Sur America: Arequipa: Peru´s second largest city, and Colca Canyon: World´s Deepest Canyon!

We left the desert to find a canyon. We arrived in Arequipa, found a taxi to take us to Arequipay Backpackers, and within ten minutes of arriving at our hostel we had found a group of travelers headed to the Colca Canyon! As we arrived in the morning we had plenty of time to research our trek, which we wanted to do without a guide. We also gather snacks and food, and explore a bit of Arequipa, the White City. Arequipa would be an awesome place to come learn spanish, as its cheap and there are ample teachers.

Colca Canyon is said to be the world´s deepest canyon at 4160m (13,650ft, you could almost fit Rainier upsidedown in the canyon). As a comparison, the Grand Canyon´s depth is 1800m. I don´t know how they measure depth of canyons but Colca Canyon was a pretty impressive sight. Our trek was to take between two and three easy days of hiking (down, along, and back up) From Arequipa a bus ride takes 5-8 hours, over a 5000m sometimes snowy pass. Our luck would not allow us to get a direct bus so we bussed to Chivay (half way point) and arrived about 9am. As we just missed the 9am bus that would rumble on to Cabanaconde (another 35 miles and 2.5 hours) we had to wait in an Irish Pub we found on the main square of Chivay. Apparently it is the highest Irish pub!? Our 11:30 bus soon arrived at the station and I had to strong arm a few pushy Peruvians out of my way so I could grab Kasey and I a seat. Nearly 2 hours of spectacular views passed by our windows as we bounced and grinded our way along the canyon ¨rim¨ as the river cut a deeper gash in the valley floor.

We hopped off the bus at Cabanaconde and found our way to Pachamama hostel, a place where we knew we could get some up to date info on our trek. With another cartoon drawing of the valley we set off to find the trail head, about 30 minutes walk back towards Chivay. At the lookout/trail head we were able to see nearly our entire path, it looked pretty easy except for the 1000m down and up that we would have to do! Our first destination was San Juan, about 2.5 hours downhill. We took a load off at Roy´s place and his wife cooked up some dinner (soup, alpaca and rice, mint/coca tea) for us before we laid down our heads.

The next morning we were up early to eat some grub, (pancakes from Roy´s wife), pay the bill (S/.23 each for 2 meals and a bed), and head towards Sangalle the Oasis. The trail was cake except for loosing one of our party for most of it due to a bathroom run. We hiked through some small villages, and gazed up at the columns of basalt and landslides that have been slowly eroding over the years. At the Oasis we decided to have a relaxed day and not head back up to Cabanaconde (a three hour climb up to the top) and instead read, chatted and took in the scenery. Pablo´s place turned out to be a black hole for a number of items including a $400 rain jacket and sunglasses that our group of 8 ¨relenquished¨ to the canyon spirits. We paid about the same here for accomidation and meals, aside from what was misplaced...

Two of our group woke early to fly up the mountain and bus back to Arequipa as they needed to get back for a night bus to Cusco. The rest of us took our time getting ready and then we flew up the switchbacks, I always like going up rather than down. Half way up we were lucky enough to spot 4 Condors; these birds are massive, and ugly! At the top we trodded towards Pachamama to find some PIZZA! Strangely enough we ran into two different couples that we had met previously on our trip, a couple of dutch and a few kiwis, so cool!! Ping pong was played in the street before we headed in for some woodfire pizza (the best we have had since getting to South America) We also had to try some Pisco sours. It was awesome running into Katy and Baz (kiwi´s) again and they shared their Bolivian itinerary with us and some must do´s.

Our bus ride back to Arequipa was bumpy and sleepy, but we felt good about our time in the canyon. The only downside was that we ¨had¨ to pay the S/.70 ($28US) entrance fee to the canyon, which never got verified by any official type person. But the views and the sights were at least worth the sore legs :)

The White City has been fun and we wish we could hang out here longer. But, we are off to Puno tomorrow, on the shores of Lake Titicaca. Then heading in to Bolivia shortly after Puno and maybe some festivals!!!