Colca Canyon - twice as deep as the Grand Canyon

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This was not a planned hike. We met a lovely couple, Tim and Nancy, when we were doing Salkantay and they suggested that we would like Colca Canyon. We organised the trip from Arequipa and went for the two-night and three-day hike option. We also decided to do the off the track (i.e. harder) hike, which is called Llahuar.

It was another 3.30 a.m. start. On the way to the start of the hike, we stopped at Cruz del Condor, which is where one can see condors flying on the warm air currents that rise from the Canyon. Fantastic. You can also see inca and pre-inca terraces which are on the side of the Canyon and still cultivated. The Canyon is not steep and there are many inhabited villages in it (most of them without electricity).

The starting point for the hike was Cabanaconde village where we had lunch and then descended for about 3 hours to the village of Llahuar. I use the word village here very loosely, it consists of one main kitchen with about 10-15 very rustic cabanas. It was a hard hike down, hard for the knees and hard for the soles of my feet. Annu and I had the brilliant idea of getting pedicures before setting off for the trek. Soft soles do not fare well in these conditions and I ended up with huge blisters under my big toes, which made the hike challenging. Also, my groin injury from Salkantay flared up a bit, but I did a good job at strapping the muscle. The landscape, as usual, was amazing. The canyon is really deep and you are going down some steep trails, more meant for donkeys than humans. Anyway, Annu and I reached the lodges after 5 hours of hiking and had a well deserved beer. There were some hot springs in the lodge and we did make the most of it. Our cabana was very rustic. The floor was gravel and the bed made out of adobe. No electricity and our walls were made out of cane. We went to bed around 2030.

We set off the next day walked up and down the canyon, up to the village of Paclla, where we saw some cuys being reared for food. It was a hard trek up, specially as we were carrying heavy bags. The guide was kind enough to carry mine (I tipped him very well) and waited for us at different points. There was a point where there was a narrow ledge doing round the side of the canyon. The way the guide had described it to me beforehand made me freak out as I thought it was a very narrow ledge with a sheer drop below. I am really scared of heights and it did make me think about whether I wanted to do the hike at all. However, facing my fears and getting out of my comfort zone are why I was doing this trip. Annu was very kind and stayed behind me all the time. It was also not as bad as the guide had described it - I have walked on worse trails! The end of the trip was at the bottom of the oasis in Sangalle, where there was a nice swimming pool awaiting us. I managed to get lost on the way there, and the most frustrating part of the trek, the point where I nearly broke down in tears, was being able to see Annu and the others below me and not knowing which way to go to get to where I wanted to be. In any case, I found a way (or should I say, slid down a way) and met up with the rest. We had a very annoying Italian woman in our group, who was really upset that we weren't going faster. Annu and I had the following attitude: "why rush to go sit somewhere when we are surrounded by all this beauty. There is nothing wrong in taking time to enjoy being down the world's second deepest canyon." We stayed in another rustic lodge, surrounded by horses and smelly horses**t.

The next morning, the final hike up, I decided to take a mule up considering the state of my toes and groin. Four legs are better than two, right? The annoying Italian woman was trying to convince Annu to also take a mule up as she was worried that we were going to make her late, and miss her connections, etc... Lesson: do not book things too close together. This is Peru we are talking about! Anyway, Annu obviously said no and rented a mule to carry her stuff up. She did the hike in good time, far ahead of the annoying Italiana, who ended up being quite surprised that Annu beat her to it with an hour to spare. Hah - well done girlfriend! I am proud of you. My journey by mule was quite eventful. A mule is not a horse, obviously, but I didn't realise how crazy and unpredictable they could be. Here I was on my mule, which was trying to charge and overtake other mules on a narrow trail with the canyon wall on one side and basically nothing on the other. S-C-A-R-Y but I managed to calm it down by singing to it. Also, I kept saying "vamos mula, vamos' whenever it stopped when all it was doing was waiting for the others to catch up. I stopped after some time as I looked totally ridiculous. At the top, my crazy mule also decided to charge an on-coming mule, in which my knee ended up banging against the other mule's metal saddle. P-A-I-N-F-U-L! After the hike, we drove to another set of hot springs, which was deliciously hot, before going back to Arequipa.

This is a great trek regardless. Words of advice: bring walking sticks and do not get a pedicure beforehand!

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Photos

Cuy
We'll meet at dinner.