Exiting stage left from Huacachine we started our long journey from Huacachine through Nazca (literally through one of the Nazca Lines) and into the white city of Arequipa in total adding up to about 18 hrs straight, nothing compared to previous bus trips! But to start it off we were introduced to the Pisco making process at one of the vineyards, think wine but not aged nearly as long. Soaking in some education we then soaked up a lot of Pisco (in hindsight this was not the best idea when venturing onto an overnight bus and this was first thing in the morning, I woke up at about 9pm hungover). 

Stirring from a ropey lumber we woke up for the Nazca viewing tower, this was one of the big disappointments and happy we didn't pay money to see more of this scribbles in the ground. The road we drove to the tower literally cut one of the figures in half! This was equally matched with the sheer despair of Nazca city itself (No Joke one guy got off the bus to stay the night and literally came running back to try get back onto the bus!).

We arrived early in the White City of Arequipa and we went straight to bed for another few hours (key travel tip if your getting in at an ungodly hour book the hostel for the night before aswel and just go straight to bed!). We spent abit of time exploring the city and just walking around to see what we could see! We booked in with a tour to do the SIllar Route, SIllar being the name they gave to the white igneous rock in which most of the older buildings in the city are made giving rise to the nick name "The White City". Arequipa is surrounded by 3 large volcanoes of which only 1 is dormant and the source the of sillar volcanic rock. We went to a number of viewpoints around the city and a quarry to see the rock sculptors made by the miners, the rock is mined by hand making it a very slow process and leading to the decline of it being used in more construction around the city (they said it's too brittle to use machines but I think they just arn't trying hard enough!). We rounded out that trip with a walking through a serpentine valley where we made an offering to Mother Nature by stacking rocks.

We did a day trip out of Arequipa to Colca Canyon (the "supposed" second deepest canyon in the world, the Grand Canyon got nothing on this for depth!). As we all tours it started with a very early rise, a 4am start....... the multiple early starts was really wearing on me! But just to make sure I wasn't getting enough sleep Sarah decided to pass out from the altitude in the bus as we drove up to 5000m, she's all good and it passed but scary for a moment (even more so for Sarah!). After the excitement we stopped for breakfast and "Mystery Meat".........I learnt just not to ask what I am eating and leave it at that......... We continued on to a few viewpoints of the Canyon and eventually hiked over a portion famous for seeing Condors (The altitude was handing me my arse at this point and was nearly going to join Sarah in the pass out club on that hike!). Thankfully we both made it safely to a hotsprings where the water really did bring us back to life!

A bit more recovering and walking around we the city and we were ready for the main reason we came to Peru, Cusco awaits!