So we headed down to the ocean to find a bar where we could watch the world cup final between Spain and Holland. Spain won in extra time. I didn´t really care that much, but i guess i was going for Holland more than Spain.
After the game headed to El Morro de Arica (a small hill overlooking the Pacific Ocean and the town), but we were on the wrong side of it without a path. But we tried anyway. It proved far to slippy and difficult underfoot, so we gave up. The sun was close to setting so we headed to a small peninsula south of the hill and observed pelnty of bird life and the sun going down behind some clouds. We caught a bus back to our hotel (Sol de América - a cheap place, with a friendly yet impossible to understand owner, due to his ridiculous Chilean accent, impaired by a speech impediment) and relaxed for a while.
Sunset at Arica
That night I wanted to find a place to sing karaoke because I thought it would be a hilarious experience. Our host told us there was karaoke some nights at the casino, so we headed there. At the casino in Arica there is an entry fee. For a casino. An entry fee for a casino. Ridiculous. In Arica, people have to pay for the privilege of losing their money. Of course, we didn´t go in, and instead headed to a small bar across the road to drink a bunch of Cristals (Chilean brand of beer).
Next-door to the small bar was a gentleman´s club. We decided to check it out. It turned out to be a strip club, but there was no-one stripping. We sat down for a relatively expensive beer, and it was explained to us by a Chilean girl with an almost perfect American accent that to remain in the bar, we had to buy one of the girls a $10 drink. I said i didn´t want to do that. They didn't kick us out, and she remained sitting with us anyway, probably because we were the only customers in the bar.
The girl's name was Jasmine, and she explained that she had worked in the USA for a number of years. I don´t know what her deal was, but she said a number of things that didn't make any sense. First she told us how much she earned a night, which wasn't much, especially because she was spending 10,000 Chilean pesos on accommodation each night. Brennen and I proceded to tell her that we had a room in a hotel, with a private bathroom and two beds, for 8000. Hmmmm...
The second thing she said was that she wanted to become a veterinarian, but couldn´t afford the study fees. She was certainly passionate about it and said some quite intelligent things about desexing animals and the difficulties associated with it in Chile. I didn't doubt that she wanted to be a vet, but the study fees problem seemed strange to me because earlier in the conversation she told us that she had dual citizenship in Chile and Argentina. Brennen and I let her know that study in Argentina is absolutely free, and it's actually probably cheaper to live in Argentina than Chile. She said she had never thought of that, and that we´d solved all her problems.
I don´t know what was going on there, but i think it must have been more complicated than it looked. How could she possibly have not thought of moving to Argentina to study, if that´s really what she wanted to do? And she had perfect English. Surely there are good paying jobs in Chile for people who speak English. She left us when an older woman told her to because we weren´t buying her drinks. We left immediately afterwards, a little confused, and i was personally a little sad. Those places aren't nice.
The next morning we took our laundry in to be washed, and booked a tour to Lauca National Park for the following day. In the afternoon we visited the Museo Arquelogico San Miguel de Azapa, with its excellent collection of pre-spanish artifacts. The accompanying Sala Chinchorro hosts a very spooky collection of around 60 Chinchorro mummies, some of the oldest ever discovered in the world. Some of the mummies are fetuses. Weird. We were given a lift back to town by a Chilean couple one of whom was doing a PhD in geography and the other who was starting an undergraduate in archaeology at the University of Arizona. They were interesting and nice people. And we'll never see them again.
We woke early the next morning for the tour to Lauca, but didn't have to spend any time packing, because nearly all our clothes were still at the laundry. We were collected in a minibus which ferried us to a bigger one, full of mostly Spanish speakers. Our guide was a bit of a character, but at the annoying end of the character spectrum. One of those guys who talked too much but didn't say a lot.
The tour had a number of stops. The first was the Iglesia de San Geronimo, the oldest church in Chile, which dates from 1580. Meh... It's a church. I don't think I even took any photos of it. Actually, that's not correct. Here it is:
Iglesia de San Geronimo.
The second stop was along the road to see some cactus. Meh. I've seen cactus.
Then we had breakfast at a truck stop. Meh.
Endangered Vicunas on the way to Lago Changara
We eventually made it to the highlight of the tour - Lago Chungara. It's very beautiful, and at an altitude of about 4500 metres.
Panoramic shot of Lago Chungara with Parinacota volcano to the left.
Volcanoes Parinacota (right) and Pomerape
Lago Chungara with Parinacota Volcano
An Andean Gull in the lake at Lago Chungara
We stopped in Putre for Lunch, a cute little town with an old adobe church.
Putre's Adobe Church
Putre
The bus was somewhat late returning to Arica and we had to collect our washing before the shop closed, so we had a bit of a mad rush. We didn't have any cash on us, so we had to go via an ATM, which made things that much closer, but we made it to the laundry with about five minutes to spare. We headed back to the hostal, thanked the owner, and jumped in a cab to the bus station, where we caught a collective taxi across the border to Tacna, Peru and arrived at around 9.30pm.
Lights from a truck on the way back from Putre
At the international bus station in Tacna Brennen changed what few Chilean pesos he had left, while i procrastinated, wondering whether the rate was legit. We then walked across to the domestic bus station, where we discovered a 'comfortable' bus was leaving for Arequipa immediately. But we didn't have the cash for it because i hadn't changed anything, so we missed it. We had only one choice left - to take the last 'economic' bus going at 10pm.
Economic = uncomfortable in Peru. The bus was extremely uncomfortable. The seats didn't recline, and there was no heating, which is important at 4000 metres during the night. Needless to say, the bus was absolutely freezing, and this wasn't helped by some dodgy character who kept opening the back window to pass bottles of booze to the police at the regular police check points. Hmmmm....
I did manage to get a little bit of sleep however, but woke with an intensely painful left ear and uncontrollable shivers. We arrived in Arequipa at around 4am, and headed to a hostel in the guidebook called Home Sweet Home for five Peruvian soles. We immediately went back to sleep for three or four hours.
I woke up again at around 8.45, and my ear was still killing me, so i headed to a medical centre recommended by the Lonely Planet. The doctor spoke OK English, and she prescribed me antibiotics, antihistamines, and ibuprofen. The antibiotic pills were huge. The size of my thumb knuckle. The whole thing, including the consultation cost 180 Soles (US$60), which i thought was pretty steep.
I went back to the hostel and slept some more, until about 2pm. Brennen in the meantime had been out to check on some hikes we could do the following days and returned with a plan to visit the Colca Canyon. We grabbed some lunch and booked the trek (which leaves Arequipa at 3am!) and had an early night.
Brennen pretends to write in his diary at the Home Sweet Home hostel.
We woke to pack our bags for the trek at about 2.45am (what a ridiculous hour to get up). They weren't there to get us at that hour, so we went back to bed until they arrived. When they did eventually get there, we were amongst the first on the bus, and therefore we were given an extensive tour of the city while we collected the rest of the people on the tour. Then, around 45 minutes later, we returned to Home Sweet Home (our hostel), to collect a late Spaniard. So that was good... Didn't need the extra hour of sleep anyway, what with an ear infection and everything.
Eventually we were on the road, and most of us managed to get some sleep on the bus. We had a simple buffet breakfast at around 8.00am, and then headed to Cruz del Condor with an incredible view of Colca Canyon for some Andean Condor watching. They didn't show themselves for about 20 minutes, but eventually around 10 condors appeared, flaplessly cruising through the gorge, looking for things to eat i guess.
Colca Canyon from Cruz del Condor.
Brennen waits for the condors to show themselves
Condor in flight
Condor in flight
After Cruz del Condor, we headed down to the beginning of the trek, just outside of Cabanaconde. The first part was a very steep descent for about two hours, at which point we reached a bridge that crossed the river, and climbed the bank on the opposite side for about 10 minutes. From here the walk was flat and easy, following the valley all the way to the famous 'oasis', provided by the river. We had lunch along the way and visited a museum that had been set up by a cute little local old man. It was a single room that housed a bunch of traditional Quechuan stuff such as costumes and agricultural equipment. The entrance fee was a tip.
View of the canyon from halfway down.
Our tour group on the other side of the river.
Oasis has changed pretty dramatically since i was last there. There are about 13 more hostels, and about six more swimming pools. The hostel we stayed at last time still exists, but it looks as though it's no longer in use because it's pretty much falling apart.
I had a very cold, quick dip in a pool constructed between two huge rocks and bought an expensive beer while we waited for what turned out to be a pretty ordinary dinner of spag bol and soup. Everyone was buggered, and we went to bed immediately afterwards.
We woke very early the following morning, flashlights in hand (or on heads), for the climb back out of the canyon. Some of the group didn't have torches, so we had to alternate the order of the group so that everyone could see where they were going. It was slow at first, but eventually the sun came up and we could move more quickly. Brennen and I led the way, and I ended up carrying a French girls backpack because she was struggling. Even though she was with her boyfriend. He shoulda carried it. The climb back out took about 2 hours, but could've been done more quickly. The last part goes through some pretty agricultural land filled with flowering trees and cactus. I saw three different types of hummingbirds.
A view of one of the towns in the valley on the way back up.
We had breakfast in Cabanaconde, and when it was time to leave, the minibus couldn't be started. We waited for them to fix it, and observed some strange official procession in the main square. There were two marching bands who appeared to be competing against each other in front of city officials dressed to the nines. They were probably the two worst marching bands in the entire history of the world. A fucking horrible, noisy, out of time and tune mess...
They eventually got the bus working again, and we returned to Arequipa for dinner and a few beers overlooking the plaza. But we were buggered, and couldn't stay out long.
The next day, we booked tickets to Cuzco, and went to the Museo Santury which houses Juanita, a 13 year old mummified girl that was found on the Ampato Volcano at 6300 metres. She's about 500 years old, and very well preserved, although i was slightly worried about the amount of frost that was present on her body. In other pictures of her, there's no frost. Where's the water coming from? We took the tour in Spanish, and i understood most of it.
After the museum, we headed to the Monasterio Santa Catalina which occupies a whole city block and was only opened to the public in the 70s. Nuns which lived there were not permitted contact with the outside world, except through their servants. We again took a tour in Spanish and stayed until closing time at around 6pm then headed to the bus station and got on the bus to Cuzco...
Monasterio Santa Catalina. The colours were painted after the monastery was forced open to the public in the 70s.
Lantana in the gardens of the Monastery.
Panoramic view from the roof. Has anyone played Assassins Creed?
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