Activity Summary
Wednesday 27th September - Day 358
Night bus arrives Arequipa
Morning slum it in the hostel
Breakfast at Kafi Wasi
Lunch at Lautrec Cafe
Walking tour - Free Tour Arequipa City
Casona Arrospide - UNSA (University)
Nice alfresco dining street
Casa Tristán del Pozo
Basílica Catedral de Arequipa
Plaza de Armas Arequipa
Church of the Company - Jesuit church
Cloisters of The Company
MUCEN Arequipa
Santa Catalina Monastery
Mundo Alpaca - literally translated as Alpaca World
Thursday 28th September - Day 359
Nicola interview morning
Brunch at Kafi Wasi
Ruta del Sillar tour
Volcano mirador
Sillar quarry
Sillar canyon
Dinner at 13 Monjas
Friday 29th September - Day 360
Colca Canyon day tour
Breakfast at a place in Chivay
El Mirador del Molino - Maca
Maca town
Mirador Cruz del Cóndor
Mirador Antahuilque
Baños Termales de Chacapi
Lunch in Yanque
Mirador De Los Volcanes
Alpaca viewpoint
Dinner at 13 Mongas
Saturday 30th September - Day 361
Travel to Cusco
Summary
Arequipa
The White City because of all the white volcanic rock (called Sillar in Peru) that the city is predominantly made out of. The sandfly count here however made walking around the city mighty annoying.
Everyone raved about the Colca canyon trek and our opinion of the day tour was that it wasn't worth it. Other tours weren’t too exciting either.
Overall we were a little disappointed with our time in Arequipa.
Transport
Arequipa
Bus stop at 1.30pm
Night bus from Huacachina to Arequipa
Minivan to hostel
Arrive 6am
Accommodation
Arequipa - Hostal Sol de Oro Backpackers
Number of nights - 4
Price per night per person - £6
Positives:
Super warm showers for the first time in an age
It was cheaper than everything we could find because of the mining conference
Super nice owners, if a bit useless with timings & communication with each other
Perfectly fine kitchen
The massive XL Bully type dog was super friendly
Negatives:
Terrible WiFi - barely functioned
The massive XL Bully type dog scared the life out of Nicola
Not very comfortable
Common area was terrible
Recommend?
As a last resort - yes. Outside of the mining conference - no.
Diary
Wednesday 27th September - Day 358
The night bus wasn’t a particularly pleasant experience.
Having been cooped up on the bus already for 5 hours, spending the next 11 hours on it wasn’t going to be much fun anyway, but we seemed to have one of the old buses that wasn’t overly comfortable. The legs went dead, it was full to the brim and temperature was a big problem. The blankets were great and did well to combat the overly cold air pumped through that had magically made an entry once the sun had well and truly gone down but this was much more preferable than what the driver did at around 1am.
Nicola naturally was wriggling around like a worm because of discomfort anyway, but was well and truly done with the conditions when the driver turned on the heating. She was right next to one of the radiator units and while everyone was sweating their tits off she was being reduced to a shrivelled prune. She had removed every item of clothing possible and when the guy behind was visibly feeling the same, asked whether he could use his Spanish to ask to turn the heating off. The guy, fluent in English and Spanish, had texted the passed out Peru Hop guide rather than actioning anything so Nicola got up in her smalls (joke she was only down to her sports bra) and was the silent unappreciated hero of the night bus. Only then did the useless guy follow her lead and help her out and a normal temperature was restored to our journey.
Once the coach was in Arequipa we were split into minivans that took us around the narrow and convoluted one way systems of the town centre. Naturally we were the last to be dropped off at 6am after going around the houses and were the only people to not be let into their accomodation immediately. The kind minivan lady was trying to help us but we said we’d be fine and eventually, despite ringing the loud doorbell about 10 times and calling the owner, eventually we got through and were let in by the guy's dad who had clearly been woken up by us. Annoyingly we had told them we’d be arriving at 5.30-6am.
We didn’t expect our room to be available and this was the case for the first hour we were in the hostel. Sadly the common area was not comfy in the slightest; small and worn sofas while being more like a rooftop games room than a living room. Arequipa is at over 2,000m and gets quite cool at night so we ended up having to put on most of our warm clothes to feel remotely comfortable.
At about 7am the owner arrived and was kind enough to offer us a room to nap in. We were both quite tired and communicating at this point was pretty challenging so while we could have waited for our room to be made up we just accepted the one that was vacant, had been used and just crashed out there. No energy was spared caring.
An alarm got us up at 9.30am then we were shown to our double room. There was no way we would make the 10am walking tour so pushed that to 3pm and went for lunch at Lautrec Cafe and Luke did a quick run around trying to find an open lavanderia. Lunch was ok but for the price we didn’t get much with our slightly toasted sandwiches and they came out cold after some guy decided to do a photo shoot with our food prior to giving it to us. When the guy asked whether we wanted to tip, Luke flat out refused and is probably the first and only time he’s been this ballsy.
Although doing a walking tour later in the day we were still so tired. So we didn’t really approach the tour with bundles of energy and it was a small group so we had little opportunity to hide away.
But despite all this, we can categorically say it was a shit walking tour. As soon as the guide turned up, late for the first time ever and to the point we had to check it was still running, we knew we were in for a shit outing. After doing so many of these we can instantly recognise who will be engaging and interesting and this guy was the opposite. He was a bit strange, older (never seems to be good quality) and went full ham in the cardinal sin of just repeating dates added with 75% of the tour being about architecture.
The reenacting of what colonial Spanish used to say to indigenous people was truly one of the strangest things we’d seen - it involved a lot of f’ing and jeffing in a seeming combination of English, Spanish and local dialect and we could really have done without the 2 minute spit.
To top off the boredom, it turns out there are tons of biting things in Arequipa and Luke got annihilated on the walking tour as we didn’t have bug spray. Totally didn’t expect that at 2,000+m.
Walking tour - Free Tour Arequipa City:
Casona Arrospide - UNSA (University) - basically went straight back to where we had lunch and awkwardly not tipped.
Nice alfresco dining street
Casa Tristán del Pozo
Basílica Catedral de Arequipa - this was actually a really impressive building from the outside. Naturally the guide said very little about this…
Plaza de Armas Arequipa - again, a nice part of the city.
Church of the Company - Jesuit church - thought this would be incredibly dull but actually was surprisingly interesting hearing about the power and control the Jesuit & elite of society had.
Jesus picture with cuey - personally we couldn’t see it but Luke does love a cheeky cuey in a religious icon.
Cloisters of The Company - an old Jesuit courtyard where we got our wonderful f and Jeff show. This guy also really didn’t like the miners, but after making our stay and all the other backpackers a lot more expensive we weren’t going to disagree. More strange was apparently everyone in Arequipa has an unconditional love for clay pots. Zero explanation of why.
MUCEN Arequipa - museum of pre Hispanic artefacts
Santa Catalina Monastery
Mundo Alpaca - literally translated as Alpaca World. Again Luke was getting bitten again so ran away from the animals.
At this point we were so done, made up an excuse that Luke was ill and bolted. Down there with some or the worst walking tours (Cartegena still wins). Wesley had said he’d had a decent one so must’ve just been the afternoon slot curse.
There was a decent supermarket in town right on the square so we stocked up and cooked basic b ramen for dinner. The hostel owner had a very big bruiser type dog as a pet who gave Nicola a right fright when she came down after Luke had cooked. She can’t warm to these guys but he was such an affectionate doggo and the reaction as we walked in the door the next day after being out was so cute, the dog bounding for joy to us which naturally terrified the living hell out of Nicola.
Thursday 28th September - Day 359
After using a lot of her downtime to prepare for the reentry to adult life, this morning was the first proper interview she had. What didn’t work in her favour was the hostel had some of the worst WIFI we’d had in an age and spent the night before frantically trying to set up teams and determine how this call would work. More annoyingly our 4g data was not behaving in the hostel or Arequipa either.
In the end it was a 4g video call on Luke’s phone and a call into the UK on Nicola’s phone. Worked quite well and thanks to our O2 contract, calls to the UK and data usage is free in Peru.
Luke, without an iPad or phone, played switch in the common area like a child and picked up the laundry. So at least he was a child who did his chores.
Post interview we had brunch at Kafi Wasi again, Luke very much on a waffle hype, and then had a short walk around town but we were tired and too hot. The shopping street was nice though.
Our afternoon activity was a Ruta del Sillar tour. Arequipa is called the White City because it is predominantly constructed out of white sillar, a type of volcanic rock that had formed nearby from a massive eruption as a result of a blocked chimney (rather than spewing lava) and pyroclastic flowed the region. There are 3 colours (white, pink and yellow) that make up the city.
The pick up was at the hostel at 2ish and the first stop was a Volcano mirador with views over:
Volcan Misti - the iconic stand-alone conical volcano that Luke would have climbed if he had enough money. Sadly there are just too many hikes up tall things that would send him home early.
Volcan Chachani - over 6,000m and forms part of a cool snow covered ridge line.
Stop two was a sillar quarry. The quarry had active mining and sculpting with quite a nice walk through it. Totally not what we were expecting.
The sculptures were part cool, part vom. It was like being the quarry version of a Bali insta village which was pretty funny.
The Petra carving was quite cool and clearly means we don’t need to go to Jordan now.
The short walk around the quarry was about 40 minutes before we loaded up and were on to the last stop.
The Sillar Canyon was definitely the best part of the trip.
We had a slow walk down and through the canyon which had antelope vibes but nowhere near as epic.
The guide stopped us at some petroglyphs, created by indigenous populations pre Incas, and then returned to the top of the hill.
Even here Luke was getting bitten.
We were back in town for around 6pm and decided we wanted a bougier meal. Our food at 13 Monjas was excellent. Fresh pasta, amazing looking pizzas (meant we returned the next day) and reminded us of being on a dinner date back home somewhere nice. Granted we looked like slobs having just been walking through dusty and sandy quarries and sitting at the bar away from the dressed up people. But we had a great time.
On the way back the Cathedral was nicely lit up in the evening.
Friday 29th September - Day 360
The early morning starts were starting to accumulate and today was a horrible 3am pick up time to do a Colca Canyon day tour.
We booked this through Peru Hop and honestly wish we hadn't gone. More on that later.
First cock up of the day. We were ready before 3pm and would have been downstairs before the pick up time but our guide was early. Not a problem, they should have had Luke’s number as we shared this on booking and could have called him that he was here but instead decided to ring the hostel doorbell and knock incessantly so that he probably woke up most of the hostel and also someone who worked there. Luke was furious and gave the guy an earful who pretended not to hear anything.
The bus then drove around Arequipa picking up everyone else. Once again we seemed to have terrible luck on seat choice as the couple in front of us would not stop reclining their seats back fully which gave us fuck all space on our 16 hour day. No amount of forcing up the seats and complaining did anything to sway these pricks.
After 3 hours or so we arrived for breakfast in Chivay. This was a terrible spread, the included food being hollow bread rolls with jams and butter, a warm porridge like drink and tea. Eggs were extra. Not particularly fulfilling.
The first tourist spot was El Mirador del Molino - Maca and it was below average. The views were nice enough but when the owners of the place decided to get everyone dressed up and dancing with them we actively ran away. Nicola did say if she wasn’t so tired she would've joined in - Luke however, not a chance. Naturally this came with an ask for tips afterwards which is just awkward.
A short drive away was Maca town where we tried some cactus type fruit that was far too sour for enjoyable consumption. Post that we just stood around town waiting to leave while others took opportunities to take pictures with Alpacas in sunglasses.
Finally after over 6 hours we had arrived at Mirador Cruz del Cóndor, the whole reason we wanted to come on the tour.
From the viewpoint there was a trail that connected to other aspects of the Colca canyon and managed to get better views down to the bottom of the gorge. It was cool but (being prissy bitches) we’d seen plenty like before.
We spent about 40 minutes here and it was about 2 minutes short of being a complete waste of time, when we finally saw a condor soar above us (and pretty close) for about 5 minutes. The binoculars got a good outing as well.
The shot of it descending into the mountain was pretty cool.
If we hadn't seen an actual condor, we would have had to settle for the ‘Condor Hombres’, men dressed in full condor garb and posing with tourists. Got to appreciate their hustle, they looked hilarious and it must’ve been savagely warm under there.
We were told a specific meeting time to carry on the day and the bus rocked up at least 20 minutes late. Our whole group was just wandering around like lost children for ages which was really annoying given the lack of doing anything interesting plus the added time at the end of the day was so not needed. The driver would do this multiple times over the next few activities as well.
A little down the road from the condor viewpoint was Mirador Antahuilque, offering much better views of the river and gorge bottom.
To the right were an array of stepped fields cut out of the ground that were made and used by old indigenous populations for agriculture. Looked a bit like rice paddies. Again we spent too much time here.
Nicola’s favourite activity of the day was the Baños Termales de Chacapi, and to quote her, didn’t have to spend 16 hours travelling to spend some time in a swimming pool. It was an additional S/15pp for entry but the 40 minutes here were the most relaxing of the day.
The thermal pools had a range of temperatures and one topped at a balmy 38°. It was a pretty warm day so probably not the first activity that comes to mind but the kayaking looked weak with river levels so low and the zipline looked straight up dangerous.
The views from the pools were pretty nice though, some overlooking the gorge and others into the river.
Thankfully there was a pool that had normal water temperatures and also some shade so we didn’t need to lather up in suncream to relax. What didn’t help this were the (old men) knobheads who decided doing butterfly through the tiny pool was a great idea. Just think not many in Peru have patience or an ability to think about other people.
The thermal pools were well run and we enjoyed our time here.
At the horrific time of 1pm, a full 7 hours after ‘breakfast’ we finally had the opportunity for lunch. We really should have brought food with us because the buffet was pretty terrible and at the price of S/38pp, it cost more than eating at our fave Arequipa restaurant. Worse, the guide told us S/30 so we were even more furious at the end.
Honestly we just wanted to go back to Arequipa at this point. But instead we continued with the ‘tour’ and ended up stopping 3 times for viewpoints. By this point we both had headaches, were fed up with having no space on the bus and had been with this bus for 11 hours.
Start of the end was Mirador De Los Volcanes. Could not have given a shit at this point.
Last and fucking finally least of the forced stops was an Alpaca viewpoint. Luke didn’t even bother getting off of the bus at this point.
The bathroom stop did have a decent view of Misti but at least this was a functional stop.
Naturally after the tour timings had been so unceremoniously dick slapped by the driver, we were trying to get back to Arequipa pretty late. There was a van that had broken down so our journey back time did take more of a hit when the good deed for the day meant our driver and guide helped them get going again but the exasperated sighs from the bus was palpable. There was so much traffic back and there were some terrible route choices from the driver which meant we arrived back in town at 7pm.
Total tour time, 16 hours. Actual tour activities, 2 hours.
The tour guide was truly awful. The intercom system was ratchet and his delivery style was full American tourist, being overzealous, over the top and just downright annoying. Didn’t like him at all.
So all in all, the Colca Canyon day tour is just not worth it. So much driving for such little reward and ended up being quite expensive with the S/70pp National park fee as well. The 2D1N trek is supposed to be good but we didn’t fancy the overnight stay and walking down and up a canyon. Luke’s personal preference is a changing view and from what we saw the canyon doesn’t really have that.
We could not have been more excited to get off that bus and out of there. He didn’t ask for a tip but he would have got a big fat no way if so.
We managed to get the same spot at the bar for that much needed homemade lemonade and pizza / pasta. The only downside was it was a Friday night and took an hour for our food to come. But that coupled with a lovely warm shower back at the hostel we had returned to the world of the living. The mood of Nicola especially went from near death to happy and dancing around the room. No idea how that dramatic shift came about.
Packing for our next early rise and travel day the next day was not so fun but at least we were in bed just after 9pm.
Saturday 30th September - Day 361
The difference a 5am vs 3am start makes. Did help that sleep came pretty easy after the day before.
Our minivan pick up had a 5.15am - 5.45am window, which arrived towards the latter part, and then were dropped at the bus pick up point.
We had a short wait for the big bus, were reunited briefly with Danny and Sara who thankfully had a good time with the Colca canyon trek and then got on the bus to Cusco. Thankfully we had much much better seats this time.
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