Arequipa & Colca Canyon

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Arequipa

Our next stop after Cusco is the second largest city in Peru Arequipa. Here lies the deepest canyon in the world Colca Canyon (3,350m deep, twice as deep as Grand Canyon)! We arrived at 6am nice and fresh of the 12hour night bus and booked ourselves on a 3day trek of the canyon for the next day!

Colca Canyon
Up at 4 o clock to catch the bus to the little town Cabaconde which perches on the edge of the canyon. On the way we stopped off at at a view point called Cruz del Condor! Which depending on the season you can often see condors gliding majesticly up and down the walls of the canyon! As it was off season we were very lucky to see one Condor soar past albeit too quick to get the cameras!
After breakfast/lunch the 5 of us (we picked up a young english lad who was on the salkantay trek with us)plus guide headed down into the canyon.
After about 5hours of quite strenuos down hill we reached first camp at the bottom of the canyon. Camp comprised of some basic wooden shacks down by the river although there was a natural hot springs which is were most time was spent. Even though it was a basic setup they still managed to provide a three course dinner with fresh fish and chips as the main event!

The next day we spent the morning heading further up the canyon to a small oasis where all the "hostals" (shacks) have small swimming pools which we spent the afternoon at.

On the third and final day it was time to leave the canyon via the steepest route possible. We started at 4.30am to avoid the days heat and it took 3hours of constant walking up the steep rocky incline. I think the reward of the achivement of climbing out of the deepest canyon in the world and breakfast made it all worthwile!
The rest of the day was spent heading back to Arequipa only interrupted by a few Condors and an all you can eat buffet lunch!

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