Chivay and Colca Canyon - Vicuña get a better bus?

As I wrote in my last post, Val and I booked a two day tour to the Colca Canyon.  We started our day with an 8am pick up at our hotel.  I had over packed because we had door to door service and I am an idiot with a bad back.

The bus was mostly full by the time they swung around to us but we grabbed two of the back seats which are a bit raised so we had a great view out the windows.  The bus was fairly comfortable.

The first day we headed to Chivay which is about half way to the Colca Canyon.  The scenery on the way was stunning.  

We drove through a National Reserve (Salinas y Aguada Blanca National Reserve) where most of the Vicuñas left in the world can be found.  Vicuñas are related to Alpacas and llamas but can't be domesticated.  Apparently they have the softest wool of all of the cameloids and only produce a few grams per year which has to be harvested by tranquilizing a wild Vicuña. They are also very very cute with big eyes.  I can't believe their isn't a Disney movie about them yet.

Some sights from the road

baño stop

Lots of Alpacas around.  All domesticated from what I can tell

Lots of birds!

Lots of ladies selling crafts

Chivay, where we spent the night. We sprang for an extra s/5 each and got our own rooms!  Such luxury.

Chivay is pretty small.  And we were definitely in the Andes now.  It was cold!  Plus, basically every woman over 30 looks like a postcard.

Ya know, just taking the sheep for a drive down main street.

We bought matching toques cause we are very cute and we want more people to mistake us for lesbians.

We went to dinner at a Pizza place of all things but they had the menu del dia (menu of the day, which is always a deal) and a live band and dancers.

The band, they were really good

My first (and last) Alpaca steak

The dancers

At some point, I was forced to dance,
too bad the picture is so blurry (sarcasm emoji)

The next day, we headed out early.  We stopped at a couple of little towns on the way.  I can't remember the names but one wears hats that are conical to represent their nearest volcano and the next town's folk wear hats that are flat like their volcano.  Personally, I didn't notice the hats and it was too cloudy to see the volcanoes but for some reason that is the only thing I remember.

In the first town, every morning, a bunch of kids dress up and dance, dance, dance their little hearts our around the plaza.   Why?  Who knows, probably something to do with a volcano...

While I was sort of watching the dancers, I wandered across the street and looked into a store.  And just standing there, in the store, is a baby alpaca.  You know, the way we have baby elk in our corner stores.

Umm, do you come with the purchase of an Inka Cola?

STOP IT!  So damn cute.

hmm, maybe this is one of those flat hats?

A flowering cactus for Alisma

We also got to learn about the terracing in the valley.  Apparently the first terrace was built 1700 years ago. I don't think this the pictures does it any justice.  The entire valley was terraced

Finally, we made it to The Cross of the Condor look out.  Some guy from BC pointed out my first condor!  

My best 'flying' picture

The canyon itself is beautiful even without the condors
Here's Val, staying away from the edge

Another flowing cactus

Maybe flowering cactus should have had their own section

The cross of the condor look out

Yes, this!!!  Worth two days of bus travel

More terracing

Val was getting bored of all of the stops to look at
the valley and all of the terraces.

Another random church

American Kestrel, posing nicely

So far, our trip had mostly gone well.  One issue was that we had paid out tour agency the s/70 park entrance fee but our tour agent hadn't sent the money to our tour guide so we had to pay again and then go back to the agency to get a refund when we got back to Arequipa.  Not the end of the world, but annoying.

So, we were about an hour or so away from Arequipa on our return, when the bus starts to make a clunking sound.  Not good.  We know because we have experience with crappy buses.

And here is our dead bus on the side of the road.

And here is Val, waiting on the side of the road

Enjoying our tropical vacation!

Might as well take in the view.

Our poor tour guide started flagging down tourist buses to see if they had any room.  Slowly, passengers from our dead bus found a few seats at a time on passing buses until it was just me and Val and a family of four.

Here is Vanessa flagging down a third class bus which had enough seats for the rest of us.  Yay!

I got the very last seat, the middle of the back row.

Finally, we made it back to Arequipa where we went back to our tour agency to get our s/70 back.  No cash on site but our tour agent paid for our cab home (I was still carrying that too heavy bag with my too broken back) and brought the cash to our hotel the next day. 

And that is the end of our Colca Canyon adventure. Please no one warn the bus companies of Peru about us because I think they will stop selling us tickets.  We are clearly the angels of death of buses.

We are currently in Puno so I hope to try to catch up on the blog tomorrow (haha, even I don't believe that but we do have a slow day so maybe one more before we head to Cusco...)