Colca Canyon - Down & Up

I woke up at 3.30am for a 4am pick-up as I was heading to one of the deepest canyons in the world (I think the second deepest) for an overnight trek into the canyon.

Before we started the trek, we did a few stops on the way to appreciate the beauty of the canyon, its depth and its wildlife - in particular the Condor, which is the largest vulture in the world. Since visiting Colca Canyon is the third most popular attraction in Peru, the Condor stop was quite crowded and I was glad to trek into the canyon to get away from the crowd.

The plan was to basically hike all the way down to an oasis, sleep there and then walk the entire way up the next morning. It meant on the first day to literally just hike down with hardly any flat or up sections. Definitely strenuous on the knees, but the views were incredible. It was my first time hiking into a canyon and I was amazed by what nature can create over thousands or millions of years.

It took us a solid 6h to reach the oasis where we would sleep and after arriving, we quickly changed into our swim shorts and took a dip in the pool, before the sun went down.
Again, we went to bed shortly after dinner, as it was an early start again tomorrow.

We headed off at 4.30am and this time it was literally just zigzagging our way up and out of the canyon. It took us around 2.5-3h. Whilst we were obviously starting in the dark, daylight broke pretty quickly and morning colours in the canyon were beautiful and made the incline a little bit more bearable. It wasn't all too bad, to be fair, but whilst the end looked near after just one hour as we could see the trees at the top of the canyon, the hike up dragged on for a lot longer than it looked.

Once all in our group made it up, we headed for breakfast and then a drive back to Arequipa with another stop to spot alpacas, llamas and vincunas. Back at the hostel, I chilled out on the rooftop bar to soak in the last sunset in Arequipa, had a few drinks and chatted with the bar staff about everything and nothing.

Colca Canyon was definitely a cool thing to do and the landscape was fantastic. Of course, we did not hike down the deepest part of the canyon, but still, I enjoyed the hike down and the scenery. Now I can only imagine what the Grand Canyon must look like from below!

With Arequipa in the bag, it was now time to head to Peru's probably most interesting and culturally fascinating city - Cusco.Lue lisää