Trekking the Colca Canyon
Trip Start
Dec 26, 2006
1
51
90
Trip End
Dec 25, 2007
Colca Canyon, Peru
Saturday, July 14, 2007
In order to ensure we escaped the road blocks the tour company in its wisdom decided to leave at 1am Saturday morning....which gave me enough time to finish watching Zoolander, down my orange mocha frappachino and bluesteel my way over to the bus station where my tour mates Grant and Krista (South Africa) and Blandine (France) were waiting. As it was a local bus we were spared no comforts, such as random blasts of Artic air and a bus full to overflowing with locals to ensure you would not sleep in the five hours it took to get to our breakfast stop.
The first day saw us trek for about 5 hours downhill into the bowels of the canyon where we were to spend our first night. After the Santa Cruz trek in Huaraz the scenery was struggling to compete and the fact our guides seemed to have no idea which path to take down was also slightly disconcerting. But like faithful sheep we followed and after what seemed like an eternity with the camp in sight we finally made it and with a swimming pool on offer, took the plunge. The accommodation was four beds in a bamboo hut but having to get up at 2am to start the walk back up the canyon meant this firm as mattress was not going to see a lot of D Hall action.
When our guide came and shone the torch at 2am to signal the climb up the enthusiasm was, well non-existant. The bed was just too damn comfortable and the thought of hiking in the dark for three and a half hours was not numero uno on the must do list....falling a distant second behind sleep. However with no choice and an urgent need to pee I hauled ass out of bed, grabbed by mini Kathmandu torch (blatant plug, thanks ILC crew) and the group headed up the canyon under the cover of darkness, no moon but the sky was lit up by the thousands of shining estrellas (stars) making for an amazingly serene journey. The serenity, save for shuffling of feet up the ever increasing canyon walls, was most welcome after nearly seven months with few silences. To walk under the carpet of stars, guided only by the ever decreasing glow of the torch was magic, even if the last hour contained a fair bit of duress thanks to the altitude and the increasing slope of the canyon walls. And then as you hit the top of the canyon the glow of the new day took over from the night sky...and a noticable drop in temperature to boot bringing out the gloves and the beanie and another layer of clothes to be sure. It was another experience on the trip that delivered far more than it promised.
After downing a few cups of the famed coca-leaf tea to try return some much needed energy back into the sleep deprived body it was off to see the condors where reports from other travellers went from a lone condor to packs of twenty flying overhead. For us it was to be about 6, well maybe 3 condors flying overhead twice, meaning you do not need you second hand to count. The setting as with most of these things was spectacular as Cruz del Condor drops 1200m to the river below and on the other side of the ravine is the not so insignificant Mismi at 5556m high. Impressive....now if only those damn condors would wake up and fly their asses up to the vantage point and show us some of their famed thermal current gliding skills. And when they finally did (you can see them as black dots on my camera, and a great shot of a wing I took!) they were true to form and impressive in flight...if only the guy with the remote control down the valley below had kept them up in the air just that bit longer.
And with the packed public bus leaving dead on 30 minutes after we arrived in order to beat the soon-to-be-blockaded roads to Arequipa, I bid goodbye to the condors until next I see them in a David Atenborough documentary or some rogue Eastern European zoo with a few held in captivity...or on sale to the highest bidder. With the trip nearly over it was just enough time to spend a couple of lazy hours in the thermal pools (a dollar for every thermal pool in Central and South America and I would be a rich man), get under a roaring hot shower with apologies to the next person as a hot shower is my kryptonite...I just can´t get out from underneath those powerful, massaging, superhot jets of water.
Final stop before another 4 hour bus trip home was the local buffet where every hungry tourist for miles was lining up to cram their sorry ass plates with as much random food as possible just in case a world famine was to break out within the next half hour....just steer clear of the ¨chocolate¨mousse if you know what is good for you! And with a great movie to see us back to Arequipa, ¨Kangaroo Jack¨ featuring a kangaroo speaking in dubbed spanish one question kept going through my head....how did this quality piece of film making never get a look in for an Acadamy Award. So I plead to you, do yourself a favour and grab the dvd from your local store, place it carefully under the front tyre of your car, bicycle or skateboard (along with panpipes you may have laying around) and do not stop reversing over it until it is at one with the road. The world will thank you...well bus travellers in Peru anyways!
