The Colca Canyon

The Colca Canyon in the southern part of Peru is twice as deep as the Grand Canyon in the US and is promoted as the deepest canyon in the world. Needless to say, it is a stunning place to visit especially since there are many day or multi-day treks that can be done with relative ease, as you can stay overnight in the small villages along the way.
Besides the canyon itself, the area is famous for the Condors, huge prehistoric-type birds that can be seen in the early hours of the day soaring through the valley.

We stayed one night in Arequipa and left at 3am the next day (!!!) on the bus for Cabanaconde, a small town 5 hours away from where most of the treks are accessed. We stopped at the Cruz del Condor, a viewing point where Condors are usually sighted. Unfortunately we were only rewarded with a glimpse of one far away, but this was rectified later in the trip. Ben compensated with a striking Condor-pose of his own, and this picture really comes alive if you sing "Condor-maaaan!" to the tune of Superman. Oh yes.

Since we have recently done lots of "hard-core" trekking, we elected to take it a bit easy and use Cabanaconde as our home base and do day treks from there. A tip to future travellors: do NOT pay for the guided tours. There are so many excellent maps and the treks are relatively easy. Since you will be stopping at towns there is no need for much in the way of equipment. You can buy a cheap bus ticket there and back with Aliberry tours, who have an agency in town, and they will stop at hot spots for your viewing pleasure.

Anyhoo, we stayed at the Pachamama Hostel, which we whole heartedly recommend as it is a fun, hip establishment with a cool bar and wood fired oven for the best pizza in town.

The first day we did a day hike up the canyon wall to the Kallimarca ruins, which after having seen Machu Pichu weren´t terribly stunning but it was a fun walk through lush countryside full of terraces to a beautiful viewpoint of the valley. The area is entirely devoted to the growing of organic corn, and it was very picturesque. We had a nice lunch at the top as a reward. After descending, we had a long afternoon nap to catch up on our sleep and woke up to enjoy some local Arequipena beers and Pisco Sour with pizza at the hostel. Yum!

The next day started bright and early as we planned to hike down to the deepest part of the Canyon where there was apparently an Oasis to be found. We hadn´t seen any pictures or heard much about it so we didn´t know what to expect. Therefore it was more than a pleasant surprise that after hiking 2 hours straight down into the desert-like valley there actually WAS an Oasis, complete with palm trees and even a few rustic resorts with beatiful bright blue swimming pools.

The one we chose to spend the day in had a pool beside a large rock we used to sunbathe, hammocks, waterfalls for washing and a volleyball net to boot. It cost us 3 soles each to use the facilities, and a simple but delicous lunch was 10 soles. Not too shabby to pay 5 CAD for a full day in paradise. We were finally lucky enough to have a view of a Condor swooping up above, which made for a perfect day. It was clear blue skies until it was time for us to leave, after which the clouds rolling in provided a nice shade for the return hike.

The hike back up to Cananaconde from the Oasis is infamous, as it is very steep going and equivalent to being on a stairmaster for what most people takes about 3 hours. We would like to credit our previous hikes for what may be a record breaking 1.5hrs for us to complete the ascent, woohoo! That and the threat of thunder which definitely helped with motivation.

The last day we took a public bus to the town of Yanque, where we enjoyed the hot springs. After hitching a ride with some friendly Americans to Chivay, the next big local town, we got to hang out with some pretty ladies and their friendly alpacas.

We caught a ride with the tourist bus back to our home base of Arequipa where we arrived with fond memories of the Colca Canyon, and especially the Oasis :)