We (primarily me) decided to forego the 13 hour bus ride from Arequipa to Cusco and grabbed a morning flight to Cusco. I was nervous because we were going up in altitude. Cusco is 3,400 metres above sea level but we were just flying into Cusco and immediately going to Ollantaytambo which is at 2,800 metres. I really don’t want to get altitude sickness again. At the airport a …
After having a huge buffet breakfast on our hostel roof restaurant, we headed to Mundo Alpaca (Alpaca World). This is a store that is everything alpaca; part petting zoo, part demonstration area, part Peruvian textile museum and part store. A person handed us branches with leaves to feed the animals as we arrived at the alpaca cuddling area. We were immediately sighted by all the alpacas who lovingly came …
I have fallen in love with this city known as the White City because of its buildings created from white volcanic rock. It is utterly charming. I also cannot say enough good things about our hostel, Hostal Solar, (which is more like a hotel); it is centrally located, super clean, has great showers, big fluffy towels, comfy beds, they clean your room daily, they have friendly and helpful staff …
Upon arriving into Arequipa at 5:30am, we were moved from our double decker bus into smaller Van’s as the streets are too narrow for the large buses. We were taken to our accomodation the Hostal Solar. It was cold at that time of the morning so I pulled out my hat and gloves. Since our two day, one night tour of Colca Canyon left at 8:00am, we were able …