Adventures in Peru Pt. 3

Arequipa & the Colca Canyon

Earlier in November, Sean and I took a long weekend trip to Arequipa and the Colca Canyon. We stayed in Arequipa for a full day and two nights before we headed out to the Colca Valley.  We stayed at a really cool boutique hotel called Hotel Casona Solar, that is a renovated colonial mansion and UNESCO national monument. It had a lot of old world charm, and our bedroom had vaulted ceilings and a chandelier! 

The hotel's patio and garden was my favorite place to sit and read.

Private courtyard for the guest rooms.

Vaulted ceilings AND a chandelier! 

Plaza des Armas and the basilica lit up at night.

Day time Plaza des Armas

Cool old colonial architecture

During the full day we had in Arequipa we walked around and explored a little. Right around the corner from the hotel is the Mercado San Camilo, which is the main market for the city. One of my favorite (and free) things to do anywhere we travel is explore that city's markets, I'm always interested in seeing what kinds of produce and other goods are sold. And here in Arequipa we got to see some pretty interesting things.....

Yes, those are llama fetuses, and I still can't figure out what they are used for. Or WHY

Witch doctor stall selling various herbal remedies

After I surreptitiously snapped a bunch of photos, we moved quickly away from the creepy witch doctor stalls where old women were putting together what looked like little voodoo packets of herbs, flowers, and other bits of things. The rest of the market sold normal things... I wanted to buy and eat all of that luscious looking tropical fruit. And of course they had their millions of varieties of potatoes on display.

The other weird thing we came across in the mercado was near the bakery stalls. The bakers were selling these loaves of bread that had little babies heads painted on them....

Creepy baby head bread....

After our stroll through the mercado we headed towards the Plaza des Armas. Now, pretty much every city in South America has a Plaza des Armas, each one varying in size and prettiness. So, I'd say now I'm something of an expert on Plaza des Armas-es. And Arequipa boasts a very pretty and clean one. All the buildings surrounding the square are constructed of white volcanic stone so the whole effect is really nice to look at. 

Once you've see one Plaza des Armas, you've seen them all.

There aren't a whole lot of tourist activities to do in the city itself, Arequipa is mainly a stopping over point for people coming to or from the Colca Canyon. There's a small national museum that hosts the famous "Inca Ice Maiden"- the mummy Juanita, an Andean woman found up on Mount Ampato. And there is also the Monasterio de Santa Catalina. The monastery is massive, we spent about two hours walking around the complex, and I think we still didn't cover a few parts of it. 

View of the volcano Mismi from the monastery.

Interesting church door.

The next day we were picked up by our driver bright and early and we headed out on the long drive to the Colca Valley. It takes about 3 hours just to get to the beginning of the Valley and then another hour or so before you get to the actual canyon itself. 

A cool lagoon in the valley.

Before we even got to the Mirador del Condor, we saw a pair of juvenile condors sitting together.

The drive to Cabana Conde, the town we would stay in for the night, took most of the day. We stopped at a few places to walk around and enjoy the beautiful scenery and landscape. 

Hiking along the edge of the canyon rim.

Standing above the Colca Canyon

Looking across the canyon at a small village, in the foreground you can see the terraces the Inca people constructed for agricultural purposes.

We stayed the night at a hostel in Cabana Conde and got up early the next morning to do a bit of hiking and then head back to Arequipa for the night. We stopped at Mirador del Condor early before most of the crowds of tourists showed up, pretty much the only reason  why people stay in towns in the Colca Canyon overnight. I didn't share any more condor photos because all of mine are grainy since I only used my iPhone to take photos on this trip.

One of the many churches we saw while drive through the Colca Canyon, this one under a grant from the Spanish government, is being restored to its original designs after years of disrepair.

Views for days

It was a pretty short trip, but we managed to pack quite a bit of activity into just four days. Arequipa and the Colca Canyon are definitely two places that I would like to visit again, if we ever get the chance to come back to Peru. 


Thanks for reading! See you soon!

Vacation in Costa Rica

Obviously, I had to get a photo of Slothkong at the airport.

For Thanksgiving Sean and I took a week long vacation (and actual vacation, not just an IRT trip sold to me as a "vacation for me" while the guys are working at the embassy) to Costa Rica. On my list of "Top Ten Places to Visit in Latin America" Costa Rica was #1, but it's not a place that Sean could visit for IRT since the US doesn't have a large military presence there, so we decided to make this our vacation. Recommended to us by some friends we used this really awesome vacation planning site called Anywhere Costa Rica, to help us make the most of our trip. I highly recommend it, you work one on one with a travel agent and you name your budget and all of the activities you do and do not want to partake in. They're also really committed to sustainable/ecotourism in Costa Rica, which is totally awesome. So, next time you want to plan a fun tropical eco friendly vacation- check 'em out! 

We flew out of Lima on Sunday morning and arrived in San Jose, the capital, in the late afternoon. Not much is open on Sunday's in South America, so we spent our time walking around La Sabana, which is a massive municipal park and adjacent newly constructed national football (soccer) stadium. 

Punk isn't dead in CR (look closely)

The modern art museum, that I didn't get to go in. 

Sunrise views from our hotel. The football stadium is peeking in on the left.

Monday morning, bright and early, we were picked up by a driver for a four hour trip to La Fortuna the town at the base of Volcan Arenal. 

Gorgeous, green views from our hotel balcony, Volcan Arenal is fogged in to the right.

Not a bad place to spend a couple days, right?

We stayed in La Fortuna for a couple days at a great hotel that had thermal spring fed swimming pools, plus great views of the volcano. When we weren't hiking around the water falls we just floated around relaxing in the pools. 

One of the better views of Arenal. 

Water fall and zip lines (that I did Not do)

We took a horseback riding tour up the part of the mountain to get to the waterfall, and then hiked down to swim underneath the falls. 

Another even clearer view of Volcan Arenal.

My iguana friend in the pool.

After a few short days in La Fortuna we planned to head to Monteverde in the cloud forest. The day started with a quick drive to Laguna de Arenal, and then a quick boat ride across the lake, where we were met by a guide and some horses. We then horseback rode for a couple of hours through the woods until we were picked up by another bus that drove us to our hotel in Monteverde. 

Our boat waiting to take us across the lake.

I was nervous about having to part with my bag for this part of the trip.

Enjoying the boat ride!

Our trusty steeds, waiting patiently to take us on an adventure.

The dirt track we'd follow for the next few hours.

After riding with our kind of crazy guide who would periodically shout "PURA VIDA!" and gallop ahead of our small group, we reached the end of that part of our journey, and we hopped on a bus that drove us another hour and half to our hotel in Monteverde. Miraculously, to me at least, our had baggage somehow made it onto the bus that picked us up on the side of the road. Once in Monteverde, we stayed at this really neat hotel called El Establo, that was built up on a hill. Our room was in the very top most cabin, so we had some pretty spectacular views when it wasn't raining and foggy. 

Looking out across the cloud forest.

After checking in, we had enough time to grad some lunch before we got picked up to go on a coffee plantation tour. 

Traditionally decorated ox cart at the Don Juan Coffee Plantation.

Learning about the process of how coffee goes from berry to Starbucks. 

Getting the full experience of manually crushing the coffee beans to get the skin off. 

Sean hand giving cacao beans and making chocolate for us all.

Green, unripe, coffee berries on the bush.

The tour was really interesting, we learned how coffee starts as a berry and ends up as that delicious brown liquid we all know and love to drink. We also got to learn about the production of chocolate from the cacao bean to bar form. Best part about it was that we got to sample coffee and chocolate!  

Gorgeous sunset views on the coffee plantation

After our brief stay in Monteverde (and honestly, I wish we had been able to spend more time in this area) we hopped on yet another bus that would take us to the Pacific Coast to Parque Nacional Manuel Antonio. This area was absolutely gorgeous- actually, I think I said that about every place we went to in Costa Rica! We spent the longest amount of our vacation here, which was great, but it was a bit too hot and humid for me, I'm not really a tropical kind of person, I guess. 

View of Playa Manuel Antonio from our balcony.

More iguana friends.

In the morning of our first full day in Manuel Antonio we took a guided wildlife tour in the national park. We saw all kinds of wild life- monkeys, sloths, hawks, deer, lizards. I took tons of really grainy photos, so I only shared a couple of the better quality ones of the sloth we saw and the capuchin monkeys that were being mischievous by the park entrance. The walk was pretty short, only about a mile and a half or so, but it ended up at this secluded beach. The water was very warm, not particularly refreshing, but still great to take a brief dip in. I preferred the hotel pool, since swimming in that was actually refreshing.

Secluded cove and beach in the park, and coconut water outside the park entrance.

SO CUTE

ALSO CUTE

On our last full day in Manuel Antonio we took a tour of a vanilla plantation in the nearby town of Naranjito. Villa Vanilla is a biodynamic farm that grows mainly vanilla, but also cinnamon, cacao, plus other spices. It was started up by a German man named Henry Karczynski, and he runs his certified organic farm in a manner that he's coined as 'benign neglect.' The tour covered the drying process of the vanilla pods, how cacao is grown and turned into chocolate, and how cinnamon is grown from a tree that's turned into powder. We also got to sample different deserts made from the vanilla, cinnamon, and cacao produced on the farm. 

Cacao and vanilla pods drying in the sun.

This must be what heaven smells like.

Unripe cacao pods on the tree.

That afternoon was spent at the beach and then lounging by the pool at our hotel. The next day we would fly from Quepos back to San Jose, and then back home to Lima. 

Traffic sign near our hotel.

The flight from Quepos to San Jose was exhilarating because we were on a tiny 10 seater local flight. I was a little nervous, but luckily the flight was only 25 minutes long so it didn't seem like we were up in the air for very long at all. 

Looking down the one run way at the local airport in Quepos.

The tiniest of planes!

View of the cockpit- not something most travelers get to see all the time!

Once we were back in San Jose we had a six hour lay over, so we were fortunately able to meet up with my friend Alberto. He picked us up at the airport and took us to an old school cafe called Soda Tapia. It serves delicious traditional Costa Rican food and giant sandwiches, and delicious juices. Alberto said that it's been around since the 1960s, and that his grandparents, who still live around the corner, used to eat there. It was great to be able to catch up with an old friend from college, and learn about life in San Jose from a native Costa Rican. 

Thanks for reading and see you next time!