Colca Canyon Trekking

After shopping around for the cheapest Colca Canyon tours and even bargaining down pricies, we went back to the hostel in Arequipa to do a quick legitimacy test to see if anyone had ever heard of the company we were leaning towards. What we found was a whole slew of reviews lauding a company call Land Adventures, which was not even on our list of possibilities. They weren’t open so we spent another day poolside chilling with the Argentineans and laughing as the hostel hosted “Drinking Game” night. We tried bilingually to teach them Kings, and Jacki failed her country miserably by losing at beer pong =P

We knew we were in for an interesting three days when our to-be guide fell off his chair whilst we were booking the tour. The owner of Land Adventures truly believes in sustainable and responsible tourism and our tour guide, Pepe, clearly had a close relationship with many of the villagers, homestays, and even the little kids.

People have been living in the Colca Valley since pre-Inka times, without electricity until the last 20 years and still without any means of transportation other than their own feet and those of their mules. The one school shared between nine canyon villages was on vacations now, but often Land Adventures brings in volunteers to teach English (or French or Chinese or whatever it may be) just to encourage the kids to learn and the parents to let them.

The second day we awoke to a delicious breakfast of banana pancakes with chocolate. (Fortunately for me, Jacki seems to hate every food I love – so I get seconds of bananas, tomatoes and avocados – seriously … who doesn’t like avocado ? ) 

We spent the most beautiful afternoon in a mountain-nestled lodge/pool call the Oasis. After four hours of morning hiking, jumping into that pool was unimaginably delightful.  We had a fantastic lunch of quinoa soup and some egg/potato/rice dish(Peruvians <3 carbs) before nestling ourselves into the curves of the warm rock to read before we had to leave.

So along the way, Pepe had been telling us about the upcoming three hours. Everytime there had been a difficult up part during the past two days he would tell us “Okay – 5 minutes of this difficulty, you can do it !” Then at the top he would say , “Okay good, now get ready for three hours of that.

With foolish certainty, I elected to climb, as Jacki opted for a mule. I had climbed Machu Picchu! I had brave altitude sickness and hostels high atop hills – how bad could it be?

[yes, afterwards, reflectively, it does strike me as quite odd that I just paid to endure the most grueling experience]

The trek started wonderfully – steep, difficult, but I had found my pace.

In, step step, out step step.

Everytime I stopped to gasp and grasp for air, I was surrounded by incredibly diverse beauty and the rushing sound of the river below.  The rain came slow at first.  Gentle droplets were even welcomes by my overburnt shoulders and heaving lungs.  When the thunder roared, it echoced throught the canyon, seemingly shaking the rocks I was standing on. The lightening was a beautiful acompanyment, and urged us onwards. About two thirds of the way up, drenched, shivering, and gasping for air, I started to reconsider my sanity.  My envy for Jacki and the mule which passed us an hour ago was intense.  As water rushed down the foot path I thought about flashfloods and landslides and tried to recall what was the best course of action should that happen … surely with all my cousins’ zombie preparedness training he must have taught me something usefull about escaping canyons? 

 Finally, we made it to the top, greeted by a beautiful rainbow and a sense of accomplishment unlike any other.  The walk takes an average 3 hrs – I made it in 2hr 20 min. Pepe and I hustled, now bone chilled by the whipping wind to town, and celebrated with the hottest, still dripping with oil French fries we could find, and then met Jacki back at the hotel for hot showers and dinner.

Today, muscles that I didn’t even know I had are aching. But! We saw condors and I kissed a baby Alpaca. Now that I’ve survived, I can reflect with wonder and awe, most likely content to persist in my insanity until the next adventure  =)