The night bus was absolutely hustling! I don’t know if the bus drivers get a bonus for being early or what, but we arrived almost 1 hour early to Arequipa. We arrived so early I was still sound asleep curled up cozy in my sleeping bag when we pulled in. It was a little jarring since I had an alarm for 30 minutes prior to scheduled arrival. I can’t complain too much about an early arrival, though. After gathering up all of our belongings as quickly as possible we re-packed and walked about 1 hour to our hostel downtown. Luckily we were able to check in early to our dog themed hostel.

After a quick nap it was time to explore town. We didn’t have much time in Arequipa so we wanted to make the most of it. First stop was Plaza de Armas during the daytime. It was nice, but, as it turns out, much more beautiful at night. For lunch Nick found a restaurant with good reviews for shrimp soup. One of my good friends is from Arequipa and she gave us a list of must try foods, the shrimp soup being one of them. The soup was filled with crayfish and had a nice seafood flavor. The kitchen did not peel any, though, so I sat and peeled an absurd number of crayfish for us. Nick was happy to not have to sit there and struggle through that. I can probably count on one hand the things I am notably better at than Nick, but peeling seafood is one of them. Not realizing ahead of time how big the soup was going to be we also ordered chicharron de pollo, chicken fried in pork fat. Everything was super tasty, but we definitely got too much food.

Originally we had planned on going to the museum to see the famous Inca Princess, but she was not on display. It doesn’t seem like she ever is anymore after speaking with the museum staff. There was a replica out, but that wasn’t particularly appealing to us. That was a shame because my impression was that she was a highlight of Arequipa. While walking around we got some popsicles from a woman’s cooler on the street. They were delicious!

The ceviche place we wanted to try ended up being closed so we got some ice cream from down the street to help fuel a better dinner plan. That was not our only ice cream, though, as we ended the night back in Plaza de Armas for sunset and enjoyed some blueberry soft serve ice cream.

What a big difference it makes having a full night of sleep in a bed rather than a bus, wow. We woke up feeling much more energized than the day before, that’s for sure. Our first stop of the day was Santa Catalina Monastery after a late breakfast. If we had realized how long of an activity the monastery was we would’ve left earlier. We spent about 2 hours there, but rushed through the end. I’d guess 3 hours would be enough to not have to rush and enjoy each section fully. The monastery was set up with the bedrooms, kitchens, and streets of the nuns. There was a lot of information and original artifacts remaining. Certain sections were red and others were blue or white. The whole place was gorgeous and incredibly interesting.

Once we felt like we were monastery-ied out (or just getting too hungry) we started the walk to Yanahuara, a neighborhood somewhat nearby. On the way we stopped into some alpaca wool shops, but had no success finding something I was interested in. I was still kicking myself for not getting something from the handmade shop in Cusco. Once in Yanahuara we had views of the mountain, nice parks, and amazing food.

Our first stop was Adobos Elsita for adobo soup. The adobo soup tasted like a tomato based soup and it had super soft pork and onions inside too. We both enjoyed it a lot. My friend from Arequipa said that it’s traditionally made at home on Sunday’s so we were happy we could find a restaurant that served it too. Next on our list were buñuelos from Buñuelos La Goyita. Those were more unique than just a fried donut due to the seasoning inside and the sauce on top. We loved them, too! The shop also had an ice cream barrel out front so Nick got the original and I got some passion fruit.

The donut shop was nearby a big park with viewpoints. Many tourists stood and took photos with one street as the backdrop. We did the same, but didn’t figure out why that one was famous. Nick had picked out a restaurant to try some stuffed peppers at, but it was closed. We hurried back to the first ceviche place we tried to go to the day before before it would close. We arrived over 30 minutes before closing, but they were already closed anyways. Maybe they just close when they run out of fish. Who knows, but that was a bummer. It was an early bed time that night since our pick up the next morning for our hiking tour was 3:00am.

The hiking company we were going with in the morning requested we be ready for pickup anytime after 2:30am. We sat in the reception area ready to go on time and chatted with some of the other tourists also heading to Colca Canyon. Our van didn’t arrive until 3:10am and was pretty full, so Nick and I got to go sit in the back. Two more people got on making the van officially full. One of those people was incredibly upset about having to sit in the back as all other seats reclined, but those did not. The guide tried to tell him that no seats reclined on the van and that they were all the same. The man responded by pointing to a woman fully reclined and said, “She’s practically in this man’s lap.” The man he was referring to was Nick and we thought that whole exchange was relatively entertaining.

After a few hours of driving sitting fully upright in the back seats, we arrived to our breakfast restaurant at 6:40am. There we got a buffet with avocados, bread, fruit, juice, and coffee. The stop was in the town of Chivay, which otherwise did not seem to have a lot going on besides being one of the closest towns to the canyon. The rest of the drive was more eventful, with beautiful views and more stops. The first stop was only a 40 minute drive away and was a viewpoint. The viewpoint was nice and showed the canyon and many farm terraces. Our guide also let us try some cactus fruit that looked like kiwi but was much more sour.

Condor Cross was our next stop, us and 10 other fully packed tourist vans. That viewpoint is supposedly a good spot to see condors from. Spoiler alert: the only condors we saw from there were the men dressed up as them for photo opportunities. I am way too gullible because Nick said multiple times, “A huge condor!” But he was always referring to the men in costumes while I looked around excitedly like an idiot.

Finally at 9:40am we were able to leave our big backpacks in storage and start the hiking portion of our trip. The first 7km were various degrees of steepness zig zagging our way down from the top of the canyon. Our guide was pretty chill and let everyone go at their own pace so long as they waited all together at the bridge before we continued again together as a group. The bridge was nice and had a cool breeze from the river. The hike was pretty warm, had some yellow flowers, and gorgeous views of the canyon. Once we were all together (which took about 2 hours from the start) the guide led us to the nearest village.

Arriving at the village felt great because that meant it was lunch time. As usual, we were served an insane amount of food. We had quinoa soup to start, fresh avocado salad, and alpaca lomo saltado. The avocado was extra fun since the hike to get to the lunch spot passed by several avocado trees. Our guide told us that since they grow plants at so many elevations in the canyon they get avocados almost all year round. After lunch we got to see the local guinea pig breeding grounds, there were lots of guinea pigs! On our way we also saw a condor flying from really far away. It was hard to see, but it still counts!

It was another 3 hours and 7km to get to our camp for the night. The hike was flat with some occasional up and down. Camp was truly an oasis out in the desert. A spring flowed from the side of the cliff and had been directed to the small village. Many palm trees, flowers, bushes, and green grass grew there because of that. After hiking in the dust and sand all day it was a welcome change in scenery. We each got our own small cabin and a chance to swim before the sun went down. The camp had a few large pools that utilized large stones as part of their construction. The water was chilly but a refreshing way to rinse off all the dust.

Our group all got some drinks and socialized on the deck before dinner. It was fun having a tour with a bunch of people around our age. Dinner was chicken, vegetables, rice, and mashed potatoes. When getting ready for bed I found a very tiny baby scorpion in our sink, it was super cute. We did not encounter any other ones, which I was happy about. It was another early night since our guide wanted us to start hiking at 4:50am the next day. (Ugh).

The logic behind the very early start was to beat the sun and the heat. The entire hike was up the canyon we had descended the day before, but on a different trail. The guide said it would take us 3 hours but we completed it in 2.5. I was super motivated to get to the top since we wouldn’t get to eat breakfast until we made it to the next village up there. The switchbacks were nice and gradual. Our views were not as nice as the day before, which also meant less photo breaks. The two slowest hikers in our group (who struggled a bit the day before) hired donkeys to go all the way up. Our two fastest hikers beat us up there by about 20 minutes. They also beat one other guy who was extremely upset he was not first. It was a hilarious story they shared on our way to breakfast. “Just so you know, I would’ve been first but I had to give my walking stick to an older woman who was struggling”- Random third place canyon hiker.

Once at the top we took a short break and enjoyed the view, which included another condor! The 20 minute walk from there to the village for breakfast may have been the longest 20 minutes of my life. Almost 4 hours without breakfast was too long for me. Unfortunately for me, that was the first establishment that wanted to ration our portions. We each received one bread, 1/8th of an avocado, one scrambled egg, and tea. Even the butter for the bread was pre-portioned. One of our group members didn’t eat a lot so when he asked if anyone wanted his bread my hand was up before he even finished his sentence. Thank god for that because the day would be a long one.

1 hour of driving later and we made it to our first stop of the day, the hot springs. The hot springs were fantastic! When we arrived it was a short walk along a river, then a suspension bridge to finally get to the springs. There were 7 pools there with various temperatures. The hottest one Nick could get his feet into, but that was all. The coldest one was 10°C so we all went in that one a few times to cool down. Most of the pools were 30-40°C which was so nice after two days of hiking.

The most amazing phenomenon happened while we were at the springs. I can’t remember who noticed it first, but around the sun was some haze and a full 360° rainbow. It was incredible! I didn’t even know that was something that could happen. It felt like everyone else looked at it for 1 minute then went back to chatting as if it was a regular rainbow. I couldn’t stop trying to take photos and videos of it, I thought it was so beautiful. As it turns out taking a photo directly of the sun is pretty difficult so I gave up after a few. The end results weren’t as bad as I thought, though!

After an expensive, not included, buffet lunch it was time for us to switch vans to the Puno transfer van. We said goodbye to our new friends and started the long journey to Puno. The journey was made much longer by the van stopping so many times along the way. First stop was a volcano view point at 1:55pm; there were many signs for volcanos but they were all so far away it felt more like a volcano sign view point. With my most zoomed in camera mode I could get a decent photo though.

Second stop at 2:30pm was the side of the road so people could take photos of some llamas and alpacas. That kind of stop was probably appreciated by the people just starting their Peru trip. For us, who had been in Peru for over a month already, it was a bit boring since we had seen so many llamas already at that point. We just wanted to get to Puno before it was too late. We had two very early mornings in a row and were so tired. At 3:00pm there was a third stop for drinks and toilets. I was so scared that was going to be the rate of our drive.

Thank goodness the 4th stop was the final one before our destination. The stop was at Lagunillas Lake which also had some textile shops. I even found an alpaca sweater I liked, finally! They didn’t accept card, though, so I had to put it back and get on the van. Before departing our guide suddenly appeared and asked, “Who wanted this sweater?” It was my sweater. He said he could pay for me if I gave him cash in Puno, perfect. What a lovely surprise, a stop that was worth it after all. That was so kind of him.

The remainder of the drive had views of volcanos, mountains, lakes, valleys, fields, and chinchillas. The sunset was also beautiful, with strong orange colors. Finally just before 8:00pm we made it to Puno. Our guide nearly forgot about his money and had to come and get it from our hotel afterwards. He was ready to get home I guess. Thankfully he was able to come and collect it later. Nick thought that was funny because he told him before leaving the van, “Hey I am going to go to an ATM nearby and get your cash before we leave.” I assume the guide just said okay, but didn’t understand him. The best part of our arrival to Puno was that we had no early morning wake up call, woo hoo!