Colca Canyon Trek

Day 1
We started this trek with an arranged taxi ride to the bus station (terminal terrestre). We passed another taxi on the way with our guide and two members of our trekking group. At the bus station with met up with the rest of our group. Our guide's name was Elias. There were two guys from Germany named Jens and Thorsten. The other four were Quebecois named Christian, Marie-Claude, Marie-Chantale and Karine. The Germans had been traveling in South America for a few months while the Quebecois had just arrived to Peru.

We got on a local bus that took about 5 hours to get to Cabanaconde. The bus ride was tiring. It went up from 2400m to 4800m and then back down to 3300m where we started our trek. We had lunch at a small restaurant where they served the usual Quinoa soup and I tried unsuccessfully to speak in French with our friends from Quebec. French is just too close to Spanish and after communicating in Spanish for over 2 weeks speaking French became impossible.

We started on our trek and reached the edge of the canyon. The view was spectacular. There were a bunch of villages just sitting on the side of the mountain at the bottom of the canyon. Elias briefly told us that there are about 17 villages down there. They have no electricity, no cars and no phones. There is only one satellite phone that is there for emergencies for all of the 17 villages. The villages are self-sufficient and grow everything they need to survive. The highest village is up at about 5000m and trades Al-Paca wool with the villages below. They transport everything by donkeys over the trails we would be walking on.

We started our descent into the canyon. Our guide was walking very slowly. At first I thought it was due to his crappy shoes that didn't seem to work very well on that crumbly loose rock but later I found out it was because his pack was insanely heavy. He was carrying some of the ingredients for our dinner for the next two nights. I tried to lift his pack when we took a break, but couldn't quite do it...

Half way down I got a little tired of walking at such a slow pace and went on ahead when he took another break. I quickly reached the bridge over the canyon and waited there with my German friends for the rest of the group to arrive. On the way down we had to get out of the way of some mule trains. One of them was going so slow that I felt really sorry for the woman pushing them up the hill. The mules would move two steps and stop, and then the woman would urge them on. They would move another step and stop. Such patience she must have had...

There were people working on replacing the bridge we had to cross. The bridge still looked in good condition though. The construction workers were building bases on the opposite sides of the Colca River but such that any bridge built would be diagonal...seemed a little odd to me so I just attributed it to "Peruvian style". We entered the first village and got assigned our sleeping hut with the puny uncomfortable beds. The hike down was short and easy which was quite a contrast to the Salkantay trek where every day was long and tough.

We had lots of time to relax and chatted a lot with Jens and Thorsten about their adventures in South America and later with Christian, Marie-Claude, Marie-Chantale and Karine about their jobs and various other things. We were lucky again as we had an excellent group of people on our trek. As I was (am) a bit obsessed with elevation and its effects I couldn't help mentioning to the Quebecois that that they may have problems on the third day due to a gain of 1200m up to 3300m. A little stupid of me...and as they seem to get worried I tried to back up and calm them down that things would be fine if they just take it easy going up...I kicked myself for bringing the subject up...

Shortly after dinner we went to bed and tried to sleep. It was a little difficult on those beds. I woke up early in the morning because a slight breeze kept pushing the door open and chilling me to the bones.

Day 2
The second day was another slow and relaxed hike. There was one steep hill to negotiate but it was short and quick, a good thing considering how hot it was. At the top of the hill there was a saleswoman with her kid selling various snacks and drinks. I bought some cookies from the little one. She seemed like she was about 4 years old and her face looked really dried up and destroyed by the sun.

We stopped at the second village and hung out with a local family. Elias asked them for some Tuna (a cactus fruit) for us to try. It was reddish on the inside and quite tasty. Sophie dropped hers on the ground so didn't have much of it. I think she wasn't very eager to try the fruit after she saw the dude bring in a dead owl he found on the road. It was doubtful he washed his hands before cutting our fruits. We sat around there for quite some time chatting and looking into the eyes of the dead owl. As Elias was describing some more about the area the farmer's wife started chatting on the satellite phone (which was supposed to be there for emergencies). It was more like screaming. It was quite amusing. She seemed to be screaming a grocery list into the phone. She was so loud I think she thought that would be the only way her voice could be heard that far away. We all had a good laugh...

We continued walking through the village past mud houses and farms of exotic trees. We could see a road leading up to the village on the other side of the mountain but that road with its 2500m of elevation gain wasn't on our itinerary. We eventually reached a soccer field where we were told there are tournaments between all the villages of the canyon. No one was playing that day though. Higher up from the soccer field were the remnants of some villages that had to be deserted. The villages in this canyon are totally dependent on the melt water from what used to be a large snowfield at the top of the mountains. In 40 years that snowfield got reduced from 60,000 sq kms to 12,000 sq kms. This is due largely to global warming. The villages dependent on this snow pack are more and more at risk. The abandoned villages at the top of this soccer field are the first victims. The rest of the villages are likely to follow the same fate as the snowfield disappears completely.

We walked around the abandoned villages. There was a creepy feeling passing these ghost towns. There was a cross covered with red flowers at the edge of the trail. It is a mix of Christianity and the local superstitions. The red flowers are supposed to keep the bad spirits away.

Shortly after we started descending down to the Oasis. The canyon is all desert with the exception of the green villages and the Oasis in the middle of it. We could see the swimming pools with the hot spring water and could barely wait to get down. We reached another bridge that we had to cross to get to the Oasis. There were a couple of people taking the bridge apart. The first few wooden planks were already pulled out and all the nails were taken out. They said we could cross if we wanted to. Had to walk on a metal wire for the first bit and the last bit and had to trust my life to friction for the rest of the way. Luckily none of the wooden planks fell off and none of us fell of the metal wire. After crossing we mumbled something about "Peruvian style" and continued up to the Oasis.

At the Oasis we were assigned our sleeping huts and told to go swim in the pool while lunch is readied. We quickly changed into our swimsuits and went for a swim. The water was slightly warm. Perfect to cool us down a bit but not too cool enough to freeze us. We spent some time relaxing and then got served with lunch. After lunch we spent some more time lounging about until we got bored and decided to go exploring a bit. Sophie and the Germans came. We tried to find the source of a waterfall but were unsuccessful finding a route there so we tried to find a route down to the water but yet again no such luck. The terrain was too steep everywhere and we couldn't find any easy way to go down or up. Sophie abandoned us on our attempt to go down when saw how steep it was. We eventually settled on exploring the Oasis and found one of the other pools and ran into a sheepherder and his sheep that is supposed to live on the Oasis. The sun set quite quickly. The canyon walls were 3000 meters high and we were at the bottom so it didn't take long for the sun to hide.

We returned to the camp and had some beers with Sophie, Jens and Thorsten followed by dinner. We went to sleep early. We had an early day coming up.

Day 3
We woke up at 3:00am. By 3:45 we finally gathered everyone and started the hike up. Marie Chantale and Karine weren't big into hiking so they unloaded their much too heavy packs on some mules for some Soles. We started hiking up with our headlamps on. It was quite warm at the bottom of the canyon so we didn't need to wear much clothing, as we quickly got hot. The rest of the hike was uneventful. We just went up the switchbacks, each at their own rate seeing only a meter in front. Jens was ahead followed by me and Sophie and the rest of the group was lower down. We passed another group on the way that seemed to be going at snail's pace. Thorsten later caught up to us and took the lead. He got tired of going slow. On the way up we encountered a local woman that was selling hot drinks and snacks about 2/3 of the way up. It was so weird...

1200m later and less than two hours we were back on the ridge where we started from. Two more local women waited up there and sold us Mate de Coca and various other drinks. It was very cold up there at 3300m. It was a huge contrast to the heat at the bottom of the canyon at 2100m. The sun was coming out as the rest of the group arrived. We all made it up in less than 2 hours and a half. They had 3 hours scheduled for the hike. The sunrise over the canyon walls was spectacular to say the least.

We then proceeded back to the restaurant we started from and had breakfast and left on a bus to go see the condors.

The bus stopped at a different point on the canyon and we got out and walked to the observation points. There were crowds of people up there so it was difficult to find a good viewing spot. We waited about 20 minutes looking carefully that we don't miss it. There was a hawk circling down which was not that impressive. All of a sudden we see it. A huge condor passes right below us and circles up. A little later and another. I run and take a few shots with my camera. We saw about 3 or 4 of them passing around there. It's a show they put on every morning as they rise out of the canyon on thermals. They return in the evening to the same nests. The wingspan of one of those condors is over 3 meters long. They are impressive birds.

After seeing the condors we drove to another small town at 3600m and went for a swim in more thermal waters followed by a lunch in another city where I had a tasty Al-Paca steak. We then returned home to Arequipa on another long and tiring bus ride. An awesome trek. Quite relaxing and mellow.

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