Trip one out of Arequipa, this time to the Colca Canyon which is either the deepest or second deepest canyon in the world, depending on what book you read. Either way this is a Canyon about 6 hours north of Arequipa which is fairly easy to reach by public transport. We jumped on a bus at 11:30am to arrive in Cabanaconde on the edge of the canyon around dusk. The first people we bumped intowas a French couple and the girl was being carried around by her husband because she had done in her ankle down the gorge. Hopefully not a sign of things to come.
The next day saw us getting up at 5:30am, yes we really did get up that early! As such we were on our way by just a little after 6am. According to the maps and people we talked to our route should take about 9 hours, and that is with no rests or lunch! Undaunted we strode off to get lost before even getting to the canyon. A tough cross country route over the fields brought us back on course to a plummet of 1300m down to the Sangalle Oasis. Now 9am and both of us knackered, 15mins lying in the sun brought us back to reality and we set off over the Colca river and up 500m to the small village of Malata, where another pause was required. Looking up at the towering mountains (2000-3000m up) on each side of us made us start to wonder if we would make the full circuit. A coke later and on we went towards San Juan and the bridge back over the Colca. This bit of the journey was very pleasent, a wander through some villages and down past fields and Roy´s hostal - there are a lot of arrows drawn on the rocks to direct you to this hostal. About 1:30pm we were sitting at the bridge looking up and wondering how the heck any path was going to get up the cliffs. Setting off up the path we gradually found out how - a heap of winding and very precipitous drops on either side is the answer, it was also a heck of a long haul, taking us the best part of 5 hours to climb up. With hindsight and a closer look at the heights of the villages we had climbed approximatly 1800m that day which is a big walk never no matter what.
Early to bed that night, rather tired for some reason.
1 comment:
Sounds fantastic - mum has a map that she is marking the route on for GG - might be quite useful for me!!!!I have been having email problems and mum is very keen to write to you at a traditional poste restante address - any chance you could email dad with a postal address somewhere!!! All wellhere - on holiday in Gairloch and sun burnt!! Flat all well - plants look crap but they always have!! Anyway - must gp - A and I meant to be sleeping in tent and Iona just appeared at the back door - guess I should go and see what she wants...or let her in!! Take care
shona
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