Hiking the Colca Canyon

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Here in Arequipa is the place where they found the ice princess, Juanita, an Incan mummy found sacrificed on top of a mountain 6700m high. We also went on a hike here for 3 days into the Colca Canyon.

The morning of the hike we first stopped on the side of the cliffs to watch the condors fly up in the morning heat. These are the largest birds in the world and look similar to vultures. After a good breakfast we hiked down 4 hours into the canyon, 1000m below. We saw more condors overhead as we descended. The landscape is so different here, very dry and barren. There was one patch of green we could see at the bottom which they simply call the Oasis and where we stayed the second night. When we arrived at the bottom on the first day, we stayed at a woman’s house in a little village. It was a beautiful little place with tons of flowers and humming birds. Dana and I read on the lawn and watched the sun set. Beautiful.

The next morning we had an easy hike along the canyon floor, through several more villages to the Oasis (which was really just mosquito paradise). We stayed in little huts and there were some pools here to swim in. The third day we hiked out and I was so proud as we did the 1000m ascent in an hour and 45 min when the predicted time was 3 hours. We just went for it and went hard! On our way back we stopped to see wild llamas, alpacas, pequnas, and other animals. Overall we had a great time on the hike. It was difficult, but felt like nothing after the Inca Trail. We made a great friend, Leiga, ate some great home cooked meals, and the views were beautiful.

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Photos

Photo 10
This is the natural Oasis we stayed at the second night. Look at the zig zaggin path we took on either side.

Photo 13
Reading in this woman's garden, while watching the sun set and hummingbirds drink from the flowers in the background.

Our second night in the Oasis
The river runs through that pool, and the sun heats it up