The Colca Canon trekk

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The trekking!

We came to Arequipa at 4 AM and went straight to the hostel were we got a few hours of sleep. The following day we booked the trekking and then went out to have a look at the city of Arequipa. It's called the White City because of the white stone it's build with. We went for a walk and bought an ice cream to cool us down when we met a very short and very talkative little man wihout teeth. He was completely harmless though, so when we offered to give us a little tour of his neighbourhood we agreed. (For those of you who doubt our judgement should take a look at the pictures and you'll see why we trusted him. He was'nt only a head shorter than Jonna, like the average peruvian man, but a head AND a shoulder).

The following day we woke up at 3 AM and got picked up at the hostel by the guide and the rest of the group. We went by car for 6 hours and reached the little village of Cabanaconda at lunch time. We had lunch there and then started the trek downhill, into the canyon. The nature was absolutely stunning and again I advise you to just look at the pictures. We reached a little mountain village at about 4 in the afternoon and there we had a shower, dinner and stayed for the night. If I had to describe the village with only one word it would be complete and utter peace. The vegetation was so green and so thriving and there were so many flowers everywhere. In the background you hear the river floating through the valley. We were sorry we couldn't stay there for the rest of our lives! hehe...

The next day our bodies remembered that we had been hiking for 4 hours the day before and we woke up wondering if we were, in fact, still alive. That's how much our legs hurt. But after some breakfast and positive thinking we were ready to go again. This day the walk was about 3,5 hours, mainly flat but in the end we descended the mountain to what was called "The Oasis", and it really was! In the bottom of the valley, surrounded by the brown and grey mountains, lay a little green village with palm trees and turqoise swimming pools. There we stayed our second night and enjoyed the pool and the sun. Everything was absolutely wonderful, except for my health (Jonna). I still had my cold from Machu Pichu (which only got worse from the Titicaca walk) and after 2 days of trekking I felt very bad. So for the last day, the walk up for 3 hours back to Cabanaconda, we decided to rent mules. And I gotta tell you, it was probably the best decision we've ever made in our entire lives. We had so much fun riding them and we could fully appreciate the view in a way that we couldn't while we were walking and constantly worrying about where to put our feet. When we got back to Cabanaconda we weren't completely exhausted and just felt very good and generally very satisfied with the trekk.

We saw a condor, quite a few hummingbirds (some of them no bigger that a big bug) and loads of other beautiful birds and animals. We also tried alpaca one of the nights. We've learned that it makes all the difference how you cook it and this one tasted kind of like beef. Not super exciting but a cool thing to have an opinion on.

Now we're in Lima and tomorrow we have a flight to Guayaquil, Ecuador. We're going with Sebastian (DX) from Arica and his cousins. It's gonna be so great to get to the beach and relax for a week, leave our backpacks in one place and not have to pack and re-pack them every single day.

We'll try to write as soon as we can, again. Lots of love / Lina & Jonna

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