After we did some of the tourist sites in town for a few days, we took a bus the Cañon de Colca, which is the world’s second deepest cañon. It’s about twice as deep as the Grand Canyon, even though it’s not as impressive in pictures because the walls aren’t as sheer. Most people who go here go with a guided group, but we read enough people’s reviews on South American Explorers that we knew it to be possible without a guide. The problem is that all the Peruvians you encounter will tell you that it’s too dangerous or too hard without a guide. That’s bullshit and we got really tired of hearing all the lies. From what we heard from some other travelers a bad guide can make it more dangerous – more on that in a bit.
We took the bus straight to Cabanaconde, passing herds of llamas, alpacas and vicuñas and the touristy town of Chivay. In Cabanaconde some guy tried to get us to by a 35 sole (about $12) boleto turistico, which you only need to buy to get admission to sites in Chivay through the Condor Lookout. Fortuneately we knew better and headed straight down into the canyon. It took us about 2.5 hours to get to the bottom, descending about 1000 meters), and San Galle, also known as the Oasis because of all the pretty greenery and pools there. We camped at one of the newer pools called El Eden for 5 soles each, which was very nice, except that in the morning when I had hoped to go for another swim they had drained the pool to clean it. The people there were very nice and wanted us to mention them as they’re less well known than the other spots at the Oasis, so they gave us an avacado as an advertising bribe :-)
From the oasis we climbed the other side of the canyon to a little village called Malata before heading down the canyon to some hot springs called Llahuar. On the way we saw a couple pairs of condors, one time even being startled as a giant shadow passed over us. This was about a 6 hour hike with our full packs, so by the time we got there we were tired and really sore, so we setup camp for 8 soles and soaked in the hot water for probably close to 3 hours. The hot springs are our favorite so far in Peru because there’s a pretty hot pool and it’s all right next to the river and outdoors.
At the hot springs we met a girl who we had seen in our hostel in Arequipa before leaving, and she told us that she had come down with a guide, but that the guide had shown up 3 hours late so they ended up hiking down in the dark and an extremely steep, rocky trail. She also said the guide didn’t even stick with the group, but walked ahead quickly with headphones in. When guides actually make the trip more dangerous it makes me very angry. There are many good guides in Peru that can make trips safer and more interesting, unfortunately there seem to be just as many, if not more, really awful ones.
Anyway, the next day we soaked again in the morning and started the hike out which was more than 1000 meters of climbing. We made it about 2/3 of the way out of the 5 hour hike at a pretty good pace before I got really sick. I hadn’t eaten a lot for breakfast, so I was just dry heaving and felt incredibly tired. I ended up stopping frequently to rest before staggering up a few more feet. At one point I drank some water with a vitamin packet in it that helped perk up my energy, until I threw that up too. It ended up taking about 7.5 hours to get back to Cabanaconde where we spent the night at Valle del Fuego, which had dirty rooms but a good vegetarian menu. Thankfully I felt a lot better the next day, but still a bit weak, which was okay since all we had to do was sit on a the bus back to Arequipa.