Colca Canyon trek

After four pretty chill days in Arequipas, it was time to get serious. What's backpacking without a few hikes and treks? First up was the Colca Canyon 2 day, 1 night trek last week. The first day was all down hill, most of it wasn't crazy steep, but regardless, all day downhill wreaks havoc with the knees but I had my hiking poles which helps sooooo much. I had to be up at 2:30 a.m. and ready for the pickup at 3:00 a.m. From there it was a few hours in the shuttle bus to a little breakfast place, then off to the condor viewing point where we saw a total of 0 condors save for some enterprising Peruvians who were in Condor costumes and took pictures with tourists for donations.

In total, the climb down and then up the next morning, was pretty difficult, and being in decent shape doesn't quite cut it for this type of hike. My muscles had to relearn the experience of all day downhill and then extreme uphill, and it was almost all steep and almost all rocky. My legs were screaming in pain for a couple of days afterward, and going up and down stairs were a constant reminder of how not used to this type of exercise my legs were.

I had visions of being able to join Renay on one of her multi day hikes in Europe during my first day going down, but all those delusions vanished quickly during the slog that was day 2 and worries I might be entering my donkey days. Ackkk!! We had to start at 4:30 in the morning and our guide told us that if we didn't reach a certain point by 6 a.m. that would mean he'd have to call in the donkeys because we'd be too far behind schedule. That lit a fire under my ass but the body can only do what the body can do, especially at 62 and with a lingering cold and kinda high altitude. But I was encouraged by the many other hikers I came across on the path - the guides of course are in another league - who were all labouring as much if not more than I was. Interestingly, the little group I ended up being with was a family of French-Poles - a young guy and two young women, aged 22 to 27 I think, and their mother. Execpt for the young guy, we were all more or less at the same pace. During the whole morning ascent, we'd pass, be passed, pass again, going as long as we could before needing to take a few minutes break - everyone, all suffering in silence until we reached the summit and only then could we afford to use up the energy to whoop it up! What a feeling, and no friggin donkey!

Maybe the best part of the whole trek was the hot springs after lunch. OMG, I can't tell you how amazing that felt after the gruelling day. Having a couple of hours at a hot springs after a tough hike is amazing! And with the cold waters of the river connected to it, it was wonderfully theraputic - hot water then cold, then hot then cold..ahhhhhh

To recap day 2: Almost 3 hours of uphill climbing over and around rocks. 95% uphill, probably 75% steep. We started the day at 4:30 a.m., no breakfast just whatever snacks, power bars, nuts, fruits, whatever, we each had to sustain us through the climb.
In metres:
Arequipa: 2356
Cabanaconde: 3,300
Sangalle: 2200 when we left at 4:30 a.m.
Ended at 7:45 a.m. at 3,300 metres
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