The bus arrives after a half hour of worrying, and we are stuck with seats that don´t recline. Lame. I can´t sleep immediately, so I watch out the window as we leave Arequipa and climb into the mountains towards Colca Canyon. Not much to say. It was very dark.
The trip takes a good 3 hours or so, and we disembark in Chivay, pay the fee to go through (S/ 35 for non-nationals and get breakfast of tea (we fail at drinking the mate de coca and get headaches later in the day) and bread. Talked to some of the others on the tour--an adorable older Chilean couple quite obviously in love and a quiet older man from Colombia.
We got back on the bus to head up to the Condor viewing spot where we could see all of Colca Canyon. The ride was bumpy, and the driver had his window open so dust spread into the rest of the bus. Our bodies were coated in it. Gross. The guide spoke in Spanish and then in English for our benefit all during the time we were driving. Very impressive.
At the viewpoint we had an hour to explore and take the same pictures of mountains over and over. We did so, and wandered through the different viewing levels on the hill. Unsure where our bus was about an hour later, we sat down with an American couple on our bus. The woman was quiet, and the man seemed unhappy--he said they were from Arizona. He expressed dislike for the entire Peruvian country, responding to "but don´t you like the people" with "yeah, when they´re not trying to kill me", referring to lax traffic rules in general (and he didn´t even go to Lima, where it was the worst). When asked if he liked the food, he mentioned a spot he found in Arequipa that "actually had chai". Said Puno was boring because the boats are slow and the floating islands are just a big expanse of grass; "you can see all of it when you land," he said disparagingly. His wife sat in silence the entire time he was ranting. Geez.
After getting on the bus, we had two more stops at scenic viewpoints, where we could take more pictures of the mountains, and sometimes see locals selling things (no one bought stuff). Then it was time for lunch in Chivay, where we went ahead and paid for the buffet (it was called the Lust Lunch) and got cuy and fried plantains. Carrie tried cuy in a stew so she wouldn´t have to see the entire thing, but then the people sitting across from us ordered an entire crucified cuy. It was kind of disturbing. They offered some to her.
The next day we would find out that the buffet had been a horrible idea, but for the time being we paid S/ 20 each for a meh lunch, and walked to a church, knowing we would have enough time to get back by 1pm. Of course, we couldn´t make it that far, and so we saw a baby lamb, and headed back to catch the bus, which ended up not being there. Carrie kind of freaked out (low-key) while I bought water and apparently was "not concerned enough". After a few minutes of waiting where it had been, we followed where another larger bus was going, and returned to the square to find the bus waiting outside the church.
I got ice cream from a vendor, and we hopped back on the bus for another two stops at viewpoints, one being all the way at the top of a mountain; most definitely the highest point we´d been, for it was freezing and the air was very thin. There were piles of rocks and though the guide had explained what they were, we had been asleep and had no idea. Left the bus, felt the cold, climbed back on and shivered. At the last stop, we saw a tiny bunny/chinchilla thingie that I woke up Carrie to see. She was much happier when I woke her to see llamas and alpacas grazing. One of them stared at us in the bus.
Before driving the two hours back, we stop at a small rest stop for bathroom use. Carrie remains in the bus and overhears Arizona Man grumbling. His wife asks him quietly, "are you upset about the tour?" He begins bitching about the guide telling us the difference between alpaca and llamas and how it was like telling someone the difference between sheep and goats. Then he said, "I mean, we can do this in the States so if you want to do this in the States we can just do that". The tour guide was in the bus. I still can´t quite tell the difference between llamas and alpacas.
The rest of the ride back was bumpy for a good hour, and I hit my head on the window 3 times while trying to sleep. When we got back, I showered and Carrie napped. We decided to get a light meal at a touristy place--"upstairs, yes, upstairs?"--jugo, coke, and sandwiches. Food wasn´t all that great. We people-watched out the window, and then went to bed early, completely exhausted.
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