So remember when I wrote that the trek to Lake Churrup was the craziest hike we've ever done...scratch that...Colca Canyon takes the cake.
We hopped on a bus on Christmas Eve at 1am to head for the town of Cabanaconde which is at the top of the deepest part of the canyon. We arrived at about 7am on Christmas morning, met up with our guide, grabbed a quick breakfast, dropped off our big backpacks, and we were off.
Turns out Colca Canyon IS actually the DEEPEST canyon in the world averaging 3400 meters deep. We hiked down for about 4 hours until we reached a bridge over the river in the bottom of the canyon.
On the hike down we were really lucky to see about six different condors. Apparently, it's really unusual to see them as late in the day AND as close as we did. A couple of them flew by us at about only 10 meters away. We were stoked because a lot of people come to the canyon just to catch a glimpse of these condors and only see a small dot in the distance or nothing at all.
Once we reached the bottom, we had our Christmas dinner at a small indigenous home. Get this, people actually live down in the bottom of the canyon AND the only way to get in and out is to hike...no cars, no dirtbikes. Anyway, as I was saying we had our Christmas dinner of alpaca at the bottom of the canyon. Yes, I said ALPACA! Turns out, not only is it delicious, but our guide informed us that alpaca meat is a very healty alternative to beef because it's less fatty.
After we ate, we hiked up and down the side of the canyon for another 3 hours taking in GORGEOUS views until we finally reached our camp for the night. Both of us were wondering why we were so exhausted, but when our guide told us that we had hike 16 km it seemed to make a bit more sense.
Once we settled in and ate dinner our guide filled us in on the plan for the next day's climb out of the canyon. We were to wake up at 3am and begin the 4 hour climb back to Cabanaconde. It turns out it's best to start before the sun rises because the heat of the day is too strong to complete the climb.
After dinner we retired to our bamboo framed hut and taco-like foam mattress. After three consecutive night bus rides and 16 km of hiking, a crappy mattress never felt so good.
At 3am we were up and at 'em. Hiking in the dark was a much welcomed break from the heat of the previous day. Switchback after switchback we slowly climbed up the canyon. We were climbing under a full moon so we didn't even need to use our head torches. Watching the night slowly fade into day was absolutely breathtaking. The view definitely took our minds off of the difficulty of the climb.
Three and a half hours later, we made it to the top and four hours later, we arrived back into town. Get this, in 4 kilometers of walking we climbed 2000 meters (2km) of altitude. When we got to the top our guide told us that he was impressed because most people don't make the climb up. I guess the majority of tourists climb down the canyon and then ride a mule back up...what's the sense of accomplishment in that?
After hiking down, around, and up the canyon for a total of 20 kilometers in 24 hours, we were pretty proud of ourselves. We couldn't have thought of a better way to spend Christmas away from home.
We hopped on a bus on Christmas Eve at 1am to head for the town of Cabanaconde which is at the top of the deepest part of the canyon. We arrived at about 7am on Christmas morning, met up with our guide, grabbed a quick breakfast, dropped off our big backpacks, and we were off.
Turns out Colca Canyon IS actually the DEEPEST canyon in the world averaging 3400 meters deep. We hiked down for about 4 hours until we reached a bridge over the river in the bottom of the canyon.
On the hike down we were really lucky to see about six different condors. Apparently, it's really unusual to see them as late in the day AND as close as we did. A couple of them flew by us at about only 10 meters away. We were stoked because a lot of people come to the canyon just to catch a glimpse of these condors and only see a small dot in the distance or nothing at all.
Once we reached the bottom, we had our Christmas dinner at a small indigenous home. Get this, people actually live down in the bottom of the canyon AND the only way to get in and out is to hike...no cars, no dirtbikes. Anyway, as I was saying we had our Christmas dinner of alpaca at the bottom of the canyon. Yes, I said ALPACA! Turns out, not only is it delicious, but our guide informed us that alpaca meat is a very healty alternative to beef because it's less fatty.
After we ate, we hiked up and down the side of the canyon for another 3 hours taking in GORGEOUS views until we finally reached our camp for the night. Both of us were wondering why we were so exhausted, but when our guide told us that we had hike 16 km it seemed to make a bit more sense.
Once we settled in and ate dinner our guide filled us in on the plan for the next day's climb out of the canyon. We were to wake up at 3am and begin the 4 hour climb back to Cabanaconde. It turns out it's best to start before the sun rises because the heat of the day is too strong to complete the climb.
After dinner we retired to our bamboo framed hut and taco-like foam mattress. After three consecutive night bus rides and 16 km of hiking, a crappy mattress never felt so good.
At 3am we were up and at 'em. Hiking in the dark was a much welcomed break from the heat of the previous day. Switchback after switchback we slowly climbed up the canyon. We were climbing under a full moon so we didn't even need to use our head torches. Watching the night slowly fade into day was absolutely breathtaking. The view definitely took our minds off of the difficulty of the climb.
Three and a half hours later, we made it to the top and four hours later, we arrived back into town. Get this, in 4 kilometers of walking we climbed 2000 meters (2km) of altitude. When we got to the top our guide told us that he was impressed because most people don't make the climb up. I guess the majority of tourists climb down the canyon and then ride a mule back up...what's the sense of accomplishment in that?
After hiking down, around, and up the canyon for a total of 20 kilometers in 24 hours, we were pretty proud of ourselves. We couldn't have thought of a better way to spend Christmas away from home.
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