Day 7 - On the road to Chivay (and the Colca Canyon)

On the way to Chivay
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So here we are, starting the 2 day tour to the Colca Canyon, the second deepest in the world after the also Peruvian Cotahuasi Canyon. Yep, they both beat the Grand Canyon.

Anyway, the Canyon is for tomorrow so let's focus on today. We took the road from Arequipa to Chivay, the town almost at the beginning of the Canyon. Well, the only thing I can say is that the landscapes were equally as beautiful as my fear of driving on this road was high. Anyway, I knew that going to South America and spending most of my time around the Andes would provoke this kind of reaction. But as we say in French: "On n'a rien sans rien". So I decided to forget about my fear of heights and watch the natural show that was in front of my eyes.

Kids at the Tourist stop
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We stopped a few times, where other tourists were stopping too. I mean, I said I would try to beat my vertigo, not that I would rent a 4x4 by myself! The tourist tour was just fine by me and I'm sure the driver was doing better than I would ever have on these roads.

After 3 hours of road, we stopped to see the llamas, alpacas and vincunas that were staying next to the road. In my opinion, alpacas are by far the cutest, just check out my pics to make your own opinion!

We arrived in Chivay at 13:30, had lunch in a touristic - but very good - buffet restaurant and headed to our hotels afterwards. I decided not to go to the hot springs as I didn't have any of my equipment with me, i.e. swimming suit and sandals. I was knackered anyway so I had a nap and went out by myself to the main plaza and had a coffee. People started to chat with me in Spanish to know where I was from, what my name was. Very friendly indeedm it was nice.

I love Alpacas!
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In the evening, we went out with the group to another tourist restaurant where we had live traditional music (or not, frankly, maybe they make this up?) and dances. The food was nice, the dance and music very entertaining, although I was forced onto the dancefloor to try a few Peruvian moves... Unfortunately for you my dear readers, there are no pictures of that instant :)