Arequipa is Peru's second biggest, and with Cusco, most attractive city - nestling amongst volcanoes at over 240m above sea level, and with 'El Misti'. the snow capped 5281m volcano poised above, the place does have a rather legendary appearance.
The beautiful town centre aside, the main reason people travel to Arequipa is to trek the 'Colca Canyon' - nearly TWICE the size of Arizona's Grand Canyon...just amazing. The trek culminates in gathering at the edge and staring down at the giant condors circling below. I imagine this is incredible...and I say imagine, because I didn't do it! The main reason for this is that I wasn't well during the course of the week, and having just completed Machu Picchu I decided to step away from the gringo trail and to enjoy the phenomenal weather (not a cloud all week), the beautiful town and to get myself back on my feet. I wasn't well, but I thoroughly enjoyed just sitting in cafes, wandering around back streets and lounging in a hammock.
After a week of topping up the tan in Arequipa I took the bus down to Lago Titicaca - an immense Sapphire blue lake, easily the largest high-altitude body of water in he world - moving into Bolivia, and the very relaxed lakeside pilgrimage town of Copacabana (from which Rio's famous beach takes its name). Copacabana is the jumping off point for visiting the sacred Island del Sol - revered as the place that the sun and the moon were created (some claim no?!) and where the Inca dynasty was born.
(By the way I'm writing this several weeks later...as the Internet connection in both Peru and Bolivia is terrible - uploading 3 photos takes 45 minutes and am sat in a bar in Cordoba watching the River Plate / Boca game - incredible! The noise and colour - c'mon Boca! Oh and Liverpool whooped Man ure earlier - again, happy days!) - Actually I'm now uploading this in Thailand...but there you go...
Anyway...Isla del Sol was beautiful and I certainly got to see lots of it...having met a couple of English girls on the boat on the way over, we somehow, on an island measuring 6km x 9km got hopelessly lost, turning a 4 hour wander into an 8 hour hike. It all worked out well though, as the sun set over the lake we found a beautiful guesthouse, high in the hills, and there we ate and drank by candlelight - and watched the sun turn into a huge red ball. As soon as the sun disappeared it got, predictably, freezing cold - wearing shorts and t-shirt during the day, and (literally) every item I own during the evening was something I was to get very accustomed to in crazy crazy Bolivia.
As I look back on this - this was one of my favourite times. So beautiful, so much fun.
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