Colca Canyon

14-16 September 2006

When we sent out a message many months ago about our impending South American adventures, our friend Seth sent back saying that he had heard that some canyon called "Colca" was on his list of places to see. . . http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colca_Canyon

A week or so ago, we looked in the Rough Guide to Peru about what to do in the area of Arequipa and realized that it was possible to do trekking adventures there. Once Leigh heard that there was the possibility of seeing Andean Condors, she was sold.

We were picked up at our Hostal (Tambo Viejo) in Arequipa at 5:30 am and headed off to the bus terminal where we met up with two irish sisters Jade and Elanor and a couple Pete (also Irish) and Lauren (English). 3.5 bumpy, dusty hours later we arrived in Chivay. The bus ride would have been quite a bit better had we not been subjected to the greatest hits of "Aguamarina" http://www.aguamarinaperu.com/after 3 hours, not our favorite.

Another 2 hours by bus over VERY washboarded bumpy dirt road along multiple 100 foot drop offs and we found ourselves in Cabanaconde perched on the edge of a canyon 2x as deep as the Grand Canyon. We ate a quick lunch with our guide (Huber) and began our descent. The Canyon is truly impressive and the switchbacks were pretty extreme, with rather large drop offs common. However, the trail was always at least a couple feet wide and we never felt in danger of falling. A few hours later and we had descended the canyon (going down is easier than coming up).

We spent the night at an idyllic little "hostal" that was really a few small open air cabins in someones back yard. The view of the sunset, stars, and then sunrise was truly magnificent. The greatest miracle of all however, was the truly hot shower!

The villages in the canyon are populated by the cabanas and the collaguas tribes. The women where very colorful embroidered hats and clothing. We learned that women wearing a white hat are cabanas, black hat collaguas. Also, when women wear one flower in their hat, they are single; two flowers, they are married; and if they have a black flower, they are a "viuda" = widow.

We then hiked a few hours, first up the opposite side of the canyon into a small town, then along the side of the canyon, before dropping back down to the "oasis" where we took a refreshing dip in a spring fed swimming pool. After a relaxing lunch by the side of the pool, we began our ascent. 2 1/2 hours of stairmaster later and we had climbed back up to the rim. Not easy, and something that our leg muscles are still feeling. . . a day later.

We spent the night in Cabanaconde at a hostal in the middle of town, chatting with our hiking crew about all sorts of odd things.

Waking up early the next morning we had a quick breakfast and jumped on the bus to the Mirador Cruz del Condor, and after a quiet first half hour were rewarded with very close (within 50-100 feet) views of these HUGE HUGE HUGE birds circling around us as they caught thermals along the edge of the canyon. There were a good 300 people out watching the birds fly which made it the closest to "combat birding" that I have ever seen.

The 6 hour bus ride back to Arequipa was dominated by Peruvian music videos and then an unfortunate showing of "We Were Soldiers" starring Mel Gibson. . . http://www.weweresoldiers.com/
Truly surreal.

But less than an hour later we were showered and seated at a restaurant overlooking the main square (Plaza de Armas) in Arequipa. I had rack of alpaca (like rack of lamb). . . http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpaca slightly sinewy and chewy but pretty tasty; Leigh had a fine alpaca stew with a salad that included half an avocado, 6 types of potatoes and some extremely starchy corn and lima beans. Carbohydrate-festival! This was accompanied by home made corn beer called chicha. . . sort of malty and tasty. . .

Anyway, we have decided to take another day mellowing in Arequipa before moving on to Puno and Lago Titicaca. . .

Hasta Pronto Amigos,

Andrew