Deep in the Andes - Colca Canyon

This wild Condor posing for tourists over the valley of Colca is a naturists dream. If you like geography you would love this place! The sides of the valley are like the diagrams you see in the books brought to life. We did go to Arequipa but we didn't stay long. We set off for the Canyon drawn by stories of wild trekking and hidden oasis'. Taking the bus, and being involved in our first (and touch wood) only accident, we were unscathed when we arrived at the door way to the valley. It was only a blown out tyre and we hardly felt it, we then realised how minor it all was when we spoke with a Scottish couple, also on the bus, whose plane wheels hadn't come down in Bolívar and were lucky enough to tell the tale!

We walked around the Yorkshire Dale 'esk' countryside until we found the hot spring baths we had been told about. After a relaxing dip we had an early night ready for the 6am bus through the canyon. We sat on the bus the next day and wondered if we would get to the end destination as the driver was so crazy and coasted along the one way, gritty, cliff edged road. Using the beautiful scenery as a distraction we eventually reached Cruz del Condor. We were relieved to get off and walk around when we spotted a few of the birds we had come to see. They seemed to sail around intentionally for the tourists not bother by the near on 100 people watching them from the cliff edge. Bigger than 2.5m wing span they were completely mesmerising.

Off we popped after our fill of bird watching and we headed down the valley to Cambaconde. From the top we walked a ridiculous amount down, down and more down. We towered over what was the oasis we had been told about and occasionally we ran into a late rising traveller who was slogging upwards in the afternoon sun. The oasis itself was ...strange. It wasn't the natural oasis we had expected and it all seemed a bit crammed in but we found a sweet little hostel for the night and tried out the unheated pool. Yes it was cold but we could hardly trek all the way down there and not try it out! After a dip we had a candle lit dinner with a large group of tourists, who kept appearing until well after dark, and we had an early night ready for early morning number 2!!

Around 5am the alarm went off and it was a struggle to get up but we knew we were racing the sun to the top. We set off at 5.20 and made a PB getting to the top for 8.30 ready for a full cooked English breakfast in Boothys Scottish Cafe! Incredible! This same day we set off back to Arequipa, expecting to fall off a cliff on route or breakdown again but actually making it back in one piece and catching another double rainbow around the sun...unusual! Cruz del Condor, Arequipa, Colca Cayon, Sangalle,

Maria Reiche - Nazca lines (and running into Andrew Marr!)

Nazca Lines are probably the coolest lines in the world! We arrived one day and left the next but took a flight over the lines to be sure not to miss anything. From the rumours that the flight was a bit rocky and many a passenger recalled their breakfast while in flight I can believe but luckily we held on to our stomachs and it was OK! The 30 minutes in the sky were amazing and courtesy of Ian we have these really great pictures of the lines from above. See if you can work out the mystery:

No mystery here, I couldn't keep my eyes open the sun was so strong!

Check out the erosion from rain water. These water flows are all dried up now but in some cases they have taken the Lines with them.

Can you guess what it is yet?

A tower in the middle of the desert was dedicated to Marie Reiche who I have to mention as a life long devotee to working out what an earth these lines were for.

Zzz Zzz All this travelling is making me sleepy!

What a strange looking skull you have!!??

Behold!!

We wandered around and climbed mountains in the desert, Ian performed a miracle, watched the sun go down and then got on a bus to be on our way....next stop Arequipa.

Oh I forgot to mention Andrew Marr, who we spontaneously walked into in (of course) one of the most expensive hotels in tiny Nazca. He is a very friendly chap and told us about his trips over here for a documentary he is doing. He is a lot smaller in real life too, but I think everyone in TV is :)