Arequipa, Peru - Oct 09

Arequipa “La Ciudad Blanca” – The White City

One of the most amazing things about Peru is the diverse landscape. Hardly twenty minutes out of Nasca, the Pan American Highway rejoins the Pacific coastline and even the inevitable Jackie Chan re-runs couldn’t keep the eye from being drawn to the scenes out of the bus window. Rollers from the Pacific crashed against a beach overlooked by an unending array of red dunes lit up by the setting sun.

Arequipa’s skyline is dominated by it’s two resident volcanoes, the brooding Chachani and El Misti, as is most of the locals conversation. Arequipa is fancifully called the “White City” because of the white volcanic rock used in the local buildings, although it wasn’t as obvious to the naked eye as one would imagine, but still beautiful in its own right.

View from the bus window, sand rippling onto the road.

Views of Chachani and Misti – the two volcanoes brooding over Arequipa

Sunset lights up Misti

Our time was becoming rather tight as we had only five days until we had to be in Cusco to prepare for the Inka Trail. With this in mind, we scuttled between tourist agencies to set up our activities for our five free days.

Our first trip involved a downhill mountain bike ride down 4900m of volcanic slope from the top of Volcano Chachani. The view from the top when we got out of the van following two harrowing hours of ascent was nothing short of spectacular.

We both thought we were handling the altitude just fine, but a short uphill section of the ride quickly put us back in our place ! In true style Dee managed to wipe out spectacularly, not once but four times on the soft sands of the murderously vertical downhill “shortcuts” we were offered.

Near the peak of Chachani volcano for our downhill mountain bike ride. The air at 4900m is pretty thin.

Suited up at 4900m for our decent

The toilet at the top of the mountain.

Uphills. Who said ANYTHING about uphills on a downhill ride !!

Our support vehicle worryingly heading off down the road in front of us.

Dee basking in the sunshine after the decent

In celebration of our safe decent from the clutches of the volcano, it seemed only right that we crack open a bottle of wine. We visited the local corner cafe and found a rather limited selection of red wine, but decided to brave the local Peruvian produce.

The scene for our upcoming trial could not be faulted – the roof terrace provided and amazing view of the city and the volcanoes. The cat basked in the setting sun and the breeze teased Dee’s hair playfully as she took her first sip. The scene was shattered as the vinegared swill hit the back of Dee’s throat. The cat hissed and bolted for the stairs as the cloud of red mist was spat out. Worst. Wine. Ever.

This night was special. This night, for the first time ever, Dee agreed that the wine was undrinkable. Never fear, the night was rescued by our good friends the Argentians on our second trip to the cafe.

Dee tries Peruvian wine for the last time. Ever.

Al makes a frankly quite disturbing face in front of the guinea pigs, a Peruvian delicacy.

Santa Catalina convent Arequipa

A visit to the Santa Catalina Convent rounded off our time in the city as we had to crack on to Colca Canyon – the second deepest canyon in the world.

Somewhere an alarm bell should have been ringing, but we blithely continued on in the belief that we’d be going for “a little walk in a nice little canyon.”

Stay tuned to see how that worked out for us.