When I am waiting at the lobby for the tour to pick me, I find that there are 2 British guy, and 2 German guys have joined the same tour. We are all waiting, the tour bus is late. When the first vehicle arrives, they pick up the Germans. The tour is so big that it takes 3 vehicles in total. Me along with the Brits are picked up by the second Mercedes van. The weather isn't good at all today, very cloudy. I am just hoping we will still see something. Our first stop is a convenience store for everyone to pee. Once we get to the hillside, it is not as easy to find baños (toilets). Based on the original itinerary, we would go around the body of the volcano Chachani to its behind, and then we will pass by some local villages, the national protected zone where we would see some lakes and vicuña, continue to the highest point of the trip Patapampa at 4910m, where we will see 3 volcanoes, including the one the ice-maiden Juanita were found. Lunch at Chivay, then we will go to a hot spring, dinner with folk music and dance.
We do get to see some vicuña, they are the same family with the llamas and alpaca, but much more elegant and skinny. They are not domesticated either, so we only see them behind some fences. Kind of excited. Until the rain starts falling down, we continue going up the hill, the altitude does hit some of us, people start to chew on coca leaves. It's the 2009, I am coca candies instead. :P I think people just chew it for experience. I heard it tastes really bad by itself. Anyway, we get to the peak at Patapampa, we see no volcanoes, they get white out. It is snowing on the top of the mountain. We get a quick pee, steal a few snapshot of the "green" rocks (which only exists above 3500m sea level), and the stack of rocks where people place their offerings to mother Earth, those stacks of stones are everywhere. Disappointed that we don't get to see the volcanoes but we move on to Chivay to have lunch - an expensive and tasteless lunch buffet, I mean even Panda Express in the US is better than that lunch buffet. I hate it when they assume that tourists like buffet. That's so 1980s! Chivay is also the town we will stay a night. Check in at our hotel. My room is literally a bed (well two beds) in a box. But the whole tour + hotel is only 60 Soles (US$20). What am I complaining about, right?
Take a quick nap for the altitude, then we get to the hot spring, it's cold at the mountain areas when it is cloudy, even though it's almost summer and it's quite hot in Arequipa at this time of the year. I have brought my swim trunks. At first, kind of worried, since it's those swimmer's kind of brief style. Luckily, the tour mostly consists of European, and they are also wearing those kind of briefs, so I am not like the only one who exposes my thighs. Anyway, it is good to be in the hot water for a while, I even go into the sauna too. Steam for another 10 mins. We must go back to the hotel, and get ready for the dinner. The dinner is as disappointing as the lunch. It's not buffet, but as expensive and does not taste good. The folk music and dance is ok. A bit touristy. They are playing with the Belgium group and French group to see which groups shout more loudly. When they announce there is this amigo from China in the house, and my tour guide makes me raise my hands, I am almost embarrassed. This is the thing I hate about joining a group tour. Seriously.
Go straight to bed after the dinner, since we need to get up at 5:00am to go to the Colca Canyon lookout to see the condors (a huge bird when it extends its wing, it can reach 3m long). At least the shower is hot, and the bed is comfortable enough. No complaint. But because of the weather, I have taken much pictures today. Hopefully, the weather will be better tomorrow.
Photos here: Day 35
