Colca...Colca Can-canyon-(sing to the tune of Copacabana)

Kiah and I awoke in the little sleepy town of Chivay multiple times throughout the night for various reasons. Our alarm officially went off at 5:00 and we slowly dragged ourselves out of bed. The night before we realized that our toilet leaked so we did everything we could to avoid the bathroom as we got ready. The other nifty thing about this hostel was that it was freezing in the public areas because one of the windows above the doors was completely missing. Although that hostel in Chivay was the worst one we have stayed at in all of our hostel life, it didn't look like the worst one in Chivay.

We ate our bread and tea (and I cannot wait for a breakfast that offers me something else than bread) and were off to drive around Colca Canyon. Colca Canyon is a canyon in Peru that is twice the depth of the Grand Canyon. We visited three different cities inside the canyon and each one was smaller than the other. There were Quechua women selling the opportunity to have you picture taken with alpacas, hawks, and llamas. You could also buy your Peruvian goods to take back home if the mood suited you. 

After visiting the little sleepy towns of Colca Canyon we went to this Condor Sancatuary. The condors fly around the deepest part of the canyon and tourists wait in various locations waiting for a picture of one of the condors. What did you learn today you ask?  I learned that the pre-adult condors are brown and the adult condors are black with a white streak around their neck and back. The female condors have redish brownish eyes and the males have black eyes. And now we all know how to tell a male and female adult or pre-adult condor apart. And yes, I did get a picture of one of the condors. 

We had lunch and Kiah and I slept on and off until we got back to Arequipa. We were to be dropped off at the airport. The van that we were in stopped down the street from the airport (maybe 3 or 4 blocks away)....(oh and let me add that it was a main street that runs through the town) and Paola (our tourguide) pointed and said "there is the airport. You can walk but it's a little far, let me get a taxi." and she called a taxi over to us and we climbed in. We arrived at the airport 4 hours early for our flight. Unable to check in until 2 hours before our flight, we played cards and hung out at the lovely Arequipa airport. 

Bon voyage Arequipa.

The day that would never end

As Kiah and I were blissfully stretched out and sleeping in our warm beds, I was jolted awake by a 4.9 earthquake. I laid on the top bunk of our bunk bed thinking "Oh shit, if this is a big earthquake, I don't know how I will get down fast enough." (Also....bunk beds have stairs.....I could not walk down stairs fast enough after Machu Picchu let alone go down a ladder from a bed during an earthquake). After the shaking had stopped, I asked Kiah, "Are you ok?" Kiah responded with "Yeah. Why?" And I said "Did you feel the earthquake?" And Kiah responded with, "Oh yeah, I thought it was part of my dream."   And I said "Oh, ok, well good night." Word on the street, is that Peru averages about a reasonably sized earthquake about every other week. That might have been good advice to be found in all of our reading. We learned about the wet and dry seasons, safety, money, electricity, voltages, verified by visa but NOTHING about earthquakes. Good news was, we were both able to go back to sleep. 

We awoke at 7 because we did not know if our tour would pick us up at the hostel or if we had to go to the travel agency. Supposedly, the night before we were supposed to contact the travel agency to make sure everything was in order. We got to the hostel late and they were closed. We tried multiple phone numbers but no success. So we decided to wake up at 7 to try and contact the agency to see if they would pick us up or if we had to go there. We had to either be at the travel agency at 8 or they would pick us up between 8:00a.m.-8:30a.m. The lady at the front desk was very sweet and called all the numbers (4 different phone numbers-work and cell) on our voucher and was still not able to get a response. She called all the numbers 3 times, 7:30, 8:00, and about 8:15. AND Googled more numbers to try and contact the agency. At 8:25 she tried calling different agencies to try and find a phone number that would connect her to someone at our travel agency. At 8:29, Kiah comes in and tells me that they are here to pick us up. We grabbed our stuff and hopped in the bus. 

The rest of our day, has been pretty uneventful, considering how eventful the rest of our trip has been. We were in a bus, driving around the country side, seeing llamas and alpacas, and rocks, and vacunas. On the bright side, we learned the difference between llamas and alpacas-Llamas are bigger, and can be different colors and they have bigger ears. Alpacas are white, and have smaller ears and are just smaller in size. And now, we all know the difference between alpacas and llamas. You're welcome. We also learned why Arequipa is known as the White City. 1) The stones that they use to build the city are made of ash from the 3 volcanoes that surround the city. 2) The snow that covers the volcanoes around the city. 3) When the Spanish arrived, they were the only ones living in the Arequipa city center=The White City. 

We arrived in Chivay, at about 1 and is the smallest town we have seen so far. We walked the area that had tourists and as we ventured out a little farther, Kiah started to get stared at by the locals. The Mormons that walked by us, fit in more than Kiah did. We then went to get a piece of chocolate cake and head back to our cold, leaky, internet-less hostel. We played cards, read and ate dinner. Kiah contemplated painting her nails and she hasn't done that since she was 12 and I thought about reorganizing my suitcase. We are now back in the hostel wasting time before going to bed because we aren't sure we could sleep through the night if we go to bed at 9:45. 

Hopefully, tomorrow will be more eventful.