3 Days in the (2nd) Deepest Canyon in the World

While in Arequipa, we decided to take a several day trek into the Colca Canyon, the 2nd deepest canyon in the world (2nd only by about 500 feet). The canyon is about 2 times as deep as the grand canyon, although the views of the grand canyon are far more spectacular, as the canyon is so wide and the rim seems so flat.

Our hike wasn't terrible difficult - we really only hiked 3-4 hours per day, but what we saw was spectacular. On day one, we took a 6 hour bus from Arequipa to a Cabanaconde, a town on the rim of the canyon. The drive out there was spectacular in itself. As we started to drive into the valley that is at the head of the canyon, we saw miles and miles of spectacular terracing in the mountains to grow crops. It is difficult to descibe, but picture a fairly narrow and steep valley that is 100% terraced for farming... Another great part of the trip was by the end of the bus ride, there were about 4 gringos on the ride and about 30 women in native dress. Once we arrived in the town and had some lunch, we hiked down about 3000 feet, from the rim of the canyon to the bottom... we then crossed the river at the bottom and hiked up about 300 feet to a little (and I mean little) pueblo where we stayed for the night. This pueblo was spectacular enough in itself - it had no electricity and no roads - the only way to reach the modern world was to hike out the way we came, which people did about 1 time per week to get supplies. We stayed at "La Casa de Roy", a local guy who set up a hostel in this little village. His land was pretty spectacular... it wasn't too large, but had an amazing view of the canyon. There was a small kitchen house, a bathroom (with a flush toilet!), a few cabins for visitors, and then their little sleeping area. He and his wife lived there with his mother, 2 kids, and a lamb. After settling in, we had some !popcorn!, which was amazing, and then relaxed a while before dinner. Beth and I talked to Roy for a while who showed us how he was building a new cabin, combining some old techniques with some new ones (like plastic on the roof to save on thatching material). Dinner was a nice corn and vegi chowder and then some rice, lentils, and soy meat for dinner. After dinner, we headed to bed at about 8pm (it had been dark for 2 hours already) and slept until 7am the next day.

To our surprise, breakfast the next morning was pancakes - does it get any better? We left at about 8am and walked to our next spot in about 3 hours - mostly flat hiking along the lower portion of the canyon. We went through two more tiny towns - both amazing in the same remote way. It is unbelievable that people still live so cut off for modernity still. And as far as I can tell, most of the people want to live the way they are... they are poor in terms of money standards, but they have quite a lot. For the most part, they grow everything they need and only buy housing supplies (tin for the roofs, etc..) and coca cola from town. Anyway... back to the hike. We ended the hike for the day by dropping back to the river and to "The Oasis" - an area made solely for hiking tourists, but excellent none the less. There were 2 swimming pools filled with waterfall water (although relatively warm), a number of huts to sleep in (just bamboo and dirt floors), and a few buildings to cooks, sell water from, etc.. We hung out for the afternoon, swimming, eating, relaxing, reading, doing yoga, etc...

The next morning, we woke up a bit before 3am and were hiking by moonlight, up the canyon wall, by 3am. The hike out took just over 3 hours - pretty rough hiking, but short enough to make it bearable. We ended the trip with some breakfast in Cabanaconde, a trip to an Andean Condor lookout, and a bus ride back to Arequipa (7 hours in total - yuck!).

We chilled out for a few hours before getting back on the overnight bus to head up Cusco... and here we are now, in one of the most amazing cities we have seen! More on Cusco later.

Oh yeah, and I should mention that we did the hike with a couple from Ireland - Michael and Sandra - great people that we hope to run into again up here in Cusco.

Chao,
mike.