Trek down the Colca Canyon and up again - by Bryan

  Colca Canyon, Arequipa, Peru Friday, March 25, 2016

Time to go and see the Colca Canyon, which is 3,270 m deep making it twice as deep as the Grand Canyon in the USA, and it is the third deepest in the world, Cabanaconde also in Peru (3,354 m deep) and the impressive Yarlung Tsangpo Grand Canyon in Tibet (6,009 m deep), however due to National Geographic ignoring the Yarlung Tsangpo all reports claim Colca Canyon to be the second largest. So now we have set the record straight, this canyon is impressive in so many ways. We found two options to see the canyon; one with a trek, the other a bus tour, both taking two days and one night away and both covering more or less the same route - with the addition of a trek down into the canyon for the walking tour. Jody decided on the tour bus to the the canyon, which was to leave at 8am, whereas I went for the gruelling walking option which left at 3am. The journey from Arequipa to the Colca Valley was to take about 6 hours either way. My trip left in darkness and the first the first stop was breakfast in Chivay, at around 9am. A nice and very friendly little town at the beginning of the canyon.  By now most of us from the bus were awake from the long journey and we started to introduce ourselves to each other, some Brits, some Auzi guys, a Dutch chap, and Leon from Paris.  One of Leon's first comments was you must be mad just wearing a t-shirt when it is so cold. I just smiled and I told her I was from Scotland. Breakfast finished and back on the bus this time to head to 'Cruz del Condor' or Condor Cross to give it it's English name. The canyon is home to the Andean condor and we were off to see if we can find these majestic birds.  Once here, you can view the condors soaring through the canyon and riding on the thermals rising up from the base of the canyon.Then a short bus ride to the top of the trekking route, which is about a 22km walk down the canyon and stopping for the night at an Oasis at the bottom. Sounds idyllic. Followed by a 5am start to head back up the canyon. Not so idyllic!The route is a well trodden route and it starts at just over 3,200 m, with a 3 hour trek down to a bridge crossing the river that formed the canyon.  Going down means you can talk easily enough and Leon and I chatted all the way down talking about our travels and experiences around the world.  The walk was hot though as we had started off at midday which is not the best time of day to be start for sure. At this point I was so glad I had worn only my teeshirt!. About three hours later we crossed the bridge.This now meant we had to start going up for a short period of time and this was going to be hard for two main reasons; the heat and the altitude. I was getting so hot and sweating so much I ended up drinking over 3 litres of water by the end of the first day's walk. Going up the canyon was so hard to breath it was like I could not get enough oxygen into my lungs, taking it as easy as I could it was still hard work. Finally we reached the other-side of the canyon where two small villages, Cosńirhun and Malata, would make the hiking easier as it levelled out.  Then we started to head even deeper into the Canyon and down towards to Oasis where we were due to spend the night.The views going down again were just stunning and breathtaking (and I don't mean because of the thin air!) We arrived at the Oasis with about an hour left of sunlight so time to get into the pool to relax and cool off. We played a few silly games as a group to unwind before dinner.  Then just as we were heading to our beds, our wonderful guide (detect the note of sarcasm here) explained that we will be up at 5am and 'make sure you have your torches, breakfast will be at the top at 9:30am'. Hang on....!   Torches? no one mentioned torches, and wait no breakfast before a 1 km vertical climb up the canyon.  You can't say all of this just as we are about to go to bed, we were not happy as a group especially about not having any breakfast before such a strenuous trek.  We made our feelings known to the guide, we were not happy bunnies! Now a bit about our guide, I would not really call him a guide at all as all he did was say right we are here to see xyz and back on the bus in x minutes.   Not once did he say anything about the canyon or any history or information about our trip.  This was very poor show and really disappointing for us. I thought it really important to let Peru Hop (who acted as an agent) know about this, so as they can improve on it for future trekkers. Anyway, back to the trek. 5am we awoke and I rustled together the food I had brought with me so I could eat something before I started treking up the canyon.  Bandaged up my feet as they had huge blisters from the previous day and headed off to meet everyone else. At 5:20am we headed out to the start of the switchbacks.  Okay here we go 1 km up, this was going to be hard.It was hard. Very Hard.  I decided that I would walk 15 minutes and then have a minutes rest and then on the hour have a 5 minute break.  This routine worked well as it gave me short goals to reach while still keeping on the move when I was feeling very tired. One the way up we would be passed by the mules carrying the, what I would call, lazy people but actually in retrospect I would call the sensible people!With the mules passing it did mean I would get a little extra bonus rest while tI stopped to let them pass. The views on the way up were just stunning. And as we were in the shade it did mean it was much cooler but still the high altitude caused a shortness of breath.Finally after 140 minutes I reached the top, well knackered and glad it was all over, my legs were aching and my blisters had blisters, my feet were so sore.  But it was done and time to go and get a breakfast.  The coffee at breakfast was like treacle and I filled it with four spoonfuls of sugar, oh this was so nice so I had a second cup. I really enjoyed this trek, even though it was gruelling and incredibly hard at times, but it was great to have the support from Leon who would be waiting for me at points around the route to make sure I was still going. Cheers Leon!Would I do it again though I hear you ask? Nope...! Never again. But if I came back here again it would be on the bus the way Jody did it!   [gallery columns="4" ids="12393,12394,12396,12399,12401,12406,12410,12414,12419,12430,12440,12451,12469,12481,12505,12504,12502,12493,12494,12490"]