Day 6 - Colca Canyon and Valley

This morning we left our hotel in arequipa at 8 am. We were on a bus all morning, but it was nice since there were many stops along the way. We got views of the 3 volcanoes that surround the city. It was a beautiful sunny day, and the views were breathtaking, especially since the sun reflected off the snow on top of one of the mountains.
Then we left the city for our first day at serious altitude. The idea is to let us get acclimatized a bit, and then tomorrow well be back in Arequipa. On the outskirts of the city, we bought coca leaves, aka the active ingredient in cocaine! But it is used medicinally in this area. The tour guide said that women in this area never have osteoporosis and that people have excellent dental hygiene because of the high calcium levels in the coca plant. Too bad we can't bring any home! They introduced coca to us because it is supposed to help against altitude sickness. First we tried some in tea, then we did like the locals and chewed it. Our tongues and palates began to numb after just a few minutes of chewing. The leaves were bitter, not a very pleasant taste. In case you were wondering, you'd have to chew something like 11 kilos of coca leaves to get the high of cocaine. Another stop along the way brought us to alpaca farms, they are so cute and fuzzy!
Then we got off the bus at the highest point well hit on this trip: 4895 metres. There's no way we could have went for a jog up there! The tour guide thought Emily was looking a little pale after the stop, so rubbed medicinal alcohol on her pores to help her inhale more alcohol..it worked! The guides seem to be very prepared which is really great and comforting.
Then came the best part of our day. For the last 19 km of the trip we went mountain biking into the village! It was all downhill, so we definitely didn't have to exert ourselves at all. The views were amazing, and so much better appreciated from the bikes. It all went pretty smoothly except, lisa got a flat tire, but the bike guy was behind her so they swaped bikes.
We arrived in Chivay around 2 pm and had a huge buffet lunch. The food was fantastic. There was so much to choose from! We had soup, quinoa, pumpkin, spinach latkes, fried bananas, pesto noodles, fries, corn, chicken, and we tried alpaca! Though as non-red-meat eaters we weren't too big of fans. After that we went to our hotel which placed us on the forth floor.. You can't imagine how hard it is to walk up those flights of stairs. But we finally made it and had a little rest and relaxation before hitting up the hot springs. Though the springs looked more like giant hot tubs than anything else, the forty degree water was immensely enjoyed as it goes down to 0 degrees at this time of year. Then we returned to the hotel before heading for some dinner at a restaurant that had live musicians and dancers. We felt a little under the weather though so we called it any early night and headed to bed as we had a 5 am wake up the next day anyways.