rakish richard's rants...

Colca Canyon

Loyal Readers,

It's been a while since the last update and we've had some fun expeditions, so I'll try to bring you up to date. The first little trip to tell you about is our time in Arequipa, where we headed to after the Isla Del Sol, in Lake Titikaka. We made our way to Arequipa on a long day bus, with our kiwis, Mike and Anita in tow. Arequipa's a really lovely little town with a beautiful central square bordered one one side by the cathedral, cut from the porous white stone that many of the buildings in the centre are made from. We were staying at the highly recommended Casa De Avila, which used to be a cooking school. It surrounds a lovely little grassed courtyard overlooked on three sides with two storey galleries, and comes complete with a 70 year old tortoise named Paco, who slowly plods around nibbling on what he can find, toes included. Frequent visitors also included hummingbirds, which I didn't realise I was such a fan of until I actually saw one. They're completely mesmerising to watch as they hoon around from flower to flower, masterfully pivoting themselves into position as they systematically sup nectar. Pretty damn cool indeed, and another one to add to the inventory.

We met up with Mike and Anita for some lunch and thanks to their recommendations we booked a 3 day hike down into Colca Canyon, starting on the 13th. We were up at 3:30am to get picked up, and after a couple of hours of very bad sleep in the van our first stop was at the Cruz Del Condor, the world's best spot to see Andean Condors soaring while they hunt. We were very lucky in our timing, and got about 15 minutes of seeing about 4 of these huge birds circling nearby and below us in the canyon before they decided that better cuts of rotting carrion could be found elsewhere.

After leaving the condor lookout, we followed the ever deepening canyon down to the town of Cabanaconde, where after learning the names of the rest of our 11 strong group we started the 9km descent into the canyon. Almost as soon as we left, a little yellow dog joined us. He ended up following us for all three days, and features in a commemorative portrait below. We descended over 1,200m over that distance, and despite being downhill all the way it really takes its toll on your legs. The views vary from perspective defying vistas down the valley, to impossibly vertiginous drops of several hundred metres over the sides of the trail, and you can see the various strata of the different types of rock curving down the valley. Our guides Carlos and Rousbel were excellent, full of facts and help with the descent. They had an uncanny ability however to keep appearing ahead of us after we thought they were at the back of the group. The route is thousands of years old, and is criss-crossed with alternative trails and shortcuts. We got to the bottom of the canyon for a short rest, where we were then told we had to climb another 300m up to the village we were staying in! This last stretch was pretty hard going, but the legs were feeling the satisfaction of a deep, deep burn. We stayed under the full moon in a tiny little village, one of about 4 in this part of the valley. The untouched nature of these were the original reason people started hiking in to the canyon, and the locals quickly started renting out rooms to the tourists who came through, allowing them to earn factors more than their neighbours as farmers. As more and more people got in on the act, the villages emptied as whole families sent their children to Arequipa or Lima to study, having the effect of depopulating the villages. Strange to have this explained to us as we were walking through, seeing the closed schools and abandoned houses.

The next day we walked back down to the floor of the valley, to a little oasis full of natural hot pools, where we bathed away the aches of previous day's hiking, and took a couple of hours rest before contemplating the 1,200m ascent back up out. Mules were available to hire for the climb, and Ana took advantage of the knock-down rate to leave us in her dust. We also hired another one to take our backpacks, it was a case of trying to shave off every kilo for the climb! We made plenty of rest stops on the way up, taking lots of photos of the scenery (just as good on the way up as on the way down), and our rocking little dog who after flirting with other groups was now firmly aligned to us. We did the climb in about 2hrs 20mins, a little under an hour longer than the mules, and got to the top just in time for sunset. I understand now the need to 'warm down' after exercise - I could feel everything seizing up very quickly!

Ana had obviously arrived earlier, and was clean and fresh when the rest of us rolled in. As rewarding as this climb was, after 20km I felt about 106yrs old and had a noticable hobble. Between Ana's saddle injuries and my prehistoric legs we made a pretty sorry pair and fell into bed after a few beers with our team in the bar. It turns out all but two of us were heading on to Cusco, so we booked our passage with CIAL on an overnight bus, and after a quick bite to eat settled in to what turned out to be the plushest bus journey we've taken yet. Leather seats, a waiter serving drinks, and tourist videos of our destination set the scene for a really good ride. My jaw hit the floor however when our bus attendant brought round blankets and literally tucked us in before killing the lights for the overnight stretch! We slept pretty well, which was just as well, as Anita told us the journey took in many winding turns around steep drops on the road to Cusco.

We arrived at 5:30am, in what felt like a bit of a hurry, being asleep up until about 5 minutes before pulling in to the station. We shared a cab to the hostel Mike and Anita had booked for themselves, and seeing there was a room free, and not being the time of day one likes to walk around checking the options, we took it and grabbed a few hours shuteye until a more reasonable hour.

Cusco is really lovely as well, nestled in a little valley, and a lot lower than where we're previously been. That's it in the picture to the right, the main square and the now requisite Jesuit Church. We had a nice little wander around - good to actually have the energy to do it now! - wrote our next batch of postcards, and booked a trip up the Sacred Valley to connect with our train to Manchu Picchu. More on that adventure in the next post... We met up with our kiwi friends again later that day for some drinks at the reknown Los Perros bar, which was a welcome change from the slightly repetitive menus you find elsewhere in the town. Who knew you could actually eat Yukka plants, deep fried with tasty dips? The bar was very smooth, couches and the usual live-in dogs. There's Ana and Anita at left, with a visitor from the Hawkes Bay. We had a very fun night, knocking off a few pisco sours and three bottles of wine. The kiwis are good folk, and we're looking forward to seeing them again in NZ in the New Year. That was our last night in Cusco before we took off for Manchu Picchu, so get yourself comfy, grab a napkin, and tuck into the next installment...

A

posted by Arch @ 7:50 PM