EC-Rider Travels

Much of today was travelling, admittedly only 167k but a slow ol drive over the Andes, winding our way up behind many large, slow lorries. Before we left Arequipa we headed down to the town to see …… another parade. This was apparently just a little one but went the whole way round the main square, everyone dressed up in their finery with bands playing and flags waving, and it happens EVERY Sunday.

Leaving Arequipa we travelled through a series of shanty towns, most houses with no roofs so they can avoid paying tax. Extraordinarily basic living but everyone looking healthy and happy and they had wonderful looking produce in their market. Lots of interruption from various political parties trying to whip up support for the forthcoming elections. Despite many of the local people not being able to read or write they still have to vote.

Leaving all this behind, we rose up and up into the mountains. The drive was beyond beautiful as we wound our way behind El Misti and headed northwest towards Colca Canyon. Though most of the roads were tarmacked it was incredibly bumpy and there were a number of times where the road had been either washed away or disappeared due to subsidence! We stopped at various points along the way with Marcelo telling us about the indigenous people living in the mountains and off the land. They are self sufficient, having a mainly vegetarian diet, lots of potatoes, with a nice bit of guinea-pig or alpaca on high days and holidays. The days starts at 3am and continues until the sun goes down. No one has a watch and time is judged by the position of the sun. They often take a radio with them to listen to music but not the news, they have no interest in the rest of the world. There are no cars but the odd motorbike for the more successful. The children walk several hours to get to their nearest school, many of them moving to the cities for further education and not returning. There is a worrying lack of young in the countryside to farm the land.

Their homes are unbelievably basic, made of local stone usually divided into two rooms with thatched roofs. These, however, are being replaced by corrugated iron which has created a new problem as the houses are not insulated and become so cold, health issues are arising, particularly in the elderly. On the whole they are very healthy, there is no cancer or aids, and they treat themselves with herbal remedies – there is no healthcare or hospitals for them.

Once at the top of the mountains, approx 5,000m – there are huge flat plains where we saw several herds of Alpaca and llamas which are domesticated and also a number of Vicuña which roam wild. All looking surprisingly healthy on next to no vegetation.

We had lunch at a local restaurant (only quite nice!) and eventually arrived at our hotel, The Belmond, Las Casitas at about 3pm. This is a very, very nice hotel with separate little houses for each of us, our own terrace and ‘hot-tub’ and the most sensational views down the valley. My little house seems to be almost in Bolivia, but is very lovely when I get there.

When we arrived, Elma was doing the most wonderful demonstration on his beautiful black prancing Paso horse which he let me have a quick ride on. Then in my best Spanish I asked if I might go for a ride with him – I had spotted some horses as we came down the very bumpy drive – which he said was indeed possible.

Half an hour later I was on my own prancing horse and following Elma into the mountains. Heaven and spectacularly beautiful. We rode down to the town where a football match was taking place and again much frivolity. On our way back we passed several young girls driving their sheep home for the night. Really special.

As night drew in the temperature dropped considerably and I was most grateful for the baby alpaca hot water bottle I found in my bed when I returned after dinner.