The Colca Canyon trip was amazing. It was better, and different to what I expected. We left the hostel in a minibus at 3am and travelled for 3/4hrs to a place in the middle of nowhere and had some breakfast. We then travelled for another couple of hours and stopped off at a lookout over the canyon and spotted condors. They are one of the biggest birds in the world and have a massive wingspan. The roads were so bumpy and Jen and I were sat in the back so we had a bumpy ride. We then drove through a dusty tunnel and got into a bit of a traffic jam, so all the buses had to reverse out. We then went to the beginning of our trek where Pepe (our tour guide) gave us a history of the canyon and what they grow there and how the people live. We then started the trek and walked down one side of the canyon. It took us a few hours to get down. It kills on your legs going downhill so a few hours of walking was quite hard. The canyon was really steep and the sun was out so it was really hot. We stopped in a tiny village for lunch and topped up our sun cream. Pepe explained how the people living there were self sufficient and hardly left. They would only leave to buy clothes or things like that as the only way to get out of the canyon was the route we'd just walked. After lunch we walked along the bottom of the canyon, up and down hills and to an oasis. As soon as we arrived we jumped in the pool there (more like a pool of cold water), but it was refreshing and we 'washed' ourselves. After five minutes it was pretty cold in there and the sun was going down, so we went to play cards and have a drink near the kitchen area where there were tables and chairs. We then played cards with everyone and Pepe taught us a great version of snap which was good, being such a big group. They cooked us soup and then chicken and rice for dinner, followed by a cup of tea. We then went to bed at the late time of 9:15pm after looking at the stars. The beds were basic and comfy enough, too bad we were getting up at 4:45am though...
DAY 2:
I don't know what was more annoying: the dogs barking in the middle of the night, the cockerel making noises or Rene's alarm going off, the alarm being a person saying 'it's time to get up, it's 4:45am' on repeat for a whole minute. I can still recall that so vividly! We got up and started walking at 5:15am. Four girls opted to go up to the top on mules as they didn't think they could do the trek up the canyon, so they left later, at 6:30am. The rest of us wanted a challenge and slowly but surely climbed the way to the top. Everyone went at their own pace and we got there after 2 hrs 15 mins, so 45 mins earlier than predicted by Pepe. It was a great feeling getting to the top and my calf muscles were killing. We beat the mules though, and they arrived ten minutes after us. We had some snaps at the top and walked half an hour to the nearest village for some breakfast. We battled with a fast flowing stream along the way, some people taking their shoes off to climb across. After breakfast we got in the minibus and headed back to Arequipa. We stopped off at a couple of lookouts and then arrived at the hot springs. We'd all been looking forward to it. We crossed a rickety bridge one by one and chilled in the hot springs for an hour. We actually enjoyed sitting in the cold river with the sun on us as it was more refreshing, but we massaged our sore muscles in the hot pools. Afterwards, we re-fueled with a buffet lunch peruian style, and ate loads, so were super stuffed afterwards. It took us three hours to head back to Arequipa. We arrived at 5pm and said bye to our great group and Pepe. Jen and I had several cups of tea and showered. It got later and we just went and grabbed a sandwich in town and came back and headed to sleep!
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