Colca Canyon
Trip Start
Feb 06, 2006
1
44
58
Trip End
Aug 01, 2006
Arequipa,
Peru
Wednesday, May 31, 2006
Well, we did it - Conquered Colca canyon without a guide, but not without a few bumps and bribes... we took the 2am bus with all the other tourists (and a few locals sitting in the aisle), but when ALL the tourists got off at the Condor lookout we stubbornly remained on with the locals and continued the trip to Cabanaconde, a very small and friendly town located at the beginning of the Colca trek. Bought some food and directions from a little shop and were on our way... thanks to a random guy waiting at a random sign in the middle of the road to nowhere, we made our way onto the beginning of the trail
01. A women and her donkeys, Cabanaconde
. Halfway down the trail we met a kid from San Juan who shared some pukai with us, which was a fruit like a cross between a banana and a bean pod. Crossed the bridge and again was saved by a random person in the middle of nowhere who told us to take the left up the steep hill towards san juan, to cut out the two hours of the hike that went to tupay, she obviously could see we weren't interested in overdoing it. Walked through the two small towns, san juan and the one that begins with an m, both with lots of mud architecture, abandoned stone houses, donkeys, empty hostels, and expensive fanta. Began the descent to the oasis after a short stop in san juan and some help from more people and their donkeys. Finally made it to the oasis around 2, and as we arrived to the beautiful pool in the rocks at the hostel to wash up, the sun dipped behind the canyon around 3 and gave us the perfect excuse to sleep until dinner. Soup and spaghetti and back to bed, since we had to start the ascent at 3 am to beat sunrise... on our way up... worried we didn't have enough water, but we had for a minute forgotten the south American entrepreneurial spirit and there were not one but two places in the middle of the canyon where we could purchase coke, fanta, tea, chocolates, cookies, crackers, water. But they didn't have bagels so we moved along. Made it to the top in time to catch the first bus to the cruz del condor, saw about 7 condors flying around the canyon in just half an hour, hopped the next bus to Chivay, another town on the canyon, gloating about how well we did without a tour..... until we got to chivay and realized there were `no seats` on any buses going to arequipa, which we had to get back to since we had bus tickets out and a flight booked in nazca.... So we did the only logical thing. We bribed the guy selling bus tickets, and magically, he erased two names on the seating chart and wrote ours in their place. Amazing what 3 extra dollars can buy you. We still had four hours to waste in the small town which was incredibly easy since we love eating and walking slow. Made it back to arequipa just in time to board yet another bus and spend another night sleeping sitting up. 
