Peru day 8 - Travel day Puno to Chivay

 Travel day - Puno to Chivay 

Another high point with Glaciers 

Laguna Lagunillas lake 

Today is a travel day. 

Colca Canyon is on my list but I can't find a reasonable day trip from Arequipa as it takes 3 hours to travel there. If you do it in a day, it's 6 hours of travelling with a 12 hours day. 

Instead of going to see Colca Canyon from Arequipa, we decide to go from Puno to Colca Canyon instead and stay overnight in Chivay. Then the next day we travel to Arequipa. 

It's sold as a 2 day tour from Puno to Arequipa with food and hotel included for a very reasonable price. 

We were picked up by a small van to fit the Puno streets at 6am. Then transferred to a large 40 seater bus with Kelvin as our guide in the first half. We realized immediately the trip is complex as we end up having 2 guides, multi van transfers. 

Kelvin explained that the trip is broken up into 3 sections of 2 hours, total 6 hours to Chivay. And he will join us for the first 2 sections before we switch to a smaller van at the view point! 

Lake Lagunas

He explained the first part of the road goes to Lake Lagunas 

Flamingos and other migratory birds 

This lake is higher than Lake Titicaca but there's nowhere to navigate as it's too tough to live in the area. We found it really dry, cold and remote and got out of the area fast! 

He told us the road is good in the first 2 hours but after that it gets bad as a lot of trucks are carrying mining output to the commercial trains stop. 

Reaching the 2nd stop after 4 hours with the mining trucks at the train station along the way

After that we got to the 2nd spot where he suggested that we get some Inka tea before we get to the highest point of our journey at 4900 meters

At the pit stop we were able to see the 3 volcanos and Bill and I got our Inka tea. 

We also switch van and guide and went with Victor. 

Pit stop along the way with the Inca tea

Things got very interesting once we got on the road as I realized we are truly on the Andean High lands now. Within 10 mins, we saw a wild flock of vicunas and Victor stopped the van and we could take pics

Wild flock of Vicunas next to the road

He also showed us a typical high lands house where they will keep the llamas and alpacas after 4pm in a pen to protect from fox and robbers. 

A typical highland view

He stopped at a flock of Alpacas and Llamas that was domesticated by a local lady. He told us that we can pet and play with those as they are not pissy and won't spit at us =) That's where i learned they might spit if you piss them off. Alpacas spit with their mouth and llamas spit from their stomach and it stinks! 

Flock of Alpacas and Llamas that we can pet and play with

Patapampa

After that we went to the highest view point and he showed we can have a wish by stacking stones and pointing to the volcanos! He advised us not to spend more than 10 mins at that altitude and we got out of there quick! 

Volcanos view point

We then stayed in the volcano curves and went towards Chivay and dropped to 3200m and got to the hotel. 

We had lunch at Chivay and it's probably the best buffet in the trip. He explained that Chivay is the municipal capital where there a lot of amenities like hospitals for the local smaller towns. So we can get reliable internet. 

Andean buffet at Chivay which is the best in our trips

After dropping everyone at respective hotels, that point he told us to meet for hot springs at 330pm where we were able to try out the local hot springs with a view of Colca River. 

Local Hot spring in chivay

That night we had dinner at a restaurant with a dance performance. It turns out the area is known for different dances in each town

And we also got our alpacas sweaters in Chivay to support the local women community and with real alpaca wool

Dinner at Chivay with all the local dances

We really felt the altitude at Chivay. It's slightly higher than Puno and Cusco. But I think it's also because we went through the high point in 30 mins which didn't give our body a lot of time to adjust. It's cold and dry in Chivay and just getting dressed and tying our shoe laces got us breathless!