The Colca Cannyon Trek - 3 days!

Set off on Tuesday morning at 5am for Colca Cannyon, a 3 day trek into the second deepest cannyon in the world.. apparently over 3300m.. but I'm not too sure that i buy any of this.. because we start in a village called cabanaconde which is only just over 3300m and then when we decend to the bottom, we only go down by 1200m. So i think that the way that they must measure these things is by counting right down to sea level! Also... what is the excat difference between a valley and a canyon! To me they looked pretty smilar, just the cannyon was a slighly steeper drop than a valley to the bottom. But its not quite how i would have envisagd a canyon.. where it is flat land and then a steep drop!

Anyway... DaY1!

Set off early as the one and only bus a day departs at 6:30am everyday to Cabanaconde. The bus ride was pretty uneventful in itself.. slept most of the way. When we reached the the Cruz del Condor suddenly a huge group of about 20women in traditional dress hopped on the bus! This was very cool! They werent dressed in what you may percieve to be traditional peruvian Dress.. they were wearing heavily embroided hats and a waistcoat. with a velvet shirt underneath and velvet skirt! They piled all their tens of bags on the roof then piled into the bus! Very cool, also saw a condor flying very close to our bus! When we reached Cobanaconde we went for lunch in a dodgy little restaurant, then set off for our decent into the canyon. The views were pretty spectacular as you would expect, and we saw another condor! We walked downhill for about 3 hours before we reached the Colca river and crossed over the bridge to walk through the canyon. We walked along for about half an hour till we reached the first town where other groups were going to be staying and had to walk a further hour uphill to reach a small village where we were staying the night. I was a bit annoyed that we had started so late, because it meant that we had to trek in the dark which is not my favourite pastime when the rocks are a bit dodgy. However, the extra hour was certainly worth it. A) becasue there was HOT water!! and B) because the family we were staying with was awesome. We were staying in Mud huts!! For dinner we joined the mum as she cooked in the kitchen. Despite the cold temperature, they had no doors to anywhere,.. instead of walls they had bamboo walls which you could see right through! It was so homely and amazing. All the kids were helping with the cooking.. including the men of the family.. they were chopping and peeling... she was cooking over an open fire in a tiny room.. and it was so simple, it was fantastic.. they even had the cuy in the corner(guinea-pig).

DAY 2

Got to sleep in because we had walked ahead of the other groups the day before, and had a fantastic breakfast of pancakes!!
We set off back down to the bottom of the cannyon and crossed the river again, and reached the OASIS. A small plot of land with grass, palm trees and 'hotsprings'. We had 3 hours to kill here before our climb. It was beautiful surroundings but i have to admit i was less than impressed with the hot springs! After you sat in the close to freezing pool, then placed your hand into the spring, it then felt luke warm! So instead, we spent our time basking in the sun on a giant warm rock!! The tour guide in the meantime prepared lunch for us which was delicious. I think i could get used to this preparation of food by men.. and men doing their bit around the house! After lunch the guide got in the water.. and i was surprised to see that he could swim..
It is surprising, but south americans never seem to be able to swim.. and when they can.. they always look like they are about to drown. In particular on the galapagos. No one could swim really.. apart from the young locals who surfed... but i dont think they could swim well either.. they always went in with the protection of the surf board...
Anyway.. we stayed in paradise till 3pm, once the sun had hidden behind the mountain. We started our 3 hour hike back up out of the cannyon! It wasnt anywhere near as tireing as Inca or as hard..but just seemed to go on forever.. Also i was a bit annoyed for having started the trek so late, because it meant we had to have a bit of a race against the sun. Again, as the night before, when we reached the top it was pitch-black! so again couldnt see anything, and from there, we had a further half hour walk through fields back to the town.
When we got back to the town we were all pretty tired, but went for dinner to the dodgy restaurant again, and on our way ouit we found where the real party was at. It turns out that they are currently celebrating Sagrado Corazon de Jesus- the sacred hert of jesus. There was a huge band playing and parading round the city. The whole town seemed to be out, and dancing and drinking Chicha!! (the local beer of the mountains... but its homemade... because you cant buy it in shops!) - sorry have to interrupt this report as somone is smoking a joint in the internet cafe!!! How bizarre!!-
So we stayed out for a bit and listened and watched the dancing. I really enoyed this. It was so nice to get the real feel for the town, especailly as all the locals were out. This trip has definitly been a hightlight.. becasue of the way i have been able to get in touch with the culture a bit more and get away from the GRINGOS!(tourists) - also.. i found out that they call us ehite people chickens!!! Because when you pluck a chicken the skin is white like ours!
DAY 3
An early this morning... unfortuntly no walking was to be invoved on this day. W caught the early morning bus to Cruz del Condor to do some condor spotting for an hour.
Unfortunatly we had very little luck. I only saw one condor.. and 2 falcons!! I am just glad i had seen the condors on the way over.. otherwise i would hav been really disappointed.
After our unsuccessful condor spotting session we went to Chivay, where there was the option of going to the hotsprings... I decided to pass on this... as we had already attended the Oasis, and also I had been told by some boys in my hostal that they are really small, not that hot and full of old french ladies! - I have much better springs to look forward to in Potosi in Bolivia! where apparently the outside temp is -12 and inside the water it is near 35 degrees! Sounds Perfect!
Instead i chilled out in the main square of the town. Went to the locals market.. (not the tourist artesian market) and then made my way back to the bus station in the early afternoon for the long journey back!
All in all, it was a fantastic trip! I am so glad i did it. Definitly a highlight so far.. so lets hope many more to come! xxxx Leaving for Puno tomorrow i hope.. to see lake titicacca, and hoping to spend a night on one of the islands with a local family.. wish me luck!xxx