Colca Canyon

Just finished a 4-day hike, time to do some more hiking!

Arequipa, the second biggest city in Peru, is surrounded by large Andes mountains.  Two of the most spectacular are Chachani (6,050m) and the cone-shaped volcano El Misti (5,400m).

The city is famous for its buildings made out of volcanic rock, which glistens in the sunshine.

Nearby is the famous Colca Canyon which, at 4,160m deep, is more than twice as deep as the Grand Canyon (I was told that fact by my good friend Will Capes).  I decided to explore the canyon by hiking around for three days with some other backpackers and a local guide, Juan Carlos.

 

We did not get off to a good start...  We were supposed to be picked up from our hostels at 3:30am (!) at the latest, but by 4am myself and Laura were wondering if we'd been forgotten....  At 4:15 the bus finally arrived and we hopped on.  I'm not sure if it was because we were late, or just because Peruvians are ridiculous drivers, but the driver was absolutely slamming it through the country roads towards the canyon.  We stopped off at the highest point of the journey (4,900m) and noticed that we had a flat tyre.  There was no spare, which seems to be a standard practice in this country.  Surprisingly (or unsurprisingly) this did little to slow down the driver, who seemed happy to slide the back out around the corners while snaking through the mountain pass at 100kmph!

Anyway, we were dropped off on the side of the road and hiked to the edge of the canyon.  Every time I think of canyons, I always think of the Grand Canyon in the US, with sheer cliffs and mud-red landscapes.  Colca Canyon is nothing like that.  The drop down into the canyon is much more gradual and it is a lush green place with many different micro-climates producing hundreds of different kinds of fruits.  I have already fallen in love with the refreshing orange Granadilla fruit and tried Tuna (sweet fruit from the cactus), a plantain-type fruit and the "Colca Sour" drink (like a Pisco Sour but with cactus fruit instead of lemon juice).

The first day was spent hiking down to the village of San Juan, descending about 1,100m along the winding path.  Luckily, we made a good pace and got there quite early because it started pouring down right after we arrived.  Naturally, the afternoon was spent drinking beer, playing cards and laughing at the wet people who'd been caught in the rain....

The next day we got up early and hiked along the valley to a small town with a church (who's name I've completely forgotten).  There was a tiny one-room museum on how the locals live in the canyon.  We saw how corn is prepared with different stone tools, how ropes are made out of grass and a large stuffed skunk (a definite highlight).  We also tried some Chicha, a malty alcoholic drink made out of corn.  It smelt like tomato sauce and tasted like old boots but it really hit the spot - I was not particularly motivated for the next part of the hike....

We then hiked to the lowest point of the canyon, to a village called Oasis.  Surprisingly, this contained an oasis.  It was so beautiful down there - with colourful flowers and makeshift pools/swimming-holes everywhere.  I played some football, drank some beer and slept in a hammock - hiking at its hardest!

The next day was the hike up out of the canyon, along an extremely steep switchback track.

There was an option to pay 60 Soles (15 pounds) and ride a mule up to the top.  All the girls took this option and were therefore nicknamed the Mule Girls.  The Macho Men had to get up an hour earlier (5am) to start the hike up.  Our guide and I had been taking steep 'guide only' shortcuts along the way and he asked me whether I'd like to do another one that would involve a bit of climbing.  Obviously I said yes and we set off scrabbling up the steep path.

I won't lie, it was really tiring, but we made great progress and all of us did the 3.5hr hike in 2hr 10mins.  Even better, we beat the Mule Girls up to the top!  Score one for the Macho Men!

In the afternoon we visited Condor Cross, a lookout at the top of a steep cliff where condors tend to fly.  We were extremely lucky - lots and lots of condors were floating around on the thermal winds searching for prey.  It took me about 45 minutes and 200 attempts to take these fairly average pictures of condors so I hope you like them!!!

On the way back we saw lots of Alpacas, the volcano and the mouth of the canyon.  Most of us were wondering when the feeling would return to our legs, but it was all very nice.

I'm off to a real-life desert Oasis tomorrow.  I will probably spend about 10 minutes looking at it and the rest of the 2 days sandboarding down the dunes that surround it.  Can't wait!  Here is one last picture of the group (from left to right: me, Fabian & Mathais (Switzerland), Laura (Germany), Hannes & Lynn (Belgium) and Michelle (Canada):