet. I could really feel the effects of the altitude! But I survived. I saw many animals...llamas and alpacas. However, the highlight was to see the Andean Condor fly through the canon. It is the biggest bird in the world. Not everyone who goes to the canon gets to see the condor, but we were lucky and saw various. Besides visiting the canon, we visited some natural hot springs in the valley, very relaxing. It was a great trip overall. I met nice people from all over the world, and saw some traditional folk dancing.
Today was great too. I got up and took a taxi to the outskirts of Arequipa to go horseback riding. I rode a female horse named Yuma for a couple hours around hills with farms and Incan ruins. We crossed over streams and two dogs accompanied us the whole time. I think their job was to protect us from the other dogs we encountered along the route.
Tomorrow I am heading futher south in Peru to the city of Tacna. Then I will cross into Arica, Chile from there. I think I will spend a little time in Arica then fly down to Santiago, Chile to explore that country.
Then Monday morning I left with a tour group for a 2 day trip to Colca Canyon. It is more than twice as deep as the Grand Canyon. It looks completely different though. It is a beautiful green valley. The highest point I was at was over 7000 feet. I could really feel the effects of the altitude! But I survived. I saw many animals...llamas and alpacas. However, the highlight was to see the Andean Condor fly through the canon. It is the biggest bird in the world. Not everyone who goes to the canon gets to see the condor, but we were lucky and saw various. Besides visiting the canon, we visited some natural hot springs in the valley, very relaxing. It was a great trip overall. I met nice people from all over the world, and saw some traditional folk dancing.
Today was great too. I got up and took a taxi to the outskirts of Arequipa to go horseback riding. I rode a female horse named Yuma for a couple hours around hills with farms and Incan ruins. We crossed over streams and two dogs accompanied us the whole time. I think their job was to protect us from the other dogs we encountered along the route.
Tomorrow I am heading futher south in Peru to the city of Tacna. Then I will cross into Arica, Chile from there. I think I will spend a little time in Arica then fly down to Santiago, Chile to explore that country.
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