Colca Canyon

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We arrived in Arequipa and the first thing we did was set up a three day trek to Colpa Canyon, which is the highest canyon in the world. We figured since we could not do the Inca trek we were going to do a trek through the canyon. The first day in Arequipa we were still a little tired from our last trip so we took it easy and did a bus tour. The tour took us around the whole town and showed us all the sights. Arequipa is a beautiful town with three huge volcanoes in sight. We went to bed early because our tour was leaving the next day at three in the morning.
The first day in our tour we headed down the Canyon. This took us about four hours to get down. We saw many beautiful sights along the way and got to know everyone in our group very well. The first night we stayed on the other side of the Canyon in a little village. The next morning we woke up early and started the next trek. We went to the next village to find that they were having their biggest festival of the year. There was bands playing everywhere and people dancing. We stayed and watched for a little while then continued our trek. The next stop was at a little oasis where there were pools everywhere. We were all tired and hot from the hike so we immediately jumped into the pool to cool down. We stayed here for a couple hours, ate lunch, and then headed back up the canyon. There was an even larger festival happening in Cabana Conde, the main town in the canyon, with people wearing traditional dress and dancing to a full band of trumpets, tubas, horns, and large drums. It was quite a sight. We had a dinner of alpaca, or llama meat and many a beer with our “team.” All in all, one of the best tours of the trip.

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