The Mixed Misadventure
Trip Start
Jun 26, 2008
1
24
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Trip End
Jun 2009
Colca Canyon,
Peru
Sunday, October 12, 2008
We booked a tour which was 3 days and 2 nights. The name of this tour - the mixed misadventure- is due to a series of ups and downs. It goes like this:
Bus collects us late. We are with 2 big fat Aussie girls who could be part of an Olymic wrestling team...and a dutch couple who are rather thick! Turns out the bus was late due to the driver apparently eating some dodgy chicken at midnight and he had been sick all night. He was all over the place, we were all over the road and he clearly could not drive. Secondly the van hat we were in was stuffed, the suspension was knackered so every hairpin corner the van would squeel really badly and he would need to drift into the other lane. The other guide refused to replace him and our guide hid in the back! He stopped to vomit and buy Coca leaves to keep awake, nice one! The stop and coca seemed to improve his driving somewhat which was lucky as we had voted to oust him and drive the van ourselves
No condors
. Two hours later and we were nearly at 5000M above sea level in the andies, the scenery was spectacualr and the roads were scary, with all the breaking and hard cornering a funny smell filled the van, it got stronger and we started to see smoke from the front right hand wheel. So we stopped again, this time the driver went off to vomit some more and one of the clueless guides got under the van to see what was wrong. The brakes were toast ! We did manage to arrive saftely to our destination and demanded a different bus and driver for the trip back which was agreed and sorted out!The town of Cabaconde at the top of the Colca is made up of decrepid buildings and small dirt roads. Mostly small scale maize farming. It reminded us of the towns one sees in wildwest films only very run down. Strangely it has a huge church.
Our hike down into the Canyon begain at about 12:30 and it was stinking hot and dusty... With all the mornings excitement and the fact that our "english speaking" guide Freddie was neither engaging nor could he actually speak any English, we were not in good spirits. We tried our spanglish but that too failed. The mood of the 4 of us was not helped as we headed down path littered with scree for 16km and dropping 1200m to the floor of the canyon. It was hot and, although spectacular, our moods stayed sombre. Ems perked up a bit after happy bears, but the rest of us did not smile until we made it to the river.
4 hours later we arrived at a bridge in the base of the canyon, there we rested and the local rangers checked our papers
The canyon
. We had made good time and were told that the camp was only 40 minutes more and flat walking. There were 2 male Torrent Ducks swimming in the rapids which were great to watch... The scenery was green with beautiful gardens of fruit trees and birdlife. We arrived at Camp Gloria and were very happily surpirsed to find nice rooms, cold beer and a hot outdoor shower overlooking the canyon and river. Spectaculkar setting and lovely gardens. Dinner was awesome and we polished off several Arequipena beers and Sprite....
Next day we marched to the Oasis which was beatifully scenic and a nice 3 hour walk. The Oasis is something to behold and the photos dont do this little piece of heaven justice as it is so green in the middle of this very dry dusty canyon. Lunch at the Oasis and Freddie (despite his other inadequacies) cooked up a storm! We needed the sustainance as the next 3 hours we had to walk up, straight up 1200M and 8km of gruelling canyon!!! We all consumed 3 or more litres of water as it was such hard work. The girls and I did well and got up in 2.5 hours. (The walking on the Inca had helped a lot). Gareth managed just over 3 hours which was a brilliant effort, however along the way he had managed to completely lose his sense of humour..... as his first words were... "Dont anyone F&%$ing mention hiking again until we get to Patagonia!"
We stayed in the Pachamamma hostel in town which was fine, we even had large llamas soft toys in our rooms which were smelly and dusty..
At the bottom
. funny !! The beer (we could only manage one between the four of us) went down well and we were all in bed by 8.Next day was more fun in that they had a tremor in the night which had caused a roadblock and we were unsure how and when we would be able to get back. We asked to head straight to Arequipa as we did not want to stop at Chivay or the hot baths and were told this was possible by Freddy. We were fecthed on time and managed to get out of there much to the relief of all. Sadly Freddy has misinformed us (lack of English, incapabale of saying no???) we were to travel back with the wrestling dykes and not-so-bright dutch. Colca was definitely an adventure and we did well. Transport and guide did put a dampener on things... ( We booked with Peru Futura Adventures and would not recomend them.)
Back in Arequipa we bought a couple of bottles of wine, slad, chicken and played cards and enjoyed a laugh or two with the wonderful crazy pair of ladies who run the Hostel.
Next stop.... Puno and over the boarder (Bolivia here we come!!!)
