Posted by: Jenn
So - I am two for two on busting my a$$ while trekking. I'm not sure if I am just a clumsy trekker or if my tennis shoes suck...but both treks we have completed, I have busted it hard. This one was a bit worse than the Santa Cruz trek as it left me with this...
So - I am two for two on busting my a$$ while trekking. I'm not sure if I am just a clumsy trekker or if my tennis shoes suck...but both treks we have completed, I have busted it hard. This one was a bit worse than the Santa Cruz trek as it left me with this...
Anyways, I digress... Other than walking away with a pretty good bruise/battle scar the trek was great. Colca Canyon is twice as deep as the Grand Canyon, however, I feel that the Grand Canyon is a bit more impressive with it's red vertical walls. Colca Canyon is more like a valley in a mountain range.
We started the day at 3 AM when a mini van came to pick us up from our hostel. We slept most of the four hour ride to the start of the tour/trek. The first part of our tour included a stop at the nesting place of the condor bird. We rubbed the sleep from our eyes and stepped off the bus onto the side of the windy canyon. Apparently we were lucky because there were a ton of condors flying around - they can be hard to spot some days. Jonathan played photographer with his zoom lens and I think his photos looked way better than the postcards the little mountain ladies try to sell you. "You buy from me, I make special price for you!" Um no thanks, my boyfriend make good photo for me.
After watching some birds fly around we loaded the mini van with the four other people in our group and set off for the start of the trail head. Jonathan and I got dropped off at certain spot with two other chicks and two guides and the other couple stayed on the bus with another guide. To this day we still don't quite understand how we all bought the same tour but each had a different guide and a different route but all got picked up at 3 AM by the same mini van. So we started hiking with our personal guide and on the way down was when I busted it. It was slightly embarrassing but whatever, when will I see that guide again. The views on the way down were so beautiful, I almost forgot about my throbbing thigh.
After about three hours of hiking we stopped for a delicious lunch of soup, alpaca meat, rice, and the best fries we have had since we have been gone. I'm usually not one for trying random meats but I was quite hungry and once I tried it I decided it was pretty good...poor alpaca :-( We continued hiking for about four more hours and arrived at our bungalow for the night. The bungalows were very cute and a nice break from camping. This little village of hostals in the bottom of the canyon are fed by a natural oasis from the neighboring mountain. It was like a little paradise in the middle of nowhere. We had dinner later that night and retired early so we could get up at 5 AM to start our hike up and out of the canon.
We started hiking up and it wasn't nearly as bad as hiking Santa Cruz because of the altitude. It was actually quite nice until that alpaca meat started tearing at my stomach. (I'm not sure if that's what it was, but I'm not going to eat alpaca again.) Anyways, it was quite miserable for me and luckily we had a bag of toilet paper with us and some Immodium. Too much information? Sorry, I just wanted to make you feel as uncomfortable as I was... We finally made it up and it was very rewarding to have completed a trek down into the second deepest canyon in the world and then back up again.
We are currently in Cuzco and have been relaxing for the past two days, which has been very nice. We plan to visit a few Inca ruins around Cuzco and then eventually make our way to Machu Picchu! I'm not sure if Jonathan can convince me to do another multi-day trek anytime soon...which means I want to be dropped off at the gates of Machu Picchu. I guess he cashed in his trekking tickets with me a little too early...