El Misti and our First Alpaca Sighting!

Our arrival in Arequipa was extremely late and full of lostness at 1 in the morning. Somehow we found a hostel that was open and we quickly got to sleep.

The next morning we looked online for a church and drove around to find it only to discover that church websites in South America almost never match with actual buildings. So we didn't find a church and instead stopped at a mall to get a couple things. Kind of the same thing right?

As we drove around Arequipa we realized the city was surrounded by several volcanoes, the most impressive of which was El Misti. Its massive 5822 meters loomed above the city and created an

incredible skyline along with the other volcanos nearby.

We also found out that morning that our spanish was not as good as we hoped. Or the girl working at Dunkin Donuts also didn't speak spanish. One of the two.

We thought ordering something familiar would be a nice treat so Sami, Tyler and I decided to stop there and get some coffee and donuts for everyone. Now usually even if you don't speak the language, pointing at an item on a menu and saying 'cuatro, por favor' would work. I've worked at restaurants and served people who only spoke french, spanish, or Chinese. Somehow we communicated and they got what they wanted. But this girl was not loving it!

Ordering donuts was fine, but somehow asking for 'cuatros cafe con leche y azucar' was not getting through and 10-15 minutes later we were still trying to get our stuff. Then somehow milk was misunderstood for whipped cream, which costs extra, and apparently takes 5 years to do.

Anyways, we left with some assortment of coffee and donuts for everyone and we were pretty happy with that!

We didn't spend much time in Arequipa as our goal was to make it to Chivay, at the far east side of the Colca Canyon. Our drive there was absolutely beautiful and as we passed over the high 4800m+ pass we all felt the effects of altitude. But that didn't stop Sami was freaking out at the

first llama and alpaca sightings! You'd think she'd just won a million dollars with her outrageous enthusiasm for alpacas!

At the second pack llamas we found, we all jumped out to see how close we could get. Llamas are pretty big and quick animals, so it wasn't as close as we hoped. So we waited for another opportunity.

Further down the road we came across several alpacas so we jumped out again in hopes they'd be more friendly. But after only a few quick steps we were all pretty winded and out of breath as we hadn't acclimatized to the 4000m+ elevation. And the alpacas didn't come to us.

A little further, as we rounded a corner and began going downhill, a herd of 100s of llamas and alpacas came into view and before anyone else saw them I simply yelled and yelled until they all saw them as well and began yelling with the same enthusiasm! While the excited yelling was partially in jest on most of our parts, Sami really was on cloud 9!

After a couple hours Chivay and the Colca Canyon came into view. Apparently at its deepest, the Colca Canyon is actually deeper than the Grand Canyon with a maximum depth of 3400 meters- that's nearly twice the depth of the Grand Canyon! Albeit it is less than half the length. Craziest part is that it's not even the deepest canyon in the world, or even Peru! Further north the Cotahausi Canyon is slightly deeper.

Needless to say, it was a pretty incredible sight to see with monstrous mountains on either side and a deep gorge cut out below. Chivay was a tiny little traditional Peruvia town at the east end of the canyon with only a few thousand people. It felt like a step back in time what with the men and women dressed as they always have. Colourful outfits and dresses paired with big bowl hats and long raided hair worn by the women gave the town an extremely old-fashioned feel.

We quickly found a hostel and all took some time to relax and get over the slight altitude sickness symptoms. Chivay sits about 3700m above sea level so we made sure to not overexert ourselves. Which meant walking extremely slowly and definitely not talking while walking.

After a short time we to the little night market where you could buy skewers of alpaca meat for only 1 sole! While Dad, Tyler and I jumped all over that, Sami sat back shocked appalled. We made sure to let her know how good it was. Instead she got homemade churros, which we also had along with our alpaca.

That night we went to a Peruvian dinner show along with a tonne of other people. All you had to pay was the food, which was decently priced. But

then the hats came around for the obligatory tips for the waiters, the singers, the dancers, etc. Man I hate obligatory tips.

The dancing was pretty fun and the music was really fast-paced a lot of fun. Obviously we were asked to join in the dancing and with our best 'I'm-grumpy Star-face' we said no, stopping to smile only afterwards.

After the dinner we went back to the hostel to sleep early as we planned on waking up around 530 AM to drive up the Colca Canyon and see the 12 foot condors flying through the canyon!

Turned off the highway trying to find some food in a small town but this is all we could find.

I guess our spanish isn't good enough to order normal sized drinks! Oops.