Cañón Del Colca

The 65 mile long Colca Canyon is set among the volcanoes, Coropuna (21,696 ft.) and Ampato (20,700 ft.) and ranges from 3300 ft. to 9840 ft. deep. It is more than twice as deep as the Grand Canyon, however, the canyon's walls are not as vertical as those of the Grand Canyon. Colca Canyon is located about 100 miles northwest of Arequipa.

The Colca Valley is a colorful Andean valley with towns founded in Spanish Colonial times and formerly inhabited by the native Colaguas and the Cabanas. The local people still maintain ancestral traditions and continue to cultivate the pre-Inca stepped terraces.

My trip into Colca Canyon started at 2am when I awoke and could not get back to sleep because I was afraid my alarm would not go off or was set for the wrong time. It did go off at 2:30am and I got ready to catch the tour bus which was to pick me up at between 3am - 3:30am for the 5 hour trip to Cruz del Condor. The plan was to get to Cruz del Condor by 8am - 9am to see the magnificent Andean Condors which are the largest birds on the planet with a 12 foot wing span. At around that time every day they rise from the canyon floor to go out for their daily scavenging trips.

The van ride did not start out that great when we had to stop only a little way down the road for one of the other vans which was having tire trouble. My first thought was, of course, "Don´t they check these things the night before?" They seemed not to know how to remove one of the back tires or work the jack which put me at ill ease since we would be travelling in the mountains. My second thought was " I sure hope they have good brakes!" Finally, after watching them monkey around for 15 minutes our bus driver took over, started directing the situation, and got the job done. "Cool" I thought " At least our driver can take charge, make decisions, and knows what he is doing." I felt better and went to sleep for the first half of the trip.

I was awakened when we hit the dirt road. It was a bit rough but not as bad as when we hit the next stretch of paved road. Our driver was going pretty slow but, there were more potholes in the road than there was road. Thus began a bone numbing, spine jarring 40 minute drive. I do not know what the story was but could not figure out why they didn´t at least fill in the potholes with some dirt! I bet the road to Bagdad was not this bad!  As everyone was awake, I met two of my fellow passengers, Mary Beth from Holland and Mark from Switzerland.  As it turned out, they were the other two people taking the same three day canyon tour with the same tour company, Andina Travel.

We finally arrived at Chivay, on the upper Colca River, a small town which was at the entrance to the park. We all had to buy park passes which were not included in the price of the tour. Now we started to get into the curvy mountain roads with precipitous drops into the valley below. I said a little prayer that we had good brakes. The view into the valley was beautiful with mountains rising behind and many agricultural terraces below where the natives grew corn, potatoes, and many other crops.

About an hour later we arrived at Cruz del Condor where we were to stop for 40 minutes to possibly view condors.  We saw two just as we arrived and then only a couple more in the far distance.  There were many of the local women in traditional dress sitting along the area selling Peruvian textiles and handicrafts.

A Cabana woman selling textiles at Cruz de Condor

Beginning our descent

At the top

We continued down the road to Cabanaconde, our starting point for our descent, and a stop for lunch where we met our guide, Omar, who lives in Cabanaconde and works for Andina Travel Service.  By the time we started our descent, I was more than ready to get going and stretch my legs.  Once we got into the hike I started feeling great!  This is what I  really needed, fresh air, nature, and the motion and exertion I get when doing one of my favorite things, hiking, or trekking as they call it here.  

The views were breathtaking and, as we descended, I realized how misleading the views were, because we kept going lower and lower but not seeming to get much closer to our destination, the bottom of Colca Canyon. Along the way, we met my buddies, Kam and Prince, who had booked with another tour but were on the same 3 day journey we were.

Me, Mary Beth and Mark

Prince and Kam at the bridge

The other side of the river

After a four hour descent, we made it

to the bridge across Colca river.  Our destination was with a family at their compound, Casa de Rivelino, just a mile or so up the river on the other side. We stopped on the way and had some refreshing "tunas" which were the inside of the cactus flower. 

Our destination, Casa de Rivelino

Soon after that we saw a sign for cold beer and a hot shower which we laughed at because we thought it was a joke.  To our surprise and delight they had both.  The beer was very cold and the shower was solar, not hot, but nicely warm.

Mary Beth and I enjoying a cold beer at Casa de rivelino

Our rooms for the night

We were all tired after our long day which started in the wee hours of the morning and the long trek. After a beer, a shower, and a dinner of sopa de verduras (vegetable soup), chicken and rice with vegetables and some matte de coca, we all retired early.