NEARLY THE DEEPEST CANYON IN THE WORLD

South America » Peru » Arequipa » Colca Canyon
July 23rd 2007

Published: September 25th 2007

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MRJ SthAmericanAdventures

COLCA CANYON

On the road out of town many people were working in the fields.....including this lovely family

After staying only one extra day than planned in Cusco and managing to fit all my clothes back into my back I left Loki Hostel for the bus station. Earlier in the day I had brought my very cheap ticket to my next destination, Arequippa. On arriving at the bus station, accidently a bit late, I was told by a lady at the office that I had not paid for my ticket and that I would have to do so......obviously I was a little unhappy with this and told her that and also that I had already paid earlier today. As usual there was no one there to back me up and miracously no one knew anything about it......but I had the upper hand as I had my ticket so my arguement was that if I had not paid then how come I had a ticket. Anyway think she gave up and took me to the bus and all was good. The bus ride out of Cusco took around 10 hours and I was the only gringo on the bus so was a little paranoid about my belongings, especially after being in a tourist bubble for the past month and not

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Plaza de Armas...the main plaza in Arequippa

having to worry. I managed to get the back seat and be able to stretch out, but was constantly waking up to see if anyone was coming to get my stuff.....everytime I looked around the bus to find everyone else was sound asleep and didn´t care about me. Anyway as I came out of altitude a little my poor head was struggling to equalise as it was so full of snot that all tubes and both ears were blocked....this was very uncomfortable and I honestly thought that my head might explode before I reached Arequippa. Now this is possibly a little bit too much information but I was constantly suprised around this time at my bodies ability to produce a lot of snot and massive boogers.

Arequippa is Peru´s second largest city and the area is surrounded by active volcanoes, thermal springs, high-altitude deserts and the world´s deepest canyons. It also has a lot of volcanic eruptions and earthquake action.....the day before I arrived in Arequippa there had been a large earthquake only 8 hours north of the town so I was lucky that it didn´t hit any further south. There is a large volcano that sits just outside

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A random sighting of Spiderman

of town and it can been seen from the middle of the city....it is called El Misti and stands at 5822m. On either side of this volcano are two others....Chachani (6075m) and Pichu Pichu (5571m). The locals sometimes say that when the moon separated from the earth, it forgot to take Arequippa. The city itself was quite modern with awesome chic bars and restuarants everywhere and lots of funky looking people.....including a spiderman look a like. Most of my time spent in this town was in bed as I was trying to shake this crazy cold I had in time to go on a trek to the canyon.

Finally I did get rid of most of my cold and decided to go on a 3 day trek down the second deepest canyon in the world, Cañon Del Colca. At 3191m it comes in a close second to the deepest canyon in the world which is right next door.....Cañon del Cotahuasi which is only 163m deeper. Another early start for me and before I have even woken up properly I am put into a taxi and wisked away to pick up my fellow trekking friends and then off to the

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A church in the middle of town

bus station to head out to the canyon. For quite a while I have no idea what is going on and who is in my group or who my guide is but sleep is overcoming me and there is no need to be worried as the local guy next to me starts to give me some comentary. The bus is a huge public bus which has nothing in the form of suspension so every hole, bump or crack in the road is felt all the way up the spine and is not helped by sitting right above the wheel. Also as the sun heats up and the bus fills up I am dying of heat but am not able to open a window....luckily the view outside the window is absolutely amazing as we enter into one of the valleys of the canyon. On the way to our first stop in a town called Cabanaconde which is over 800 years old, we pass many market stalls on the side of the road with women dressed in spectacular dresses and fancy hats....again very different to any I have seen previously. Finally after 6 hours of bumping around we arrive in the first

COLCA CANYON

A lady and man out the front of their shop on the way into Colca Canyon

town where we have lunch before setting out to our path in the canyon. Thankgod I am grouped with 3 Irish and an English couple instead of the many french people that are put together in their own group. Walking through town and then on the road to the canyon we pass many of the locals in the fields ploughing the hard way with no machines but just cows. Women and children are there too also working in the fields and it seems like it is definately a communal effort. Our guide tells us that the womens dresses and hats will distinguish were they are from in the area. There are two different communities and even though the dresses and hats are similar they are different colours and this is the difference. On their hats they have embroided patterns and pictures and you will always find a bird, a flower and something else that I can´t remember which are important symbols for them. They are all made by the women themselves so they are slightly different but must contain these three symbols. Their dresses are very intricate and are very fancy and impressive.

We make it to the top

COLCA CANYON

First views of the Canyon

of the canyon to look over the edge hundreds of metres down to where we will spend the first night. It is an amazingly long way down and I am stunned that people have built communities on the side of the canyon walls....I am wondering why you would build there and then have to walk all the time up the canyon to get to town. It takes us three hours to make it to the bottom along a rather rough path at times, as usual us gringos whinge and whine about it as we are passed by many locals carrying heavy bags etc back up the hill.....we really have no idea! The views are amazing and as we make it closer to the bottom we discover that it is quite lush at the bottom of the canyon, compared to the dry and barren top. At the bottom of the path we take time out to relax near river at the bottom and I am loving putting my sore feet in the nice fresh water. Before long we are off again and head to the other side of the canyon to the path that will lead us to our first night

COLCA CANYON

Lady wearing tradition dress for this area

camp. There are a couple of small villages that we pass on the way and the area is so beautifully green and lush that I now understand why people would choose to live down here. Fruit trees - avocado, chillimoya, mandarin and mango trees are everywhere and we are allowed to take a few bits of fruit to nibble on as we walk. I feel like I am in Hobbiton from Lord of the Rings, as there are small houses and buildings surrounded by fences built with stones and our small path winding in between them all. After a while of taking it easy we came to the last part of our path which consisted of a pretty steep climb for 30 minutes......and as we are still at alitude now it does take its toll on us, but we finally make it to our camp for the first night.

We stayed with a family in a small village that housed us in a big room with a dirt floor and beds made from bamboo, but I was happy to take my shoes off and suprised to find a very hot shower waiting for me. After a nice cold beer

COLCA CANYON

The town centre of Cabanconde...the town where we started our trek

we eat dinner, again I am happy to have asked for vegetarian so I can avoid eating some alpaca or chicken or whatever it is they serve up to the others. Sleep is not too far off after dinner and I was suprised at how comfortable it is to sleep on a bamboo bed. The next morning I wake to a spectacular view just outside our room and remember that I am actually in a canyon...we had arrived after dark the night before so we could not see the area around the village properly. After a breakfast of a big fat pancake we packed and headed out for the day. Walking through the village we passed many houses where people were working or doing chores and I am fascinated watching them.....also amazed at how hard it is for them when there is no mod-cons or machinery to assist them. Again the housing is basic mud bricks and the size of the houses would put most houses in Australia to shame for the waste of space. We are stopped by women wanting to sell us fruit at inflated prices, which is all good because the fruit is fresh and juicy. Our

COLCA CANYON

In the town of Cabanconde...the town where we started our trek

guide also shows us the cactus that grows naturally in the area, but is also farmed by the locals. On the cactus you see what looks like patches of white flour and if you look closer you will see small balls in the white substance....if you pull these off and squash them you will have a very intense red/magenta coloured paste which is used to make dyes for fabric. (see photos below) Our guide is very informative and much better than my last experience when on tour....he is from the area so knows a lot about all the flora and fauna and how the locals look at things. We also pass a large cross that is surrounded by rocks which are put there by the locals as the pass....this is a form of offerings or blessings so they are looked after by the gods.

After a steep climb down back to the very bottom of the canyon we come across about 4 waterfalls that have also created pockets of very lush and tropical fauna. We follow the river to another small village where there is natural springs that we swim in while our lunch is made for us.......at this

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The road from town out to the canyon

stage the tour is feeling very chilled and we get to stay lazying about for around 3 hours. This is all in preparation to climb out of the canyon and after seeing our path up I am not too keen to get started. Eventually we have to and it also happens to be around 2pm in the afternoon so the sun is beating down on us and after stupidly sitting in the sun over lunch we are all exhausted pretty fast. I manage to fair the best as I am Australian and the others being Irish and English are just shite with the heat so we have many stops as we climb. As I said I was doing OK until we came upon some steps and that was the end of me.......I was still majorily congested in the chest and I really struggled to breath properly with that and also being at over 3000m. At one stage I stopped to look up to see how far we had left and ended up swearing and thinking that I couldn´t do it.....reality hit and I knew that there was only one way out so off I went. Finally after over 3 hours

COLCA CANYON

Some men working in the fields.....no tractors or machinery here!

and more than 3kms I made it to the top first just as it was getting dark. The rest of the group made it as well and we were all proud that we didn´t have to take a donkey, like others did, to make it to the top. We later found out that the locals do that walk in around 90mins. That night we got our own rooms back in the town of Cabanconde, had some dinner and was fast asleep nice and early.

The last day we needed to be down at the bus stop at 6am....when we arrived we found a huge line already at the door of the bus. Most of the people were the ladies who were going to set up their market stalls where all the tourists come in for the day. It was great to stand around and people watch as they packed the bus....we also had the entertainment of watching the local boy stray dogs try and get cosy with all the female dogs. Finallly the bus doors were opened and I was embarrassed when all the gringos were brought forward in the queue and were told to board the bus before

COLCA CANYON

Standing in front of the deepest part of the canyon.....3191m!

all the locals who were mainly women. I really hated this and I do not understand why we get preference over these women who have been standing in line long before us. Some of them got seats on the bus but most of them had to stand the whole way. We had a stop at the side of the canyon where it is a great vantage point to see condors. They live in holes in the side of the canyon and just after sunrise when they wake they are most active and fly and hover around this area. We managed to see a few birds but our best view was from the bus window as we were leaving. Off to another town called Chivay which is the provincial capital in the area and where we were to find some more thermal springs. They were actually man made pools so not as nice as other ones I have been to, but these ones were definately the hottest springs and I struggled to stay in longer than 10 mins. A perfect way to finish a trek and great for soothing the sore muscles in the pools....it actually worked completely as the next

COLCA CANYON

Our group in front of the canyon.....

day I was not sore at all. After another short ride back to Arequippa we descended on the madness of the bus station....this put me off getting on a bus that night to Lima and I decided to stay one more night in Arequippa and go out for dinner instead.

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