From Cusco we went to Chivay on 4M tourist bus, with stops, but not too interesting. We did not go to Lake Titicaca as we saw it 12 years earlier from Bolivia. The good thing is that the bus was on time and we could take another bus to Cabanaconde in about an hour. Very crowded and hot local bus, with very colorful local people.
In Cabanaconde, we stayed at Hotel Arum Qurpawasi, excellent, new, inexpensive, with bright and spacious rooms, very clean, hot water, very friendly. We ate at Pachamama – everybody else was watching Peru soccer game and didn’t have time to cook and serve. It was good and friendly, we confirmed information about the trek down to Colca Canyon.
Next day we hiked on our own to Llahuar. We saw many condors from view point (Mirador de Achachihua ) at the start of our trek, most quite far but a few passed close to us. They were flying up between 9 and 10 am, we were there waiting much earlier, but it was worth it. Views were great there as well. The hike was nice, but not as spectacular as we expected, quite steep. The bottom of the canyon was a little disappointing, quite dusty and not that impressive, no good views, dirty Colca river. I guess we were spoiled by magnificent Ausangate trek. Probably it’s better in wet season when it’s more green. We crossed another, much cleaner river (Rio Huaruro) to Llahuar Lodge which was great. We stayed in round bamboo hut with rock foundation. We spent couple of hours at their hot springs by the river (Rio Colca). Good vegetarian food.
Colca Canyon, Llahuar
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Next morning we went to a village (Paclla) on the way to Sangalle, we didn’t see anybody there although radios were playing music. We wanted to wait for bus to Cabanaconde which passes around 11-12 to avoid steep hike up, but there was a car passing that took us there earlier. We didn’t go to Cruz del Condor as we already saw many condors at the view point in Cabanacode. After short break we continued to Arequipa on regular afternoon bus.
We stayed in hostel Bubamara in Arequipa: very nice, big, beautiful room, great huge bathroom, good breakfast on a terrace. We visited Santa Catalina Monastery, which we loved, and Santuario Andinos museum with frozen Juanita, interesting, but we expected the museum to have more artifacts, not only from a few sacrificial sites found in the mountains. We liked Arequipa and could stay there longer. We left on overnight Cruz del Sur bus to Nazca.
