El condor pasa

I'm currently waiting for my night bus to Cuzco, and since I have all my luggage with me I thought it would be safer to get into a cybercafe than to wander around Arequipa. I arrived a little while ago from a two day tour around the Colca canyon, one of the deepest of the world. Of course, there were some very nice landscapes -once again you'll have to wait for the pictures-, but the most interesting stuff was condor spotting. I've taken quite a few shots from very close, both video and still pictures. I missed my reflex camera though. I'm pretty much convinced by digital photography by now, but my camera is just a standard one. Good digital ones are still too pricy for the aficionado I am. Anyway, I had the chance to visit this area, some 250 km from here, and which is, despite the unpaved roads, stuffed with tourists. Everybody on an organized tour, doing the same thing, almost at the same time. I felt a bit like on a touristy trap -good training for Cuzco and Machu Pichu-, but it was worth anyway. By the way, last night I had the chance to reconcile myself with my handyman abilities. The door lock of my hotel room broke and I managed to force it with the cheap chinese multiuse knife I had bought in Paraguay. A good investment after all.
About Arequipa, I haven't spent too much time here. This is the second biggest city in Peru, and it has a very nice plaza de armas and a few interesting streets and churches around it. They are built in a Spanish style, using local stone, and they could well be part of a Spanish town. But besides this, there is not much more of touristic interest here. A couple of volcanos above 5,000 metres are not far from the town centre, which give nice views. I used part of my time shopping trying to get some warm clothes in order to go to the canyon. Unfortunately most of the winter clothes were already sold out -end of season-, but I still managed to get a wool jumper on sales for a ridiculous price. I made good use of it, as it was pretty chill last night. I slept at close to 4,000 metres above sea level.
The other stop I made since my previous post was Ica. This was a town not far from the coast, which is actually an oasis surrounded by desert. I visited the local museum -interesting archeological items- and a winery, all arranged by my hotel in Paracas. About the wine, the weather is too hot for making proper wine there, so they make Pisco -local liquor- and a number of variations with different flavours and levels of alcohol. They let us try a bit of everything, including a couple of odd things such as Pisco destiled with lemons and a sort of Bayleys made with some local fruit.