Arequipa and the Colca Canyon

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Hey Guys,
Well another bus ride another town. We have headed inland to Arequipa in the Peruvian Andes Mountains and have arrived just in time for Semana Santa (Easter). As far as holidays in South America go this one is right up there with Christmas and Carnival. It is pretty cool to watch the festivities happening around us.

Our main purpose of this leg was to hike the Colca Canyon which is twice as deep as the Grand Canyon. We were contemplating hiking this by ourselves since we had read that the trails were well marked and accommodations were easy to get in the villages inside the Canyon. Since it was Easter and we were having issues with catching buses for the next day (there are approx. 9 million extra people traveling) we opted to go with a tour group from a local company. We started our trek after a 5 hour bus ride to Cabanaconde (3,300m above sea level) where our trek down began. The trek started out really good, we saw about 10 Condors flying around really close to us which was awesome and then it went bad. Our nice 7km descent went from gradual grade to some seriously treacherous switchbacks full of loose gravel and shale as well as and huge stepdowns and to top it all off it started to pour rain. Anyways 3 hours later we made it soaked and with some pretty sore legs to our first stop over. The next day was a lot better since we were now inside the valley. We hiked 8km until we reached "Sangalle" or the "Oasis" as it is mostly refered to as. This was a well deserved treat and we definetly enjoyed our stay. The next morning we were up at 4am to start our 7km hike up to the top! What a hike, when the sunrise had finally crested the top of the surrounding mountains we were about 2/3 to the top which was good because I think it was easier in the dark since you couldn´t see how far you had to go. After several breaks and numerous thoughts of just laying down to die Tyne and I made it. It took us 3 hours which our guide said wasn´t too bad. After breakfast we were back on the bus headed towards the hot springs which are probably the only reason Tyne and I can walk today so they were definetly a highlight as well. Our ride home was pretty mellow since everyone was dead tired but we did stop so Tyne could make a new friend.

We are now just hanging out in Arequipa trying to make it to Cusco but there are strikes blocking the highway so we can´t get a bus out of here. We have to be in Cusco by the 18th to hike the Inca trail so we might have to splurge on a flight - that might break the bank but not my heart😉

Enjoy the pics, click them open for a better view.

Matt & Tyne

PS How the hell did Calgary lose the Northwest division to Vancouver???????

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Photos

The before picture
You know it´s before because we´re smiling

TheColca Canyon
Our guide for this Adventure Juan Carlos

The Oasis
That zig zag line is our trail for day 2

Inside the Canyon
Taken from our hostal on morning of day 2, it was a long way down.

Our Route Up!
Follow the zig zag lines

I´m sooooo Happy!
This is about 6am after 2 hours hiking up in the dark I´m feeling so F***ng good right now.

At the Top!
Looking back down to where we started 3 hours ago

We made it!
Group shot, we were lucky enough to have some really good people to share this with.