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Published: November 17th 2008
Only one week later and already a new entry (6th article). A special thought for our Monday morning readers... We wanted to end our Peruvian experience before the arrival of the third Minero: Maxime.
Arequipa & Cotahuasi Canyon:
Arequipa is the second biggest city in Peru. Its historical center is very charming with the beautiful Plaza de Armas and the old Santa Catarina Monaster which was built in 1580 like a small city (inlcuding a square, streets & churches...).
The city is a good starting point for trekking in the Colca and Cotahuasi canyons. Colca is the most accessible one and is known to be the second deepest canyon in the world after Cotahuasi. Cotahuasi is located at 400km from Arequipa. We eventually picked the Cotahuasi Canyon as it was the deepest one and the least explored. We decided to do it on our own and to ask around in the canyon for directions.
After a 12-hour bus trip we reached Cotahuasi. It was a 4*4 once again, we managed this time to avoid falling stones due to the driver´s prayer before the departure. After only 3 hours of sleep (as the bus arrived in Cotahuasi at
3AM), our trek begun. Our first goal was to get to Quechualla, the last village in the canyon... The first break (and our first mistake) happened at the Sipia waterfall. We thought there was a trail close to the waterfall joining the main route so we started going up on a tough uphill. After reaching what we thougt was a trail we found out there was no way to get to the main route from there. We could not turn around as it was really steep and unsafe. No choice, we had to climb slowly in order to avoid falling down... a bit scary to be honest. But after two hours struggling, we reached the main trail safe and tired. This mistake forced us to sleep in Vellinga (2 hours away from Quechualla but still 8 hours walk from Cotahuasi) where we were welcomed by Ignacio: a school teacher. Only 23 families live in the village which is in the middle of nowhere with no water nor electricity.
The next day we walked to Quechualla and came back to Cotahuasi. We did not make any mistake this time but walking up the canyon was much more difficult and longer (12
hours) than going down. We could not reach Cotahuasi by foot due to painful cramps. Indeed no water nor food were available in the canyon so we had to carry cereals, biscuits and drunk purified water from the river (with chlorus pills). We were lucky to find horses to finish up under the moon light. Despite our physical difficulties, the trail was spectacular and really worth it. Incredible the fact we did not meet any tourists along the way.
We went to Pampamarca on the third day still in the canyon but in a higher part. We wanted to see volcanic stones but we failed for two reasons : our tiredness and the wrong path. We could not ask anybody our way as nobody was around. We then remembered the French humorist Elie Semoun:" if you mess with the Mountain, the Mountain will mess with you" ("Si tu te moques de la Montagne, la Montagne se moquera de toi").
Nevertheless it was a great experience to walk by ourselves during 3 days without maps & limited food in the world´s deepest Canyon.
We are now in La Paz in Bolivia at 3800m over the sea level waiting
Chicken lifting the feet
No need to ask for this onefor the third minero : Max. Our next entry will be about the Bolivian capital and the lake Titicaca.
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monday
MONDAYS SOUNDS BETTER WITH YOU!!!!! O+<