Arequipa and the Colca Canyon

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We spent our final week in Peru in Arequipa, and in the Colca Canyon some 170Kms away.

Arequipa is a lovely city, by far the nicest we visited in Peru. It is overshadowed by the mightly, dormant, Misti Volcano. We spent several days relaxing in the sunny climate there before booking a trip to the Colca Canyon, alledgedly the world´s deepest canyon.

Our trip got off to a bad start, as we were involved in a bus accident. Fortunately, it was relatively minor by Peruvian standards in that everybody was able to walk or be carried away alive. We were absolutely fine, and after a few hours wait, we were able to carry on in a different bus.

The canyon is very remote, and after 5 hours on a bumpy bus we started our walk down the canyon, all 1000m. It is apparently 4000m deep in places, from snow capped mountain to the riverbed. It was very hot, with condors flying overhead. We spent a night at the bottom, before contouring along the bottom, through very rural villages, and then into an oasis with some lovely hot springs, just ahead of the delightful climb up the valley. Lots of people who were at the bottom were opting for a mule ride up, but no, not us.

We returned to Arequipa the next day with more travel problems, this time 3 punctures, ending in us hitching a ride, with no spares left. With that over and done with we were pleased to get back to Arequipa ready for our massive journey on into Chile.

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Photos

Colca Canyon
The only way was down...

The oasis
with the path to the left being the start of the climb out of the canyon