its been so long

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hey yall

hope everyone is well, we just got back from our 3 day hike in the colca canyon, the deepest in the world ! it was amazing, so beautifull and isolated. We started at 6am when we were met by our guide Dennis at our hostel. It was so early muh, we then took a 6 hr local bus from Arequipa to Chivay then to Cabanaconde where we had lunch. After lunch we took off, about half an hour to the side of the canyon then about 3ish hours to decend. It was hard work ! There is no real path just a very loose gravel track winding down the side some bits were about a ft wide, combined with constant herds of donkeys passing made it a real experience! finally when we reached the bottom we rested by the river side for a little while which was really cool, you cant hear anything but the water and there is no one around for miles.
After another 2 hours hiking up the other side passing through San Juan we reached our place for the night ... i think it was called tambay? anyway we stayed in the ladys house and she cooked us dinner which we all at together in her kitchen, it was delicisous and there were guinea pigs running around beneath us ... presumably soon for the pot, a real peruvian experience. A little dog had been following us all day which we had named Don Simon, however after seeing her croutch to go toilet we renamed her Don Simone. Anyhow she managed to get into our bedroom and sick up the lizard-bird she ate earlier under stefs bed haha. Needless to say she was made to sleep outside the rest of the night.
The next day we woke up at 7am to begin our walk along the valley to a place called Oasis besides the river, there we swam and ate lunch. After we began the dreaded asent of the cliff face.
After 15 mins of walking i was so far behind that ....... promise not to laugh ..... my guide asked me to go back and get a mule lol. Possibly the most humiliating experience of traveling so far. Any way i went back and hired this amazing not so small mule i named OCTAVIO. He was really strong but seemed to enjoy walking a little to close to the edge which was tres scary. Anyway after a long long day we had all reached the top and had a great dinner back in cobanaconde. Walking over, the next morning we took a bus to a lookout called cruz del condor, its a little ridge over the canyon and if you wait slowly andean condors rise on the hot winds rising from the canyon below, it was amazing! as real highlight of the trek, they are huge, auwsome birds and they glide so peacefully, really magic. After that we took another bus back to chivay and to the hot springs ! they were immense really eased our pain.
anyway pain and humiliation aside i had a really great time, the canyon is stunning. We had a great guide Dennis and two other guys jack and uri who joined our team and had a real laugh, good times.

speak soon x

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