Trekking in the Colca Canyon

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I was feeling a teensy bit guilty about not doing the Inca trail, so when a few people that I´d met recommended trekking in the Colca Canyon, I thought "Why not?" I was assured that it wasn´t a hard trek. Hmmm.... they obviously hadn´t met someone with my poor level of fitness before!

The canyon was not at all what I expected a canyon to look like. I think I had a image of the Grand Canyon in my head, but instead it was more like walking from the top of a mountain down into the valley and up again. It is apparently one of the deepest canyons in the world at 3191m- eek!

Doing the trek was myself and 3 Irish guys (2 of whom I´d met before in Ecuador). The first day wasn´t too bad. Our guide picked us up at our hostel at 5:30am (yikes!) to go on a 6 hour bus journey to the canyon. 75% of the people on the bus were also tourists going to do canyon. After lunch it was a 3 and a half walk to the bottom of the canyon. Although it wasn´t hard, one of my knees was killing at the end of it! As we crossed a river at the bottom of the canyon tiredness hit me and I found it really hard to do a last 15 minute uphill stretch to the place we were staying that night. We were told that there would be no hot water and no electricity there, so it was a pleasant surprise to find out that there was!!!

I had assumed that the 3 hr trek on day 2 would be mostly flat on the bottom of the canyon. Oh no, there was at least an hour that was climbing uphill. I was way behind my group by a mile! The good thing was that at the end of the walk we arrived at a place called ´the oasis´where there were some gorgeous outdoor swimming pools. After a quick dip in the pool to cool off, I spent the next hour or so snoozing in the sun!

Then there was a big decision to make- would we try and do tomorrow's trek that afternoon so we could have a more chilled day the next day. If we trekked on day 3 we'd have to leave at 3am to fit in all the day's activities. We decided to get it all done that afternoon, but only after finding out that we could hire mules to take us back up to the top of the canyon- woo hoo! I always thought that mules were the same thing as donkeys, but for those that are as stupid as me, they are half donkey, half horse. It was the best decision EVER!!! I really don't think I would have made it up there if I'd have had to walk. I did feel sorry for the poor mules, as they were sweating and panting after about 30 mins, and the whole thing took an hour and a half! Made it to a little town at the top of the canyon and had a few well deserved drinks before bed!

The final day was quite chilled out. The canyon is a place where the biggest bird in South America is found- the condor. We went to a look out point to see them and did actually see quite a lot. I do find it hard to get excited about seeing birds, but all the birdwatchers´enthusiasm was catching! After a visit to some nice hot springs, we got the bus home again to Arequipa.

I know I've said it before, but no more trekking for me from now on!!! Phew!

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Photos

local lady
I saw lots of women doing manual labour on the way. Where are the blokes when you need them?

Getting VERY close to a condor!
Oh alright, I admit it. It was a finger puppet!