Colca Canyon Tour

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February 3rd 2009

Published: February 6th 2009

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Oli and Laura

Vicunas

National protected animals

Day 9 - Colca Canyon

Our tour guide picked us up from our digs at around 8:00 am. It was a small group of twelve crammed into a mini bus. The group was made up of a mixture of nationalities. All the Spanish and English speakers formed there own respective groups. Our guide for the two day tour was called Caesar and our driver George.

After about an hour and a half of climbing higher into the Andes we made our first stop on the Pampa Canahuas (altiplano. At 3000 metres it feels a lot harder to breathe and we have broken through the cloud. So we now get our first good view of the volcano's surrounding Arequipa. El Misti (5825m) stands out from all the rest. Even though El Misti is not the highest of all the peaks it is by far the most impressive standing alone cone shaped and looking how a volcano should. Here we were also shown wild Vicunas which look like llamas but are a lot smaller and are a protected species in Peru.

After another hour or so we reach the highest point in our tour at 4800m. Snow covering the ground

El Miste

Active volcano 5825m

a snow ball fight is in order but after a minute or so it gets to hard to move due to the altitude. Every stop we make there are local women selling hats and scarf's trying to scratch out a living. They are all in traditional dress many with young children helping to sell their wears.

Chivay was our next stop a small mountain town with dirt tracks for roads, this is the main town in the Colca Valley. A local restaurant provides a Peruvian buffet for lunch, they must rake the money in the summer months.

After lunch we travelled deeper into the valley for a small trek. Ceaser took us on a trail that lead over the Colca river on an Indiana Jones style bridge, which was suspended a couple of hundred feet above the river.. On the canyon face there were small storage huts made out of the rock, used until recently by the indigenous people. These storage huts are called Colcas used to store grain in time of drought for up to three years. Colca means cold storage hence the name of the area. The weather was hot in the sun but started to

El Miste view

Oli

turn as a storm approaches us near the end of the trek. It was a big thunder storm which luckily was behind us and we just got a bit wet before jumping back in the minibus.

The next stop was a trip to the local hot springs, it was fantastic. The hot water (about 40 degrees centigrade) came straight from the volcanic mountains into the 5 swimming pools. We were expecting to jump into small bubbling rock pools, but we were surprised as it was just like going to the swimming baths. To say this was in the middle of nowhere it very popular with tourists as well as locals, who we think must go there to get a bath as they use a different pool to everyone else!.

The evening concluded with a traditional meal and dance. Typical we were sat at the end of the table so we were both made to get up and join in a dance.

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