At the Colca... Colca Canyon

Mary and I had to endure a looong 32hr bus ride from Santiago to Peru. (And I remember when I thought the 2 hr drive up to my grandparents house was long.) We made it and dare I say it wasn´t that bad, but it better be the longest bus ride I ever have. Peru was vastly different from the clean and organized Chile that we just left. People sat on every street corner either selling stuff or begging, cars clogged up the dirty roads, and finally things were cheap again. We headed up to the town of Arequipa to do a two day hike in Colca Canyon. Arequipa is a very cute little town with restaurants lining the balconies overlooking the central plaza. Once we got there we booked our trek and went to relax and get some food. Finally I got to have the pisco sours that Mary had told me all about and yes they are delicious and addicting.

Early the next morning we loaded our bus taking us to Colca Canyon. We had a puker on the bus which is never a good thing on a 3 hr bus especially for Mary because this smelly puker guy ended up sitting right next to her. She soon was able to tactfully trade seats and sit next to me. On our journey to the Canyon we stopped at Cruz del Condor, the famous cross overlooking the valley. We were lucky enough to even have a Condor, a very important symbol for the Incas, flying in circles above us while we were there. Slowly, we were getting adjusted to the higher altitude as Arequipa is at 2300m and Cruz del Condor is at 3500m. We would be in and out of high altitude areas for the next 6 weeks.
On our first day we were trekking 16km and the second day was only 7 km, but all up hill. We were hiking with two people from Argentina, Marco and Anna, that were on a short holiday to see Peru. The first half of our day was mostly walking down hill which was so hard on our knees and created blisters all over my feet. At the bottom of the hill we went to a local family house for lunch. They had a nice house, clearly funded by the tour groups, and were currently adding additional rooms onto their property. After lunch we still had a good 4 more hours of hiking to do, but this was much more pleasant. We walked through a few small villages that dot the canyon side. Our guide told us all about the fruit trees in the areas and the different uses all the plants have and as is it often the case, everything has a use and is not wasted. Eventually we reached Sangalle, aka The Oasis, where we stayed in a bug filled hut and enjoyed our coca tea.

The next day we rose at 5am to start our 7 km uphill hike out of the canyon. We each found our own pace with Mary leading the pack. I figured this trek would help me get in shape for Inca Trail as I hadn´t seen the inside of a gym or any physical activity in over 8 months. Although marathon girl (yes she found it necessary to wear the whole outfit, all one inch of spandex) beat us all to the top, Mary and I both made it in great time. We then went to the small town of Cabanaconde for lunch. On our way back to Arequipa our group made another stop at another dusty town where there was nothing to do. Since we had 2 hr to kill, Mary and I grabbed a bottle of wine, which we always think is a good idea, and sat down in their beautiful plaza to just enjoy the sunny day.