So there are two things we want to do whilst in Arequipa…. 1) rafting 2) the Colca Canyon trek! We hadn’t booked these tours in advance because we weren’t sure how well we would all cope with the altitude. But after a chilled day (if you can call watching England play chilled 😂), a good night sleep and the best shower so far, we were ready for adventures!

We had been told to shop around for the best prices but it seemed getting a 3 day Colca canyon was much harder than expected! Most people did the two day but with the kids (and me 😂) I really wanted the 3 day! It’s the same route just little less intense. After visiting a few tour companies we actually managed to book with our hostel (although the process was very confusing) and the rafting we booked direct!

Tomorrow is the hike… so First was the rafting! Now it is winter here and the water is about 8 degrees so I was supper relived when we arrived at the place and they gave us booties, wetsuits and wind breaker jackets! i was super impressed with the quality and the facial they had perfect kids sizes! Including life jackets!

In fact we had a proper sweat on by the time we had helped carry the rafts to the waters edge. The guide organised us into groups, we ended up with the main guide and we set off. Middle man and bbboy were given paddles whilst BoyBlue was told to hold on.

The valley was absolutely stunning. We paddled down the ice cold waters tumbling over the rocky river bed with relative ease and were able to enjoy the views. The boat behind us full of adults however was having much more trouble, missing the ideal lines and caotic paddling left them bouncing from rocks and crashing into the overgrowth. I felt sorry for there guide as he asked our guide to swap raft orders… apparently they would be safer in the middle of the three rafts for the next rapid. The most technical of the trip.

Middle man was vibrating with excitement as we approached… essentially a salaam between two car sized bolders causing a couple of foot drop down a fast flowing water fall into a pool eddying under a tree… meaning a sharp right turn to exit down the a second drop where the water settled back into the wide shallow river. BBboy and boy blue decided to hunker down in the bottom of the raft whilst the rest of us paddled hard for the right line. We turned past the first bolder perfectly and dropped straight into the pool… the problem was the boat in front of us was still there in the eddy and stuck in the over hanging.

We collided at quite a speed, the two rubber boat’s essentially bouncing middle man from the back of our boat over our heads into the pool in front of us… almost an exact reinaction of when his brother bounced him off the inflatable pillow at the Paracas water park. “We have a swimmer” our guide shouted.

When we pulled him to the boat he was vibrating even more this time with cold and adrenaline 😂😂😂. With all passengers safetly back onboard we made it down the rest of the rapid and pulled up along side a massive rock! It was now time for the rest of us to take a plunge. 😱 yes off the massive rock!

Boy blue was first up the rock eager to jump… closely followed by middle man who was probably only beaten by his brother because he was still shivering. With a little bit of coaxing we got BBboy to leave the raft and make his way up the rock. It was so cool to see the youngest two jump with no fear and swim easily back to the raft. Next was the husband and all to soon my turn! I hate heights and now I was up on the rock it seemed really high… 1,2,3 and jump… a loud scream and then freezing cold water! I did it! But oh my word the water was cold! a

As I climbed into the boat I saw a very dry BBBoy… who had some how manged to sneak back down the rock and into the boat like some kinda vertigo ninja!

The rest of the rafting we warmed up and enjoyed the views and milder but still fun rapids! BBboy had decided it was time for some luxury and handed his paddle to Boy Blue who eagerly had a go.

At the end we were rewarded for our efforts with a pack of Oreo and bottle of water on a beautiful field.

Tomorrow is the start of our Colac Canyon hike for which we were being picked up at 2:00 am!