We arrived in Lima Peru at about 9 at night and were met by a very enthusiastic and Peruvian holding a sign with our name on it. Leneno and his brother were there to pick us up and take us to a hotel and dinner. We dropped our bags off at a hotel for $12 for the three of us then went back to Leneno´s house where his mother was slaving away on a first class meal! We gave Leneno a backpack full of camping gear that we had brought him from a friend of his that live in Santa Ana and looked at photos of a trip he did turing peru to give us a taste of what was to come.

The next morning we took an early plane to Arequipa. The plane left before sun up and I had a great window seat and watched the sun rise over The Andes Mountains. There was a thin layer of mist that covered the lowlands like a sheet of silk. It was one of the most beautiful sunrises I have ever seen. When we arrived in Arequipa we arranged lodging and took an hour for a rest then hit the city. We toured the main plaza area arranged for a tour of the famous Cholca Canyon (It is the deepest canyon in the world and more the twice the depth of the Grand Canyon) and met the guy who discovered Juanita a frozen mummy found in the mountains above the city in 1996. He made the cover of the National Geographic. We also had lunch at a great little restaurant that only served seafood this was on awesome meal of ceviche, soup, and fish(trout ceviche is great!).

We decided to make the highlight of the touring day the Santa Catalina Nunnery. The nunnery has been around for hundreds of years and has survived all the earthquakes while the city around it has crumbled. It was a fairly large place spanning about four city blocks. On our tour we met the USA ambassador to Peru, great guy from Fresno.

For dinner we escorted three lovely Peruvian women to dinner. For dinner I had alpaca steak (close relative of the lama) and Guinea Pig (rodent also fun fur pets that happen to taste good) They all spoke English to some degree and all had business degrees. One of them was a part owner of the largest chain of casinos in Peru.

The next morning after an extended sleep time of about 2 hours we left for Cholca canyon at 2 am. We start with a 6 hour bus ride, then had breakfast, met our guide and hit the trail. This canyon was very impressive. At the rim the guide pointed out where we would be going and seeing. There were three villages that were mostly abandoned but still had 25 families living in them and hundreds of small fields cut into the sides of the step hillsides. They grew fruits, cactus, corn, and anything else they need to be self-sufficient, including raising alpacas, guinea pigs, chickens, and pigs. The hike down into the canyon was nothing short of amazing! I have never hiked anything so steep for so long, at any given time there was a sheer cliff dropping thousands of feet on one side of you or another. There were pack animals on the trail but it was so steep that we were barely able to descend.

At the bottom we looked at what we had just descended with wonder and awe. The trail was seemingly carved out of a sheer cliff. We had lunch at one of the villages and then hit the trail again…grudgingly. The down hill hike had worn us out, but we hiked for another 3 hours to get to an oasis in the canyon and to tour through the towns. That night we went to bed just after dinner 7pm.

Next morning we had to hike back out of the canyon so we left at 3 am and wisely hired a mule to bring our bags to the top. Our guide Edison, says he like to leave early so you stay focused on the steps in front of you and don’t keep looking up at the overwhelming task at hand(thanks for letting be borrow the head lamp Dad). We got out of the canyon in time to catch the 7am bus and see the Peruvian Condors. They are a close cousin of the California Condors, huge graceful birds. Then we settled in for a long bus ride back to the city with the only highlight being that we travelled over a high pass of about 16500 feet on the road, the diesel bus was not doing so well up there. We got back to town checked into the same hotel, and went to dinner and Internet. Tomorrow we will be meeting the Peruvian women again and will tour with them then take a late bus to Puno, the city on the shores of Lake Tittychaka (did I spell that wrong?). Any way it is just fun to say...