Arequipa Love.

Ready to hear about another amazing adventure? We arrived in Arequipa on Monday night and stayed with a Couchsurfer who was very nice and hospitable. If you don't know what Couchsurfing is and you are looking to travel on a budget look into it. The website is www.couchsurfing.com. Even if you don't stay at people's homes it's a great way to meet locals. So Tuesday our new Couchsurfing friend (Alberto) showed us all around town and we went to eat a great vegetarian lunch with Alberto and his friend Christian. Alberto is 26 is finishing his degree in electrical engineering, speaks English, Spanish, German and French and is a language teacher in his spare time.

Sarah at Alberto´s (couch surfer friend) couch

Arequipa is this beautiful town with most of the buildings being constructed of this white rock which was once volcanic rock. There is a huge volcano near the city. The architecture feels very European as there are mostly buildings with amazing courtyards that we have enjoyed.

Sarah and Alberto in Arequipa

Ali, Alberto and Christian

View from Mirador in Arequipa

We stayed at this place Tuesday night called Amazing Hostal, good breakfast, nice beds but cold showers. We had heard all about this amazing trek to Cañón del Colca but we did not want to go on an organized trip so we went by ourselves. Here's what we did: On Wednesday we took a bus from Arequipa to Cabanaconde (17 soles) and arrived around 8 pm in the pouring rain. Usually tourists have to pay 70 soles for a ticket into the canon but we somehow snuck by unnoticed and didn't have to pay. We stayed at Pachamama Hostal in Cabanaconde which was pretty nice and the staff gave us great information on trekking. It was similar to a lodge feeling and they had a wood burning oven for pizza and really delicious hot chocolate.

At Pachamama Hostel in Cabanaconde

Starting the hike in Cabanaconde

View as we started the hike. Eating peanuts.

We started from Cabanaconde, hiked to San Juan de Chuccho and then to Sangalle, commonly known as Oasis. We planned on sleeping in San Juan de Chuccho the first night but after only 4 hours of hiking, and no rain, we decided to hike the rest of the way to Oasis. We stopped in San Juan where Ali bought some water and we chatted with the local woman who sold the water. She had a little girl who was quite mesmerized with Ali, probably because she's never seen red hair (or her unmatched charm).

After we crossed the first bridge

Little girl staring at Ali

In San Juan de Chuccho 

So we continued on to Oasis. We met a woman named Judith who's a doctor and she hikes to the different villages to treat her patients at least once a month but more if needed. It reminded Ali of a book she read in grad school called "Mountains Beyond Mountains" an amazing book about a doctor who does similar work in Haiti. If you haven't read it go read it now! Judith was hiking with her dog who reminded Sarah of Max (Sarah´s dog). She spoke great English and helped us navigate the path until she arrived in the village she was staying in.

The dog that reminded us of Max

As we were hiking we saw so many amazing things; we crossed three bridges, a circular terrace farming that reminded us of The Lion King and three rock structures. We think that these structures are for people to say a prayer or wish on a rock and then place it with the other rocks, kind of like the Western Wall in Israel. We took lots of pictures and had such a fun time hiking even though parts of the trail were difficult, more mentally than physically.

The circular terrace farming that reminded us of The Lion King.

The rock structure

View of Canyon

Path we hiked down to Oasis

Another town we walked through

The orange river

This way to Oasis

Once we arrived in Oasis we stayed at the first place we came across, Paraiso. There were other hikers sitting around and the pool looked nice, and we were ready to be done hiking for the day. We decided to stay in one of the bungalows which was only 10 soles. We all ate dinner prepared by Freddy who was working at Paraiso. It was really yummy sopa (soup) y pasta, and after our hike it was much needed.

Paraiso, where we stayed in Oasis

After dinner we went to our bungalow and there was a big frog sitting in the middle of the room and Ali totally freaked out. Sarah was laughing hysterically and Ali was not going to sleep with the frog in the room. Ali wasn't sure how to say frog in Spanish so she looked it up in her dictionary before going to get Freddy (for those of you in the same situation in the future frog is rana in Spanish). Freddy came and removed the frog. So many laughs it was pretty hilarious.

Rana in our room

Attempting to eliminate the rana

We woke up the next morning and hiked from Sangalle back to Cabanaconde which was all uphill and about 4 hours. Once we arrived back to Cabanaconde we took a bus to the hot springs in Chivay, which was in a word, amazing! Two hours of sitting in the hot springs felt fabulous but the sauna was pretty weak. We went to this cool cafe in Chivay, drank delicious hot chocolate and then took a bus back to Arequipa. We had a great time hiking Cañón del Colca and definitely recommend doing the trek. And if you are debating whether or not going on an organized trip, we suggest not to because we had the freedom to choose our pace and make our own itinerary based on how we were feeling.

Success! Finally at the top

Aguas calientes in Chivay

Smiles of fierce success... bus back to Arequipa

The first night of Chanukah was a really cool experience for us. We went to Christian's house with Alberto (our first friend from Couch surfing) and made lots and lots of latkes. It was their first Chanukah (and we were the first Jews they had met!) and we had a lot of fun sharing our holiday with them.

Ali making latkes

Alberto eating latkes

Sarah and Alberto relaxing after latke time

We started Spanish school on Monday at Arequipa's Spanish School on San Martin Avenue and we absolutely love it. We are taking classes all week to total 20 hours. We have two different teachers, one for first two hours then one for second 2 hours. In between the two teachers we get cafe y galletas (coffee and crackers). Oh, and our classes are in this beautiful garden and there's a tortuga (turtle) that lives in the garden. A few nights ago we went to watch our other friend from Couch surfing´s (Renato) fútbol game.


We are having a great time and love Arequipa! We have Spanish homework to do tonight and school in the morning. :) We will be in Arequipa through the weekend before we start to make our way back up to Lima to meet Ali´s family in Costa Rica.  Happy 12/12/12 everyone or as we like to say only 9 more days until the end of the world ;) just kidding!!

Besos and love to all!

A & S