The Colca we will go...
We´re back from our trek to the Colca Canyon. The van ride to the canyon was great. We saw many Llamas, alpacas, and vecuñas grazing at the side of the road...not quite sure what they were eating (cacti, moss?). The volcanoes were huge, many over 6000 meters. We reached the pass of 5000 meters and then drove down to a small village of Chivay at 3700 meters. Here´s where we left the "tour" (leaving behind bucketfuls of excitement) and headed out on our own. We were warned ahead of time to stay clear of the tourist attraction of Chivay - "natural" hot springs (which is actually a swimming pool with a tin roof, plus hundreds of tourists), and instead took a collectivo to the nearby village of Corporaque. (How you can fit 16 people into a toyota minivan is still amazing) We walked to some natural hot springs which were uncrowded (one other person, a tour guide!), hot, beside the Rio Colca, and gorgeous! Unfortunately at the next town, where we were assured there would be a collectivo back to Chivay every 10 minutes, there wasn´t any bus or van to be found. Our luck turned when we managed to get a ride on the top of a cattle truck which was headed for Arequipa, filled with bulls and cowboys. We got back to Chivay, the ride was COLD! We ran to our hot shower like the "roughing-it" tourists we are.
We joined our tour the next morning and stopped at "the" attraction of the Colca Canyon - Cruz del Condor (said to be the deepest point of the world´s deepest canyon) supposed to be the best place to view condors. With hundreds of other watchers, we saw nada. We left our tour for good and walked to the next town of Cobanaconde. At the next condor-viewpoint. Nada.
Our trek began the next morning with the pre-arranged burro and owner making a non-appearance (not surprising, since we bargained hard and the price was not well received...lesson learned). We started solo and hiked all day to the bottom of the canyon (a drop of 1600 meters). We setup camp in a dust bowl and wanted to cook a meal. 2nd problem of the day - non-compatible fuel. So we had
tomato sauce, chopped onions and peppers and called it salsa. 3rd problem - Bernardo developed a fever that night. The next day was spent recovering and overnight was spent making the grueling climb back up the 1600 meters. At least the next morning we got to eat something other than crackers, candies and chocolate. Oh, and we did see that elusive condor after all.
So the trek wasn´t as we had envisioned (we didn´t reach the small villages of Choco, Chachas, and Andagua), but we managed to salvage our visit to the Colca by hiking down to this tropical oasis, on Carolina´s birthday, and lounging in a swimming pool among palm trees (though 1000 meters down and back up was a lot of effort for the reward).
Now back in Arequipa and there seems to be some unrest, demonstrations in the streets which we could hear early this morning.
We´re leaving for the Heart of the Inca empire - Cuzco tomorrow.
C&O
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