Colca Canyon

We took the bus from Arequipa to the tiny town of Cabanaconde. The town was great, I have rarely ever been somewhere so friendly. All the people would say hello and wave (even from inside their little stores!). The main draw is the steep walk down Colca Canyon to the little oasis at the bottom. The walk down gave great views (a bit better than the continuous fog of the Inca Trail!) but took ages. I must have strained my knee on the Inca Trail because after about an hour it was complianing loudly and had to take a mule (Paloma) the last 15 mins down and all the way back up. The oasis was awesome (as can be seen in this photo, though of course this isn´t any of us and is just lifted from the web). The water was gorgeous - nice and cool and a way to wash away some of the dust we got covered in from the trail. For the low price of 10 soles (about 3 dollars) we got to swim in the pool and got a nice two course meal. The walk up looked hot and sweaty (my poor mule wasn´t even too happy about it) but everyone was thrilled to get back to our gorgeous hotel for a hot shower/bath and a few drinks (the usual price was 170 soles but we got rooms for 40 soles! Well done, Ave!).
We made it to Puno, a city on Lake Titicaca after a long 8-10 hr day in rickety buses on dirt roads. We will be touring around the floating islands tomorrow, then heading off to Bolivia (Copa-Copabana). Much love from all of us!!