Ups and Downs Again

Here we are on our second to last day in Peru. We had such a great afternoon and evening yesterday at the Colca Lodge and we were ready to start another great day today. Our guide told us yesterday that we should be ready to go at 6:30am because we were going to the canyon to see the condors and they tend to fly early in the morning. Unfortunately, at 6:30 when we got to the lobby of the hotel, the front desk clerk informed us that someone had called to say that the vehicle we were supposed to take had broken down and the guide wouldn't be able to get to us for at least another hour. Ninety minutes later, he showed up with a taxi that was an SUV for us to take to the canyon. A little over an hour later when we reached the canyon (after the bumpiest ride ever), we only saw two condors. :-( There are over 40 condors there, so it wasn't a great showing (mostly due to the later hour at which we arrived).

After this, we had an hour drive back to the town where we started where we were able to switch to another van/bus to take back to Arequipa. Before we left the town though, we got to see a small parade in the main square where some children were celebrating graduating the 6th grade. Very cute.

Eventually, we made our way back to Arequipa and were able to check into our hotel. It was a former residence and was very beautiful. Once settled, we again met up with our tour guide who was supposed to take us on a two hour tour of the city followed by a one hour tour of a convent. The two hour tour of the city ended up being a 45 minute tour that ended with the guide telling us that he doesn't usually do the Arequipa city tours, that some of the sites he wanted to take us to were closed and that he was having us do the convent tour last so that he could drop us off there and go home because he was tired. Up until this point, I've left out many of the details about this particular guide, by suffice it to say that he was not been our favorite guide and had been getting on our nerves. This last comment about being tired was kind of the last straw. Fortunately, the convent tour was great. The woman who took us around was wonderful and the convent itself was beautiful.

Finally, we ended the day with a drink at the hotel bar and an awesome dinner at an great place called Zig Zag that specializes in fondue and alpaca and ostrich dishes. Sounds weird but it was delicious.

Now it's once again time for bed. Tomorrow is our last day in Peru. We take a flight to Lima in the morning, do I don't know what during the day, and have a meal at Peru's best restaurant for dinner. Looking forward to it.