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Published: June 15th 2006
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One of the trips from Arequipa was a guided hike in the Colca-Canyon, apparently the deepest canyon in the world (for 100 kms averages 3400 meters deep), so obviously Mel wanted us to walk down it.
The trip took us from Arequipa at 6am on a local bus to a town called Cabanaconde, we crossed over the mountain tops at 4500m. We had a quick lunch at local restaurant and we were off.
The walk was 4 hours down into the canyon on day one, 5 hours hiking along the bottom of the canyon on day two, and a 4 hour accent at 2am on day three so you can catch a bus to a town called mirador condor to, you guessed it see the condors.
All started well enough, we walked through the town after a cup of coca tea with lunch to help with the altitude sickness which thankfully did not affect Mel or myself.
The walk down was like walking down table mountain except a bit steeper, longer and covered with loose stones.
The views were incredible, we got told that the opposite side of the Vally was used by the Incas to grow and store
large amounts of crops. Not much had changed because people were still farming there, they lived with no electricity and all the produce had to be taken out of the valley by donkey, on the same path we were walking into the canyon on.
All was going well until............
I fell.........
what an idiot,
not a spectacular fall where I was trying to traverse a large chasm, but a stupid fall looking at the view. So Ken goes down with with a large dusty thump! Now if that was not bad enough I twisted my ankle on the way down.
What a crap injury, a naff injury that is embarrassing to talk about because it sounds like something those ladies in big fluffy dresses did while getting out of stage coaches in western movies, and the injury was treated by lying in bed with a damp cloth on there forehead for a hour.
Not for a me, I swore so loud I though the Inca ancestors that had died hundreds of years ago probably heard me!
Luckily our guide had a bandage, and a few pharmaceuticals from the wife we were on our way again.We
reached the bottom after about an hour and with a short walk we were at the house where we were to stay for the night.
We stayed with a local family in the most beautiful setting. There was no electricity in the valley so our meal was cooked for us over a wood burning stove. We had to walk around with candle lanterns and the view of the stars that night was incredible.
DAY 2
The next day my foot was a pretty shade of blue and the local remedy of crushed coca leaves,sugar (and other things that I did not want to know about) that the guide had applied the night before had helped a bit with the swelling. We had breakfast and were off.
The route for the day was quite a flat walk along the valley to an oasis about 5 hours away. Along the route we saw the aqua ducts that the Incas had built to channel the water from the melting glacier down to their crops in the valley and met the coolest locals.
We stopped at one guys house who sold honey and he ended up taking us through his
fruit and vegetable garden insisting that we try all other different fruits. We also got to see how they keep their guinea-pigs under the kitchen table to fatten them up before they become the family meal (it is quite a delicacy in Peru!).
We reached the oasis just after midday, what a joy. There was a swimming pool which we enjoyed before having some lunch.
I had decided to hire a donkey to carry me up the hill, there was no way I was going to make it.(boo hoo)
The guy arrived with two donkeys because he wanted to double his income by hiring one to Mel as well, lucky though that he did. The ride was great, cool breeze, wonderful view but I did feel a bit guilty........ Mel and the guide were mincing up this huge canyon wall at high speed and I was aloft my trusty steed, only having to worry about the donkey getting to close to the cliff edge.
My guilt increased when the handler told me I had to swap donkeys to give one a rest. Just past half way the beast looked half dead, lucky for me they do not have RSPCA
Dinner
The height of convenience, keeping dinner under the kitchen table.
(they taste like chicken) in Peru, I would have been arrested!
We made it to the top just after the sunset, and spent a chilly night in a hostel in the first town.
DAY 3
Up early and off to try and see some Condors.
We caught a local bus to the Condor viewing area, being quite a touristy activity and Condors on the edge of extinction, we were with about 200 other tourists. The birds did not disappoint us, at about 8.30am we got to see 5 condors gliding by. They had definitely done this before............. gliding and swooping over the excited tourists for about a half an hour.
After that we had to board a local bus back to Arequipa.
What a fantastic 3 days!
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