Friday
9th May
So
little time in Peru left, but still so much to share! I will start with my
weekend day hike through the Colca Canyon, that I did after visiting Arequipa.
Colca
Canyon is the second deepest canyon in the world (it was recently discovered
there is a slightly deeper one right next to it). It is also know for being the
home of many condors. I decided to do a 2-day hike down inside it, where I
stayed one night in an oasis and then walking back up.
The
hike started extremely early on Saturday morning as I left my hostel at 3:00am
and got picked up by bus. We picked up different people through Arequipa and
then made our way towards the canyon, which took more or less 3 hours.
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| Sunrise on the bus |
After
stopping to have some breakfast, we arrived by bus to the ‘Cruz del Condor’ in
the morning. This is one of the famous viewpoints in the canyon and where
usually people see condors. Our tour guide said that they come out much at this
time of the year so not have too high hopes about seeing them. Surprisingly we
saw about 7 condors, which was great! They are gracious birds I think, as they
fly in a very particular way. Unfortunately, they were quite far from us so I
couldn’t get great photos, but the view was beautiful.
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| Cruz del Condor |
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| View from Cruz del Condor |
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| Pretty condors |
After
driving a little longer, we got off the bus and started our 1day hike down to
the bottom of the canyon. In total, we walked for about 7 hours on Saturday to
reach the oasis where we stayed for one night. There were 8 of us: a Canadian
couple, 2 French friends, a man from Czech Republic, our Peruvian tour guide,
one of his friends and me. It was a really nice group of people and most of us
spoke French, which was really nice since I have only spoken Spanish and
English in the past 3 months. Overall, the hike down was fine as it was
downhill, but it was very hot (about 32C) so we had to take breaks and drink
lots of water. At the top of the canyon, the vegetation was extremely dry and
the vegetation was very specific to this climate. I had never seen so many
cactuses before, and they were so huge as well. The views were so different
from anything I had seen before, it kind of felt like I was in a movie. I also
realized how incredibly deep the canyon was. My favourite part of the hike down
was the change in vegetation. The top was so different from the bottom that was
so much greener and richer. We stopped for lunch in a little village and had
some alpaca meat, which I actually really like. We then walked 3 more hours to
reach our destination.
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| Canyon from the top |
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| Walking down the canyon |
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Look at the size of that cactus!
|
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| Arriving at the bottom |
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| Crossing the bridge |
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| Happy times :) |
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| River at the bottom of the canyon |
We
arrived at the oasis where we stayed around 5pm. I couldn’t believe how green
and beautiful it was. There was a stream, so many trees and gigantic palm
trees. We stayed on a little camping site that had simple rooms and a very nice
swimming pool. Unfortunately, we didn’t have much time to enjoy it, as we were
pretty exhausted when we arrived and wanted to get lots of rest before our next
day hiking.
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| Arriving at the oasis |
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Where we stayed
We
had another early start on Sunday and began our hike up the canyon at 5am, so
it was still dark out. It took a total of 4 hours to make it to the top, but
all of it was uphill so it made it a lot more tiring. We crossed some mules on
the way that carry up some tired tourists, we our group made it! We were
extremely happy when we made it to the top. The view was extremely rewarding as
well. We then walked to a small village and had what tasted like the best
breakfast I ever had, since I was so hungry.
|
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| Almost sunrise |
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Sunrise
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| Beautiful canyon |
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| Running into some mules |
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| Finally made it to the top! |
|
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| Group photo at the top |
We
got picked up by bus and started making our way back to Arequipa while stopping
at a few viewpoints and a village on the way that had a beautiful church.
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| View of the canyon |
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| Peruvian man and his llamas |
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| Chivay church |
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| Traditional women's clothing |
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| Soma llamas on the side of the road |
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| On our way back to Arequipa |
I
made it back to Arequipa right on time to catch my night bus back to Cusco to
be ready for school on Monday morning and start my last week :( All in all, it
was a long weekend and I am extremely happy that I visited Arequipa and hiked
down Colca Canyon. I am just getting ready to leave Urubamba right now as I
have my flight back to Lima in a few hours, but a few more posts to come! Next
one about lots of school stuff :)
