Colca Canyon Day 1

Saturday 12th April







Another early start this morning ready for our guide - Carlos - to pick us up at 0530. There was only one other person in our group - Kirsty from Scotland. We booked the tour with Land Adventures - who actively support the villages in the canyon with education and volunteer programmes (as well as Christmas parties for the kids!).

We caught a bus from the main bus terminal in Arequipa to Cabanaconde, which was the starting point for our trek. The trip was rather interesting as it was a local bus, and the bus driver would stop anywhere along the road to pick people up and drop them off, and people just kept piling in until we literally could not have fit one more person on the bus.

We passed through such varied landscape on the way from fertile valleys to very arid altiplano (high desert) - the contrasts were spectacular. We also passed through an area of National Park and managed to spot some vicuñas, which are rare members of the Alpaca family.

It took 4 hours to get the Chivay where we stopped to grab food and have a loo break. Then it was back on the bus for another 2 hours to Cabanaconde. Once there we had lunch at a simple restaurant and then set off on our trek at 1330.

After walking for about 30mins we reached the edge of the Colca Canyon and got our first view. It was pretty stunning - and also a lot greener than I expected. Then came a 3 hour walk down the steep side of the canyon into the valley at the bottom, on a zig-zag path covered in loose gravel, so very slippery. Then we crossed the river and and walked up to the first village - San Juan de Chucco. Most of the tour companies stay at this village, but we continued on for another hour to Cosñirhua, where Land Adventures have helped build a hostel for trekkers.

The hostel was pretty cool, with adobe mud rooms, but proper beds and even hot water from a solar heated system! So after a lovely warm shower and some decent food, we crashed into bed about 2130, so we would be bright eyed and bushy tailed for another day of walking tomorrow.