The Colca Canyon

The bus ride from the actual city of Arequipa to the Colca Canyon is over six hours long, but Arequipa is still the big city that people go to in order to see it because that’s just how the geography and the roads work. It’s the same with Machu Picchu, people go to Cusco in order to get there, and Cusco is seven hours away from the base of the mountain. Something that I learned while researching before my trip was that in order to enter the Canyon, you have to buy a tourism ticket for 70 soles, which is about 25 dollars. Most of the money goes to Arequipa and the preservation of the Canyon, so if I was on a shorter trip with some money to blow then I wouldn’t have a problem with paying up, but neither of those things describe my situation so I decided I would do my best to get around it.

When I was looking into it I found that most people explore the Canyon with a guided group, and they leave Arequipa on tourist buses headed for the canyon. These buses stop in the first town inside the canyon and everyone gets off and buys their tickets. After reading this I simply bought a ticket on a local bus where I was literally the only non native and the only one that wasn’t taking the bus to one of the many cities in the canyon that the bus would drive through before hitting it’s end point in Cabana Conde, which is where I started my trek.

I arrived in the evening, found a bed, and went to sleep early so I could wake up and have plenty of time to fool around finding my way and making sure I was doing what I wanted to. My trekking plans were given to me by friends from Colorado who had done the same unguided adventure about a month prior. They had a great time with it so I decided to go about it the same way. I woke up before dawn on the first day to a rooster who was doing his thing well before sunrise, but I suppose it was for the best because I don’t have a watch or any type of alarm clock to get me going. I bought some bread and candy bars and what not at a store, and headed out of town asking every local I passed if I was heading the right way. After some noodling around I was able to follow a sheepherder, and her sheep, out of town in the direction of my trailhead.

One reason I read it’s a good idea to get a guide for the Colca is that they can take you to the best look out points at the right time of the morning to see Condors. Condors are huge birds famous in the Colca Canyon for their 3-5 meter wingspans. A guide will get you up really early and put you into a van, drive you an hour away, all on your tab, and if you’re lucky you’ll get to see them and snap a few pictures. About one hour into my bandit trek, at probably a little after 7am, I saw three of them swooping around as I was making my decent down the canyon. I laughed to myself as I had them in plain site for several minutes, not too far away to appreciate their size. I had paid almost nothing at that point to get where I was standing.

Day 1 included four hours of steep, zigzagging, down hill walking. I don’t like steep down hills all that much. They hurt my knees after hours of using every leg muscle you had to control yourself from toppling forward every step you take. Later on in the trek I found steep downhill’s to be much easier at a faster pace following a zig zag pattern, where you use your momentum to sort of trot, rather then putting the effort into every step to control it, but it took me two more days to develop that technique. The end of the first hike brought me to a place with hot springs, huts, hot dinner, and a fine place to camp.

There I met a Peruvian mother and son who were on a guided tour of the canyon, two American girls and their guide, and finally a group of four guys that were doing it on their own, two Germans, and two French guys. What was cool about their situation is that they had a stray dog following them from the town they started in for the entire 3 days of their trek. Now this alone is really cool, but where it gets cooler is when I realized it was the same dog from pictures, that had followed my friends from Colorado on their trek a month earlier! He sat under their table at dinner, slept outside their hut at night, and followed them through the canyon right up until they got onto their bus back in Cabana Conde. He went through the same routine with the guys doing the trek when I did. What a dog’s life.

On day two my destination was, “The Oasis.” I was pretty exited to see what it would look like. This day consisted of a long uphill out of the canyon, and then a steep decent back down to the river. About an hour into walking I caught up with the Peruvian mother and son, and their guide. They had a mule carrying their things and their guide was doing a fair amount of talking. They were friendly and I stuck with them for a while to get what information I could understand and make sure I was heading the right way. I was reassured of my path and I learned about a plant with toxic milk inside, which was good knowledge to have because they were plentiful on the trail. On my way back down to the river, with my new zig-zag technique, I caught up with the Americans and their guide. I didn’t stick around with them for too long but said hello, and continued down to the oasis.

The oasis was one of the most magical little places I’ve ever been. Surrounded by water, greenery, and towering, colorful canyon walls, I pitched my tent in the soft green grass of a flowering garden, in front of a swimming pool with a waterfall flowing into it. After I had taken my boots off, and was busy shuffling through my pack for a towel, I felt a tugging on my pant leg. I turned around to a little puppy dog trying to play. It was a black lab mutt, and reminded me entirely of my dog at home when she was a puppy.

We played for a little while but then she found my stinky sock and jumped on it. Next thing I knew I was chasing her out of the yard and down a path. This is how I explored the Oasis, by chasing a puppy through green grass, cobble stone trails, flower beds, past tikki huts, and swimming pools, and finally into an open area where the tired pup laid down. Basically put, I had found myself chasing a cute little dog through the gardens of what could have been heaven. I retrieved my sock and we headed back to my campsite for a little while and shared some crackers.

After jumping into the pool and taking a super hot solar powered shower in a hut, I went down to the kitchen to have dinner with the owners. I was the only one staying with them at the time so it was just us at dinner. They spoke no English, so believe it or not this was one of the first times on my whole trip where I didn’t have much of a choice but to carry on a conversation entirely in Spanish, and it went great! I talked about my trip and where I’ve been. I talked about my brother and why he left, and what it’s like to travel alone. I told them about my whole family. When I didn’t know a word I explained myself and learned new words. The guy wanted to buy my rain jacket but I wouldn’t let him. I answered questions about what it’s like to be a twin. I asked questions about what it’s like living in such a beautiful place, meeting tourists all the time.

It was wonderful. Forty minutes of speaking, listening, understanding, and learning from people that I wouldn’t have been able to get one word out of if I only spoke English. My speaking was in no way perfect but that wasn’t the point. We understood each other. It was a huge milestone in my trip so far. It made me more aware of how much more I can really get out of these next three months if I really buckle down and practice everyday.

It took getting away from the school setting to really realize how valuable a skill it is to know another language. It gives you the opportunity to speak to literally millions of people that you couldn’t talk to before. They all have something to tell you, something to learn from you, and something to teach you.

Now I’d like to take a minute here to thank my dad for an awesome Christmas present last year, my half dome 2 tent from REI! Although the days were perfect, both nights I spent in the Colca were rainy and cold, but I was dry and warm! I think one of my favorite parts about camping is when you're in your tent, or camper, and you’re just listening to the rain pound down right above you while you lay there completely safe and sound. It makes me feel accomplished, even though I don’t have to do much.

The next morning I only had what was supposed to be a three-hour hike back to Cabana Conde. The only problem was that I would basically be zig zaging up a wall, over 2000meters was the ascent from where I was to where I had to get. It didn’t help either that most people did the hike with a daypack, or mules to carry their things. I had 35 pounds on my back. About twenty minutes into the climb I stopped for a drink, but I fumbled my water putting it back and lost it down the mountain. I was thirsty, and already pretty sweaty despite the hot sun still being behind the mountain, but I opted not to hike back down. I’m very big on water but I decided three hours without it wasn’t going to kill me.

My game plan was to go fast so that I could be in the sun for as little time as possible; water was my prize up top. I worked hard and tried not to think too much, stopping only a couple times to snap pictures of the amazing view that only got better as I climbed. I got to the top soaking wet to find a bunch of people getting ready to do the morning climb down, and more importantly, just what I was hoping for, a local woman with her blanket out on a rock selling Gatorade and cookies. I chugged the bottle and felt good again. I had done it! To make it all even better, when I asked the women what time it was, I realized that I had just done the climb in a little less than two hours. There was a guide there that seemed to be about my age getting ready to go down with a group. He seemed kind of bitter hearing about my time, especially after I answered his question about the weight of my pack. I thought that was funny. I later wondered if he ever ran into the Americans that I later met on the bus, who had both been to the summit of Everest and came up just about 15 minutes after me with a time just under an hour and a half.

With my first solo trek under my belt, I was very happy with what I paid. It was a small fraction of what I would have paid a guide and it was extremely doable. My advice to anyone who is interested in visiting to the Colca Canyon is just to go. Even if all you have is a day bag with some snacks and water, and you have no idea where you’re going, it would be pretty hard not to find yourself ending your day in a hut along the river with a hot meal. The first day I walked about 4 hours, the second day 5, and the third day 2. A large portion of each day was done with my destination in site and I always got there with hours and hours to spare before sun down. And in my situation, even if I had no sense of direction whatsoever and couldn’t find a place to stay, I had a tent, and enough water to survive for over a week. The Colca Canyon is great, and it’s safe to do on your own. I’ll warn you now that the pictures for this blog from here on out, wont be as great as they were in the past because Joe took his fancy camera home with him. I still have a go pro however, which allows my to view the pictures once I get them onto the computer, so I’ll do my best to keep the images coming.