THE INCA TRAIL

the big South American adventure rally

Day 21: Arequipa ­ Colca Canyon ­ Arequipa (572km)

Flight of the condor

There was a specially early start to today's loop section. The route took participants into the Colca Canyon: a dramatic sight, twice as deep as the United States' Grand Canyon. The reason for a 5:00 am start? The chance to see condors wheeling on the early morning thermals. They spiral close to the cliff face ­ up to the viewpoint of El Cruz del Condor. It had snowed during the night on parts of the route that rose to over 4,600m, and one of the great volcanoes behind Arequipa was letting off steam in the early morning light.

On the way back, there were the Colca Medal and 4x4 Explorer Sections. It was a tough challenge for the Classics. The roads were difficult gravel ­ and a few crews had decided to give the day a miss to save their cars for the rest of the event. Among the casualties today was John Blanckley. The steering broke on his A90, and he was lucky that the car veered left towards the cliff face rather than right ­ into oblivion.

Bart Rietbergen was unlucky enough to drop below Gold standard for the first time on the event. He failed to make his target time by one minute on this Medal Section, thus reducing the numbers on Gold medal standing to just six.

The 4x4s had a tremendous time ­ but sadly not everyone was lucky enough to see a condor. They are particularly lazy birds, and perhaps we outdid our number of permitted sightings for the day. One crew claims to have seen four ­ perhaps they stole other peoples' quota?


Welcome back ...

To Geoff and Jenny Dorey, who we left at Potosi after holing their Alfa's sump for a second time. Finally sorted, they got on the road to rejoin the pack at Arequipa. But their yen for adventure took another turn when they ran into an Alpaca on the road. They settled with the farmer to his satisfaction, but the Alfa bears some battle scars. To bring them right down to earth, their electric fan shed its blades on the way into Arequipa. But the local motor club enjoyed the challenge. 'They swarmed all over it like ants as soon as they knew we had a problem,' says Jenny. They whisked it away, and it's all sorted now.' They like a challenge, the Doreys, but we hope they can settle into a few days' quiet motoring - at least for a while.


More quake relief

Two crews made their own personal contributions to supporting Arequipa in the aftermath of June's earthquake. Robert Lowe, from Connecticut, had travelled all the way through the Inca Trail route carrying medical supplies contributed by various departments of the hospital where he works. He handed these over in the morning, and by afternoon a letter of thanks hadarrived at his hotel.

Meanwhile, Anna and Jonathan Pelly-Fry had brought a cheque for some GBP300 to support a local church school. The vicar of their church in Oxfordshire spent five years in Arequipa as a missionary. He has kept in touch, and the funds were raised by the church school in England. The Arequipa school was almost totally destroyed by the earthquake, and the staff were immensely grateful for this contribution to their efforts to keep going. 'They burst into tears when we handed the cheque over,' says Anna: 'even a relatively small amount of money means so much at the moment.'


Clean again

HERO's Jingers (he of the squeaky-clean overalls) has been testing hotel cleaning facilities again. After a tough dusty day on the road he carried his luggage into the hotel foyer. The management was horrified at the dust-covered state of his backpack, refusing to allow him to take another step until it had been thoroughly Hoovered...


Medical matters

Event medic Mark Human claims he needed to visit a pharmacy in Arequipa to stock up on the drug which he often prescribes to combat altitude sickness. While there, he couldn't help noticing (he claims) the Peruvian brand name for Viagra: Ereccionale. To the point, to say the least.


Not what it seemed

A few hours after the dramatic e-mail from his uncle, Roberto Octavio walked into our hotel reception grinning broadly and brandishing a passport. How had his uncle, Jose (HERO's Mr Fixit in Rio), pulled that one out of the hat in less than a day? Jose is clever, but surely even he ...

'That was my old passport: five years out of date. I had this one all along. No problem.' So all's well that ends well. But why carry a five year old passport around in the first place?