This morning we caught a bus leaving Arequipa going up into the mountain.  Arequipa is at about 7,800 ft. We went over a 16,000 ft pass eventually ending up at the town of Cabanaconde on the edge of the Colca Canyon. We are at 10,780 ft tonight. The mountains, the villages, the terraced fields, and the road were all pretty amazing as you can see in this picture taken from the bus window. 

We are staying at a nice hotel called Kuntur Wassi. Our room is round!

We had a great dinner tonight. I had alpaca medallions with a quinoa risotto. 

And Duke had alpaca with Andean herbs. 

 Colca Canyon is 3,182 meters (10,440 feet) deep which makes it one of the two deepest canyons in the world. From where we are the hike to the bottom is about 3,500 feet. Our plan is to hike to the bottom tomorrow,spend the night and hike back out on Saturday. That means no internet for the next couple of days. 

We spent the day today in Arequipa. Our hotel,  Katari, is one of the nicest we have stayed at on this trip. It is located right on the main square. We ate breakfast on the roof overlooking the square and the volcanoes in the distance. 

This afternoon we toured the basilica. 

From the roof we had an excellent view of the square and the volcanoes above the town. 

Afterwards we shared a beer overlooking the square. 

We had a wonderful dinner at the restaurant Chi Cha. 

We stayed in Nazca Monday night. Nazca is most well known for the Nazca Lines. These ancient figures etched into the desert floor were created by the Nazca people about 2000 years ago. Many people take tours to see the figures from small planes but we took a land tour this morning to see what we could from the ground. 

We went back out of town the way we came in yesterday.  We climbed a couple of towers and went to the Casa Museo Maria Reiche. Marie Reiche is the German women who helped publicize the lines and save them from destruction. It was amazing to me that at ground level or even from our bus yesterday you wouldn’t realize there was anything to see but from the tower you could clearly see that the giant figures were there. 

We finished our tour around noon and then at 2:30 we caught the bus to Arequipa. This time we were in the first class seats on the bottom floor of the bus. It was quire comfortable.  The first part of the trip was through an empty moonscape landscape. 

We were supposed to get to Arequipa about midnight.  Unfortunately with four hours to go our bus broke down. They brought out a replacement bus and we were back to cramped seats. We ended up getting to Arequipa about 4 am. 

Breakfast at the Gran Palma Hotel in Paracas was served on the roof overlooking the bay. Since our bus didn’t leave until 10:40 we were able to enjoy a relaxing breakfast this morning. 

The bus ride to Nazco was about four hours. It was mostly through empty desert but towards the end we did see some vineyards. 

In Nazca we are staying at a wonderful hotel called Casa Hacienda Nazca Oasis. It really is an Oasis. We were picked up at the bus station by the brother of the owner. This afternoon we relaxed by the pool and then had dinner at the hotel restaurant.