Arequipa and Colca Canyon

I had a few days in Arequipa and managed to get a lot done. I found a very good mechanic who fixed the bike (no "clacketing", a big relief), he said the fuel was dirty, he cleaned it all down and fitted an in-line filter, just what I wanted.  I got all my clothes fixed ! numerous zips replaced and patches made. This kind of work is so cheap in Peru I felt guilty paying the bill !!. All my clothes repairs came to 18 soles ($6) and the bike mechanic bill was 33 soles ($11).


I also, finally, gave up on trying to find tyre levers, they are just not available in Peru, I bought two screwdrivers instead, some bicycle rubber patches and a mini bicycle pump, should the inevitable puncture occur.


Arequipa is a great city to hang around in. It´s deserty so the air is clear and dry. It´s hot in the afternoons and cold at night, I love that combination (probably cos it´s so unlike the UK climate). There is fine colonial architecture in the center, and the whole city is loomed over my two extinct Volcanoes (El Misty 5825m and Chachani 6075m). I catch up with Sarah & David (from the Panama coast cargo boat trip in March), they are teaching English here now.


I left Arequipa after 4 days and head for "Colca Canyon". I´m determined to test the bike before I get too far from Lima (and any hope of a guarantee !). There is a 4910 meter pass on the way to Chivay (Colca Canyon) and I aim to get over it. Well it took all day (in 2nd gear mostly) but I made it ! At the top it´s atrociously cold, the air feels thin and I can´t get warm, so I only stop for a few minutes. On the way I notice the bike will not "tick over" and will not start on the electric starter, this is another worrying moment, but it seems to run and climb OK, so I continue (and assume it is the altitude, which is later confirmed). It´s a great run down, with tight hairpins in the road, just what a bike is great for.

The top of the pass (it´s not legible, says 4910 m.....)

I find a very cheap guesthouse in Chivay (3300m). Next day I want to get to Cabanaconde, but again (this is the other end of the same road) it peters out into a bumpy dirt track ! It´s too much, I have to turn around again and distinctly wonder whether I´ve bought the right bike (an Enduro would have had no problems). 

On the way up the pass...

So I try to take the bus to Cabanaconde, but there is a big annual festival and all the buses are full !  In the long queue I try out my Spanish and try and chat with an Argentinian couple just ahead of me, they turn out to be a brother and sister, she is working in Ushuaia. The 4pm bus is full, the 5pm is full and so is the 7pm !! I. So I get up the next day at 3.20am (it is freezing cold !) and manage just to squeeze onto the 4am bus, and stand up the whole way (can´t see anything as my head is over the baggage rack). At Cabanaconde you can walk down the canyon to an "Oasis" at the bottom, it´s one of the worlds deepest canyons and quite a spectacle and getting there and back is a day´s hike. In the evening at Cabanaconde there are Chinese style fireworks and "competing" brass bands that play the same tune all day (impressive but "not the greatest" for listening !!!) and everybody dances (the dancing is "not the greatest" either....), but all generations are joining in, and that´s something. That evening I bump into the two Argentinians again, I get a kiss from both of them ! (I am slightly shocked when he planted one), that is the Argentinian way !! I retire to my 3 bed hostel room about midnightish (I´d not seen my room mates at that point). In the early hours there is much noise, shuffling and whispering followed by (ahem...) more recognisable activities !! In the morning I recognise the two Argentinians again, they have both been picked up by my respective hostel room mates (male and female, as it turned out). Well, this is perhaps a bit too much for all of us !! they slink off a bit embarassed (as I am). Perhaps I have just experienced the real South America !!

On the way back to Chivay, despite getting on the bus early, I´m the first one in fact,  I´m the only person who gets "bumped" (by just one guy with my seat number, on his ticket, at the second and final bus stop out of town). I have to stand up the whole 3hrs back again ! and see nothing, again ! A monumental piece of bad luck.

I´m up early (05.30am)  the next day for the long, slow climb up and over the pass again, I have every possible layer on, but I still freeze, it takes 2 hours. Then I take the road to Lake Titicaca. One bizarre thing about this road is that there are old dogs, sitting by the roadside, for the last 60km to Puno. There´s nothing else out there. I can only assume they have been abandoned, but SO many of them !! How do they live, find water and food ? They quietly sit and almost spookily watch the traffic passing, it´s a mystery...