Colca Canyon Day 1

We woke up this morning and had breakfast and waited for our tour bus to pick us up. I was a little shocked that they came to our hotel. We had 16 people on our tour. Our guide Jaime and our driver Freddie were great. We stopped at a little store before we left to get candy. Apparently we were going to be getting to some very high altitudes and candy, sugar and water help with altitude sickness. We headed to the stop for the night, a little town called Chevey. On the way we stopped many times to get pictures of the wildlife and scenery. They had llamas, alpacas and vicuñas. We also stopped at a little town to drink Coca tea because we were getting ready to go up pretty high, approximately 15,000 feet. On the way, the girl accross from me threw up. This was not a plesant moment. So we all got out why they cleaned up the seat. It was so cold, granted we were up really high and there was snow. It was nice to see some snow. Once back in the bus we started our descent. On the drive to Chevey, about 4.5 hours in all I saw my first towns that I had invisioned 3rd world countries to look like.

Once in Chevey we had lunch at our hotel. However, some people got sick and someone else found a bug stuck to their french fry. It was not that appetizing anymore. The hotel was so cold, the air was cold and I was freezing. After lunch we all went to a hot springs which was nice. Then we were back at the hotel for a little bit.

For dinner we went to a show of traditional dance. It was great The food was not so good but the show was nice. I however, was sitting at the end of our table and had I known that they asked for volunteers, well ask is not the correct word. They grabbed volunteers, I would have sat more inward. So I was apart of the show and the dance I was choosen for never seemed to end. Luckily I was not the only volunteer from the crowd. The dancing was amazing and the outfits were gorgeous, it was a fun night.

After dinner we got up and went back to the freezing hotel where luckily they had down blankets and a heater waiting for us. we needed to get to bed because we were leaving at 5:00 the next morning.

02/27/08