Chivay and Colca Canyon

After the Inca trail it was nice to have some more time in Cuzco to relax. I say relax however we decided to do the 24 hour challenge which meant staying out until 4am in the morning so that we were awake for the full 24 hours. Of the group only 8 of us survivied!! Some people even fell asleep on the bus and train back to Cuzco and were imediately scratched from the list - at one point the bus lights went out and it was very tempting to sleep however one of the lads went patrolling with a torch and caught some people napping. We went for a nice meal in a "British" restaurant where we all had roast dinners then on to 2 clubs. Well it was nice to have a lie in the next day then straight down the pub (Norton Rats) an American biker bar.

The next day was another lazy day and just used the time to do some laundry and catch up with e-mails although we did go back to Fallen Angel for another argentinian Steak and to another pub - the cross keys!

We had a long drive day the next day and I was quite sad to leave Cuzco.

We drove to a small town called Chivay which was just really a stop off point on the way to Arequipa.

The next day we had an early start and travelled out to a place called Colca Canyon. You stand up on top and look into the Canyon - one of the deepest in the World (deeper than the Grand Canyon in the USA). If you are lucky (and fortunately we were) you get to see some Condors. We had a long wait but when they finally appeared we were all impressed - they are the biggest flying birds in the world and use the thermals rising from the canyon to glide around.

Check out these bad boys!