The photos in the paper reinforced the good judgement of our guides recommending that we leave the area post haste. Apparantly we got back on the main highway about an hour before the blocade went up. We were quite releived to be back in Arequipa where we explored colonial mansions, saw Juanita, the frozen maiden in the Santaurios Museum and had an otherwise very pleasant day. Otherwise we would have been stranded in the canyon or worse stuck in bumper to bumper traffic with a slew of irritable people wishing they were somewhere else.

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