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Day 1 - Going down (into the pit)

My guide, Edger, meet me at the hotel at about 1am. We caught a taxi to the bus station. From there we caught a bus to Cabanaconde at the foot of the Canyon. The trip lasted about 6 hours and got fairly rough the closer we got to Cabanaconde. Once in Cabanaconde we did some quick shopping to buy food for the next two days. The guys here wear western style cowboy hats, which I hadn’t seen much in the other parts of Peru. Once this was all done we set off for the canyon proper.

Colca Canyon is generally accepted to be the second deepest canyon in the world. It is only beaten by Cotahuasi canyon which is a more remote Peruvian canyon. However a recent Polish team of scientist have re-surveyed the canyon and reclaimed it to be the deepest.

After a fairly short walk along flat ground passing some Incan terraces we got to the drop. The river could be seen far below and the opposite side of the canyon encircled the view. The other side also had villages and the houses appeared as small specs!

We made our way down the canyon along the twisted trail. Early on a Condor sailed up above us. We also passed some San Pedro cactuses these have hallucinogenic properties and are used by Shamans in the Andes. It took us around 3 hours to reach the bottom, here a large suspension bridge crosses the river. We rested under the bridge on large rocks with the river flowing past. We were joined by two dogs at this point and they would follow us for the rest of the trip.

After the rest we started making our way up on the opposite bank. The vegetation is a lot greener on this side, and the locals have small farm plots. We continued on to a very well maintained hotel with plenty of colourful flowers in its gardens. Edger prepared lunch while I rested again, and got to see the moon rise right in between the two sides of the canyon! For lunch we had alpaca meat, which was quite nice, I didn’t realise that it was alpaca until I had finished.

We continued crossing a side canyon, and mostly going uphill. Our next stop was an amazing farmhouse run by a very hard working lady (I could almost write a whole blog just about this farmhouse). The farmhouse consisted of four main buildings with a court yard with a large tree in the middle. Under the tree was a large sink, and from the tree a dead owl hung for good luck! One of the buildings served as a small shop (we bought drinks and some sweats from here) along with the ladies bed. All supplies to this village have to come by either donkey or by people carrying them through the canyon as there are no roads into here, and despite this the lady only charged 3 sols for a bottle of drink, the resort further along charged 5 sols. The next building served as the kitchen, guinea pigs ran along the floor (they are eaten on special occasions) and the “stove” was fuelled by wood. There was also a large fridge powered by either gas or batteries, as mains electricity supplies are only just being built in the area. The third house served as a dinning room for the electrical workers, and as we set resting, the ladies little girl (or maybe grandchild) of about 5 or 6 years of age carried plates of soup for the workmen in the dining room. Just as we finished resting the lady closed shop, picked up a large shovel and headed off to work in the fields.

The walking for the rest of the day was easier as it was either flat or downhill. We passed the town square of the village which looked abandoned with no one around apart from us, the church was locked up. We also passed an Inca amphitheatre which the locals used as a soccer field at one stage, this has been banned though. Just as the sun started to dip towards the canyon walls we got to the resort. I dipped my feet in the pool, ate dinner and retired to my bamboo hut for the night.

Day 2 - What goes down must come up

The wake up call came at around 2.30am, and we where off up the canyon. We made quite quick progress as there was no stopping for photos on the way up, and where passed by some ladies being carried up on donkeys.

About 2 hours into our walk up the canyon, we stoped at a “shop” set-up by a local lady along the trail. She does this journey daily to sell drinks and snacks to the tourists making their way up. I had two cups of coca tea made out of fresh coca leaves which gave me a big boast and I felt like I could do the trek again the same day. The top of the canyon was not far ahead and we where soon back in Cabanaconde.

From Cabanaconde we caught the bus to Cruz del Condor. The local ladies where quite rough with each other all trying to get their bags full of souvenirs onto cargo hold of the bus all dressed in their traditional clothing. Inside the bus it was standing room only and it was the fullest bus I’ve ever been on. The local guy behind decided to do his best to try to push me out of his way, but I was well wedged in until I decided to let him pass. He made another meter of room by pushing everyone back a bit more before deciding that he couldn’t push any further. So I thought I’d get my revenge and started pushing him, eventually we both had a laugh at it all.

Fortunately the trip to Cruz del Condor was quite short. Shortly after arriving about half a dozen of Condors made their appearance. These where quite far away and soon disappeared, and there was a long period where not much happened. Then shortly before having to catch the bus to Chivay another group of Condors appeared. This time passing quite close to where I was, it was amazing watching them fly past, I almost missed the bus.

We stoped in Chivay to have a look at the markets and eat lunch before finally making our way back to Arequipa.

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