Our last couple of weeks in Arequipa were mostly spent working and hanging out with our friends Michelle and Matt and their kids Emilia and Matthew. Quinn and Emilia really hit it off with their mutual love of Minecraft. We had another sleepover, and Jen and I even got to go out for a nice dinner while the two of them played!

We visited a cultural fair put on by people from the Colca region. It featured lots of local foods, music, and dancing.

We did a tour of the inside of the main cathedral in town. The organ, made in Belgium, has over 2000 pipes!

The rest of the cathedral was equally impressive.

We got to climb up onto the roof for the view. In 2001 the bell tower behind us collapsed during an earthquake and fell through the roof of the cathedral. Amazingly no one was hurt!

Quinn was more interested in playing with the sewing machine base that served as our table at the restaurant we visited for lunch.

After lunch we got to see a May Day parade work its way through the Plaza de Armas.

On our last weekend we went to a bull fight in a nearby town. There are no matadors; the bulls fight each other. Which ever bull walks away from the fight first loses.

The audience was mostly Peruvian cowboys. We were the only gringos in attendance.

In truth, the bull fighting wasn’t all that exciting. It mostly consisted of the bulls’ owners trying to drag them around with ropes to get them to engage with each other. Supposedly if they won’t fight they bring in a cow to get their blood pumping, but we didn’t see that happen.

On Monday evening we dropped Quinn off at Emilia’s house to play Minecraft, and Jen and I got a rare evening out together. We picked the top-rated restaurant in Trip Advisor and weren’t disappointed. They didn’t have any tables, so we sat at a small coffee table in a waiting area next to a fireplace and ordered appetizers. We had a cheese plate, followed by a selection of meats served on hot volcanic stone so they were still sizzling after 10 minutes. We enjoyed Pisco sours, a bottle of wine, and finished the whole thing up with a chocolate mousse. Yum!!

On Tuesday we packed up the van, planning to spend a few days touring the Colca Canyon before heading into Chile.

From Arequipa we climbed to a pass at 16,000 feet before descending into the canyon. We all felt tired and achy at the top.

We found a great campsite on the rim of the canyon where we could enjoy the sunset.

The canyon features thousand year old terraces overlooked by snow-capped peaks.

But the real highlight was the next morning. The area is home to numerous Andean condors, and they did not dissappoint, soaring majestically across the landscape.

Jen went for a short hike to enjoy the view and the beautiful flowers.

We visited the canyon as part of a loop that would take us back to the Pan Am. After we left the area frequented by tour groups, the road turned to dirt and the adventure began. After stopping to buy food for dinner in a small village market, we headed out thinking that we’d make it to the beach that night to camp. That proved optimistic, as it would take us about 7 hours to cover the next 150km of dirt roads.

The first part of the drive was mostly above 12,000 feet. The road was dusty and the scenery stunning.

The driver of this truck stopped while we were eating lunch to see if we were okay. We talked for awhile and he told us a little about the region before he headed off on his way.

We saw some vicuñas…

… and even pink flamingos.

After awhile we decided to pull off and camp rather than pushing on, thinking that the countryside here would be better than a gritty gas station along the Pan Am.

Shortly after we set up camp a man walked by herding sheep. I asked him if we could camp here and he smiled and said yes. A few other people walked past and looked at us curiously, but they mostly seemed pretty shy and reserved.

The next morning just as we were preparing to depart a woman walked up to the van and offered us a plate of food – cooked potatoes and corn. We were amazed by her generosity. We graciously accepted the food, gave her a small gift in exchange and waved goodbye. That night we incorporated her gift into our meal.

The area near where we camped was teeming with bird life.

It took us about 2 hours to cover the remaining 50km back to the highway. The road seemed to get worse the closer we got, and the scenery returned to the lifeless dust bowl that seems to dominate the Peruvian coast. We dropped off the passenger we’d picked up along the way and got out to kiss the blessed asphalt. (Not really, but we talked about it. 🙂 )

So smooth! So fast!

The plan was to go to the coast and work our way down the beach toward Chile. No sooner than I had observed that we had been from 16,000 feet to sea level in two days, we came upon a roadblock. People were lounging beside their cars, and this didn’t seem like a regular road construction stop. I got out to talk to a truck driver and discovered that there was some kind of fire and that he had been there for three days. We went up to the head of the line and a police officer told us that we couldn’t pass. When we asked how long the delay would be he smiled and shrugged his shoulders.

With that we turned around and went back to the Pan Am. We tried one other route to the coast and were again stopped by the police, who told us that there was fighting going on. We still weren’t sure exactly what was happening, but by this time it was getting late and we needed a place to stay. We found a ravine that we could drive into and be hidden from the highway. It wasn’t great, but it was very dark and the stars were beautiful.

The next day we drove past this enormous solar PV farm.

Next stop Chile!