The Deepest Canyon in the Whole Wide World: The Colca Canyon in Peru

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Our ride arrived at 3.15a on Thursday morning, needless to say we were pretty tired and trekking the deepest canyon in the world didn’t sound like such a great idea at the time. We got on the bus however and met our guide for the next two days, Carlos Flores, a hell of a guy we’d find out soon. We picked up some other people in the city and headed to Chivay, the city where we would embark into the Colca Canyon. It’s deeper than the Grand Canyon; however it doesn’t have the sweeping ledges that the Grand Canyon has. Still, it’s a very amazing place and it was a very serious hike we embarked on. (Not to mention a little side note that now we have hiked the Inca Trail and descended into and ascended out of the deepest canyon in the world, two crowning achievements for anyone’s life! I am pretty proud of us) On the bus we sat next to two Spanish girls, they are flight attendants and they were travelling a little around Peru while on leave until they had to head back to the plane. Ima and Rocio are their names and we talked for a while on the bus and I learned that they were from Madrid and Sevilla respectively. These two chicks are very cool; we’d find out that everyone on our trip was cool. The rest of the group included four Germans: Sebastian, Sven, Simone, and unfortunately I forget the other girl’s name, Sebastian’s girlfriend. I do remember however that she was constantly putting on makeup throughout the whole endeavor and honestly we were so sweaty and gross I couldn’t believe it. I am pretty sure Sebastian was also at a loss haha. Anyways I digress. After breakfast in Chivay which wasn’t much, we went to “Condor’s Point” where there are a lot of condors and often times you’re able to see them flying around. We were there for about 45 minutes and about a half hour into it we saw one. It was truly majestic. I had no idea that they were so huge. Its wing span was probably 6 feet or more, it soared past us about five times before heading off into the mountains to find some game I imagine. It was a very cool thing to see and something I won’t soon forget. After that we drove about another half hour and we got off the bus and headed down into the canyon. The trail was straight down into the canyon at first. It was much different from the Inca Trail because it was loose gravel and rock and everything was dry instead of the wet stone steps that we encountered on the Inca trail. Brett and I sailed ahead of the group and we were feeling pretty good about our progress. Sebastian wasn’t far behind us, he told us that a year ago he climbed Mount Kilimanjaro so that humbled us a little haha. We got to the bottom of the canyon after seeing some sweeping views from the top and looked up at where we just came from. It was pretty impressive how much ground we had covered. Carlos the guide was joking around the whole time and just a very chill guy. He told us that the canyon was his world, a clean world, a world without noise and problems, a world where you can chill. He had a necklace on and I asked him what it was and he showed me and said “a weed leaf man!!” hahah I could have figured. Once the rest of the group arrived at the bottom of the canyon we crossed the bridge over the river to the other side of the canyon where we ascended a while until we reached a few little villages where we ate lunch. Lunch was the typical rice and potatoes with some scant meat. We purified some water and got ready for what Carlos told us was a pretty serious ascent in the afternoon in order to get to the camp where we’d spend the night. The ascent wasn’t too bad but since it was the first serious climbing we’d done I was sweaty as hell and out of breath, but it still wasn’t as bad as the Inca Trail. Everyone on the trip was doing pretty well, some of the girls were lagging behind but hey, it’s to be expected if you’ve never done something like that before. After that ascent we walked straight for a while, up and down a little through some seriously dodgy passes that were maybe three feet wide with a 1000 foot drop off next to us. We took it slow and with care. Carlos is a smoker and I asked him how he did this hike all the time and still smoked weed and cigarettes. He said he was used to it! What a hilarious answer. We passed through the last of the villages before we were to arrive at the place we were sleeping. It was called the oasis and if you ever needed to lay low someplace in the world and never be found, this would be the place for sure. You could be of the grid here forever if you wanted. At the bottom of the canyon, this place consisted of a small tiki bar, a kitchen, and probably ten or fifteen bungalows. The bungalows had beds in them but dirt floors. They reminded me of where I stayed when I visited Swaziland when I was much younger. They also had a pool which I didn’t take part in but we got changed and Carlos was already at the bar making drinks and talking with his friends who ran the place, he told me “this place is good shit man”. I believed him. I had a beer with him and Brett and we smoked a joint that Carlos had in his cigarette pack, a nice little treat and I was pleased that he shared with us; he is a hell of a guy. He owns his own bar in the summertime on the beach outside of Arequipa and is a master at making drinks. He made a drink of his own creation that he calls “El Ultimo Inca” or The Last Inca. It consists of Inka Cola (the national soda of Peru which I love by the way) Pisco, Rum, and lime juice. It was strong as shit! He said he drank five of them that night. I had a small scare while drinking my beer, I started to feel faint, which never happens to me and everything started to go black as I was sitting at the bar, I stumbled up and brushed past Brett trying to make it to our hut and lay down for a second, they were yelling my name because evidently I was stumbling and looked drunk and crazy. I realized that I needed sugar and hydration because I had been sweating all day and hadn’t eaten or drank that much. I slammed a pop and ate some snacks and immediately felt better, however I got made fun of for being a lightweight the rest of the night even though that wasn’t the case! Hahah. It was definitely a scary experience and has only happened to me twice in my life. I made sure the next day I took better care of myself so that my mother wont faint herself while reading this. We had a few more beers and talked some more with our group and then finally ate dinner at a large picnic table outside. We had spaghetti, it was ok but I was craving Sue Chavey’s spaghetti last night because no spaghetti I could ever have will ever be as good as my mommas. After dinner i went to bed, I was exhausted! We woke up at 440a and at 515 we were climbing out of the canyon. We climbed 2hrs 20minutes out of the canyon, Brett, Sebastian, and I were the first to make it out from our group. Getting to the top was pretty amazing, the hike up, while not horrible or comparable to the Inca trail, was still pretty grueling. I was happy I wasn’t a full blown smoker because lord knows I may not have made it! We got some photos at the summit, or rather the rim of the canyon and we were all very pleased with ourselves. I was sweaty as hell so I disrobed and put on my fleece with no t-shirt because I had no more clothes that were dry and clean. When everyone finally arrived at the top we spent a few minutes taking some photos and then headed off to the little city called Cabanaconde that was nearby to have some breakfast. We walked through the small streets of the town and I felt pretty much like a tourist since I had no shirt on and was the only white face for blocks! I am sure the people there are used to that since it’s the only stop after the trek up the canyon but still, it was one of those feelings you don’t forget when people just stare you down like you don’t belong. Not to say it was unwelcoming, because the townspeople were very friendly, it just seemed like we were a curiosity, which I am sure we were sweaty, gross and half clothed ha. We had eggs and crepes for breakfast a little hostel in town and it was pretty good considering we’d been up for five hours and hiked nearly three hours already! After breakfast we lounged a little around the hostel and waiting for the bus that was coming to pick us up. Once we were all on the bus we were taken to some nearby hot springs. It cost ten soles to enter but it was sooo worth it! The water was so hot and relaxing, they also had cold showers. After a long trek that was such an amazing feeling to get into that water. Plus we got to see a bunch of girls in bikinis which was also a huge plus! We spent an hour there and then boarded the bus back to Arequipa. The ride was another three hours but some of the scenery was great and sitting next to a foxy Spanish girl wasn’t so bad either haha. We’re back here now in the hostel and we’re going to meet Carlos and Ima and Rocio for a few drinks tonight since this is our LAST NIGHT IN PERU!! Tomorrow we take a bus from here to Tacna, the town in Peru that borders Chile. From Tacna we are crossing the Chilean border into a town called Arica where we’ll spend the night and then head from there to the Atacama Desert and the town of San Pedro de Atacama. From there we are on our way to Santiago for Lollapalooza next weekend!! I’ll keep everyone updated on the goings on. Love you all.

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