Colca Canyon trekking

With our alarm set for the ungodly hour of 2:45am, it wasn't exactly what you would call a full nights sleep. We were collected from our hostel by Peru Schweiz just after 3am and began the three hour journey out to the Colca Canyon. We then stopped off for a full spread of jam, butter and bread. I didn't like jam before this trip and I'm not going to be able to stand the sight of it by the end of these three months.

Our first sight seeing stop was where we would hope to see the condors come out and play among the thermal jet streams. Adult condors have a wing span of up to 3m wide and live between 80 and 90 years, weighing about 20kg. There is a chance you won't get to see them as you stop off for only 45mins. We however were lucky enough to only wait about 10mins before we started seeing them cruising around the cliffs below our view point. There was about 10 of them in the end and the sheer size of them gave me goosebumps as we had a few closer encounters with them coming right past out platform. Sadly our camera isn't quite up to the job of wildlife photography but the few snaps I took give you an idea at least of their wingspan.

We were on a tight schedule as you have 3 options for the Colca Canyon. You can either do a 1 day visit, a 2 day hike or a 3 day hike which covers the same distance as the 2 day, just at a much more leisurely pace. We had decided that we could afford to take a more leisurely pace of the 3 day but sharing a bus with the 2 day hikers meant we had to keep on moving so they could get their hike started.

Our guide chatted to us for about an hour before we set off about all sorts of history of the canyon, all of which went in one ear and out the other I'm embarrassed to say. I was just too focused on getting started on the walk to want a history lesson.. I did absorb some of it though, like that they had the same tradition as Bolvia of binding the poor kids heads. In the Colca Canyon area they did it to show where they were from as they bound their heads to reflect the shapes of their neighboring volcanos. Lovely. Oh and of course, I listened to the fact that the Colca Canyon is the deepest canyon in the world, being about double the depth of the Grand Canyon! Who knew? Certainly not I. As our guide Marcos chatted with us a dog he knew, called Bolerio, started hanging out with us which we thought would end as we began the decent. 

We finally set off on our hike, Bolerio in tow, which was to be an easy 3 hours of downhill. Well those 3 hours weren't what I would necessarily call "easy" as it was fine rock most of the way down so you had to be tensing your muscles the whole way in order to not skid over on your arse. What was amazing was one of the girls in our group, a Peruvian, was wearing ballet flats?! And she managed to skid the least out of all of us. She however didn't cope so well with the surprise uphill we had not long before our village we were staying at, which had us worried about how she was going to cope on day 3 where we had a 3 hours of constant ascent to tackle, to get back out of the canyon.

By the time we reached the village where we were to stay for the night the sun was already slipping behind the hills. We were certainly counting our lucky stars that we didn't have to eat our lunch and then think about heading off for another 4 hours of walking, like the 2 day groups were having to do. Instead, we had the afternoon to relax, drink beer, play cards and most importantly, rest our sore calf muscles. Being in a village in the middle of nowhere, power is a precious resource so our rooms didn't have that luxury. This meant that Jimmy & I, after a few beers, a bottle of wine, very little sleep and a good amount of exercise were getting to that delirious state where everything is hilarious. An epic shadow puppet battle ensued, becoming our entertainment until dinner time. 

The food was proving to be surprisingly delicious but the cold got the better of us and our group all retreated to bed shortly after tea, ready for our 7:30am breakfast the next morning. We were sure that the next morning would be the end of Bolerio as we thought he must every day make the hike up the hill to join a group back down to the village. But we were wrong!

Day two of the hike was to be a combination of up and downhill. We were excited for a bit of uphill as our muscles were slightly unhappy about giving them such a big dose of downhill the previous day. The best part about day two though was the fact that we were to end up at the Oasis further down the canyon which had a swimming pool and a few hours of free time so soak up some sunshine. 

The canyon itself was an incredible sight. The side we had descended the previous day was all rock and shingle but the side we were on on day 2 was green and full of fruit trees, like avocados and cherimoyas, oranges. This is thanks to the aqua ducts they have running down from the snowy mountains above. It creates quite a contrast between the two sides of the canyon, but even the green side is just so incredibly dry underfoot with their rainy season only lasting a few months, the rest of the year clear blue skies like we had been experiencing for weeks on end.

We reached the oasis, with no other than Bolerio trotting along with us again, by about midday and what an oasis it was. Having a swimming pool there waiting for us was absolute heaven, and it was such a treat to feel warm enough to want to enjoy it, as well as just laze around reading and sun bathing. We were wishing we could stay on an extra day, and also counting our lucky stars that we had chosen to do the three day trek as the two day trekkers didn't arrive until well after the sun had disappeared. Mind you that didn't stop them from jumping in the pool still! 

Yet another delicious meal and then it was an even earlier night on the cards for us as it was a 4:30am wake up call. I had one if those horrible sleeps where you think you're going to sleep through our alarm so that wasn't the best start to my day. We set off in the dark by torch light and thought surely Bolero wouldn't be silly enough to set off in the dark with us. But of course there he was, loyally leading the way up the hill.

We had been warned the hill would take 3 to 3.5 hours so the competitive spirit in me wanted to smash it out in 2.5 hours. After a slow start behind Marcos, we broke away from the pack and set a faster pace in order to get it out of the way sooner. 2 hours and 25 minutes later we finally reached the top of the incredible canyon. We couldn't help but being pretty happy with ourselves when you looked back down at how far we had come. Definitely an impressive achievement! And one we were glad we had done in preparation for the Inca trail next week.

After breakfast in Cabanaconde it was time to bid farewell to our loyal companion Bolerio who trotted off back to town, no doubt to find another group to do the trek all over again with. Next stop for us was the hot springs at Chivay where we were able to give our wary bones a well deserved soak. After the dip I unfortunately started to go downhill as I had a touch of gastritis combined with some altitude sickness. I definitely wasn't a happy chappy on the 3 hour bus ride back to Arequipa. The Spanish couple from our trek very kindly gave me an antil altitude sickness pill though which helped a lot thankfully. There was another girl on our bus who wasn't so lucky, vommitting the whole way back, the poor thing! Jim did jump out to snap a picture of the volcano for me as we made our way back across the mountain pass to Arequipa. You can just make it out in the distance..

All in all, were really happy with our Colca Canyon experience. Peru Schweiz Tours were great, Marcos very knowledgeable and friendly, and the canyon itself incredible. Definitely well worth it, and now it's made us excited for our next trek, only one of the most famous treks you can ever do. Inca Trail, we are coming for you! Let's just hope I'm fully recovered by then.