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Published: July 28th 2006
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After a 4am start and a 6hr bumpy bus ride we arrived at Cabonaconde in the Colca Canyon.
Ruc Sacs were packed and we were ready to set off on our 3 day Jaunt into the second Deepest Canyon in the world(The deepest is just up the road but is not as good to look at).
We had planned to be independant on this trip as the distances didnt seem that great.
On the approach to the Canyon edge we were all ready shattered, we had only done 3K thou the mountain sun was burning down on us. We looked over the edge and thought "Nuts to that lets go back and hire a Mule"
After asking round the village we knew we wouldn´t get out that day so we found a bed for the night. To pass the Afternoon we took a walk up to a tiny chapel perched about 100m above village. This point offered amazing views of the canyons depths and the snow capped 6000m peaks above, really peacefull or so we thought ..... Suddenly we seemed to be hounded by a couple of giant horse fly things, really aggressive and they looked as if they
Colca Canyon
Getting out of the canyon could do you some damage. They chased us for over 200m down the hill, no matter how much hat flapping we did they wouldnt go away. Eventually we lost them and decided to walk to the Mirador(viewpoint).
We ambled happily down the small track which was bordered by small cacti. Again another Buzzy thing threatened, I ran it followed, I ran some more it kept coming, I ran fasterand .... Straight into a Cactus right through the top of my boot, 2 inch spines everywhere not a happy chap. Luckily the thing had gone as i took my boot off to de-spine my foot another arrived, Great!! There was a lot of hat flapping, boot waving and swearing going on, so yes youu can all laugh coz after this little trauuma I sure did.
As we topped the crest of the hill we bumped into a local who upon telling our silly gringo tail, laughed and said that the wasps were only pollen eaters and had no sting, so to all you reading this they were really scarry OK!!
The chap on the hill we met was called Hippolitto who happened to be a horseman and who
Colca Canyon
Cruz del Condor come with us for the trip down into the Canyon.
The next morning saw us loading up our mules and heading off down the steep canyon sides, the decent zig zagged on dusty tracks for a depth of 1100m so no idea actually how far it was.
We arrived at the small village of San Juan to eat, we stopped for about 1.5 hrs BIG MISTAKE...
After the food the 300m up and the 5 hr afternoon walk to the Oasis Camp was a killer.
The Oasis had 3 pools great!! All fed by hot springs but by the time we had arrived and got sorted the sun had gone down and there was no time for swimming.
As we were making Tea, Hippolito came over saying he wanted us to leave at 3am as the rest of the tourists do. We made our point clear that we were to go at 8am as agreed Hands were shook all was well.
8am arrived no Hippolito, we gave him 10 mins before asking about, on asking we found that he had done one in the night and left with a group for more money BO*L#CKS!!
We started the long climb out of the canyon with all out kit, not happy bunnies. The views were amazing we saw all sorts of birdlife and even a fox which was a pretty rare sight.
We had done about 500m in 2 hrs when a chap who had passed us going down earlier came racing up on his mule. It was Hippolitos brother after a bit or arguing over the cost we handed over our kit and carried on up. Good job he came really as it was a scorcher in the canyon well up on the 30's
On arrival ot Cabonaconde we downed the coldest beer ever and settled into the hostel for the night.
The next day saw us at Cruz del Condor (A viewing point for the Condors) at first we could see the birds from about 100m away Oooh great !! Then suddenly the thermal lifts changed and about 20 Very large Condors came whizzing at times only 5 mtrs over head, it was a jaw dropping moment.
Happy after seeing this sight we boarded the bus for the dusty return trip to Arequipa.
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sarah
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hey you guys!
hey just saying hi and hope all is still going well. will try and send you an email with more to say when i get some time. Glad to hear its all going well, sounds like your having a fabulous time. Take care of yourselves x