Arequipa (the second largest city in Peru) was the next stop on our journey. We took an overnight bus from Cuzco which got us in at 5am in the morning. Thankfully our hostel let us check in right away and we just passed out until 11am before walking around to explore the city.
The city itself is nice with whitewashed colonial buildings built from volcanic rock and surrounded by majestic snow capped mountains. However if you are just going to visit the city and not Canon Del Colca then I would recommend you save yourself the trip. This maybe just because we have seen a lot of South American cities and Arequipa wasn't exceptionally better than any other cities we've seen.
One thing I need to mention is the Pigeons, if you think we have a lot of them back in North America then you need to come to South America. The parks here are swarming with them but we discovered it was because they actually feed the pigeons here, there are often people selling bird seed and the pigeons are not at all afraid of you. We actually watched a little boy at the plaza pick up one of the pigeons.
From Arequipa we organized a 2 day trip through our hostel. The trip was super cheap
if you step foot in Canon del Colca then you have to get a tourist pass which ended up costing 70 soles, the same price we paid for our 2 day trip.
On the first day we drove through the mountains surrounding Arequipa and saw fields full of vicunas, llamas and alpacas. That night they took us to a restaurant where we got to see Peruvian dances. They did four traditional dances and for two of them they selected someone from the audience to dance...and of course I was the one selected each time. The first time one of the guys selected me it was a pretty typical South American dance with spins however the second dance was the most interesting. Trevor also got selected this time and part of the dance consisted of the guys lying on the floor with the girls whipping them, then the guys throws you over their shoulder and starts bumping all the girls together. I wasn't a big fan of the second dance, first because I don't like being picked up and especially not after a huge meal and by a guy that is smaller than me, but it was an interesting experience.
That night we slept in the town of Chivay. We actually found the town of Chivay very interesting because it was a real Peruvian town. At our hotel we ended up climbing up to the roof. I think the hotel owner thought we wanted a picture of the surrounding mountains but really we were more interested in seeing the surrounding houses and how the people lived. Sitting on the roof looking at the houses, I had one of those humbling moments where I really realized how spoiled I am. These people and their entire family live in these tiny shacks the size of a garage. They have a dirt or cement floor, dirt brick walls and hardly any possessions. Originally we had thought people had garbage on their roofs but we soon discovered that bricks, tires, etc. were actually placed on the roof to help keep the tin roofs in place. Seeing this really made me grateful for what I have and gave me a new level of respect for the people that live so contently this way.
The next day we got up early and continued our trip by visiting a couple villages (Yanque & Maca) where we saw locals in their typical dress. We then continued to Colca Canyon, which is the deepest canyon in the world (Grand Canyon is the widest) and while there saw lots of Condors flying through the canyon. To finish off the day we then went to the hot springs where we spend a couple hours relaxing in the various pools. 
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