Canyon de Colca
We decided against the rip-off tourist agencies and spent 3 beautiful and physically exhausting days in the 2nd deepest canyon in the world. We thought about going to the deepest, but it was 12 hours by bus from Arequipa and the road is not the best…nor is the trail knowledge. The Colca Canyon sounded like an adventure enough, and it was.
We had a frustrating start, as usual. In Arequipa there are multiple travel agencies and we have only heard horror stories about using them and even hiring guides independently (one girl’s guide was 3 hours late and they had to do part of their hike in the dark—which is NOT safe. He also had his ipod on and ran ahead of the group….and this guy’s getting paid to keep them safe…). Our guidebook says it’s possible to do it yourself, but there are NO good maps of the canyon. We bought a topo from Colca Trek and realized too late it only had half the canyon and there were errors on the map. We met an couple who gave us a cartoon map from a hostal that was the best map we saw (and it was free). We also had problems with travel agencies telling us it wasn’t safe and we should hire a guide, while all other sources (travellers, guidebooks, locals) said it was fine to hike independently.
There’s also a pushy annoying guy that tries to make you buy a boleto turistico for sl. 35 (about $12) just to visit the canyon. Our LP book says the boleto is NOT for the canyon, just the viewpoints along the highways (and NONE of the money goes to trail maintenance, social services or to the villages in the canyon. It all goes to the town of Chivay, hours from where we were). I got upset and started a little verbal fight with the guy and we had to walk away for me to cool off. I’m just at the end of my rope of people lying to us and trying to take advantage of us just because we’re tourists. White skin doesn’t mean I’m rich or that I don’t care how much things cost. We talked to other travellers who hadn’t paid for the ticket, so we decided to blow him off and just head into the canyon. (Rumor has it there is a troll inspecting tickets on the bridge to San Juan de Chuccho…but no one asked us about the ticket while we were in the canyon).
Let’s talk about the hike and no more about the corrupt bureaucracy. This canyon is twice as deep as the Grand Canyon, but the walls of the canyon are not as steep. It still felt pretty steep hiking it, though. We took a bus from Arequipa to Cabanaconde (sl.15, 5 hrs) and found the trail to the Oasis/Sangalle from town. It took us about 2.5 hours to hike the trail, which was pleasant at first, going through farms, then it was just straight switchbacks downhill in a dusty, dry canyon, until we came to the Oasis…which was just that. Palm trees, spring waters filling swimming pools, bungalows made of bamboo and grassy areas for camping right near the Rio Colca (the bottom of the canyon). We finally got to use our tent and set up next to the swimming pool, had a swim, talked with the owners and passed out. It rained during the night, but we had clear skies the next day.
Day 2 we hiked across a bridge, straight up the other side of the canyon (bleh! uphill AND elevation..but the top of the canyon wasn’t much more than 9,000 feet) for about an hour, where we hit a crossroads with a big cross. We took the right to visit a local village (people live IN the canyon, way up there and have pigs and dogs and chickens) called Malata. It wasn’t anything exciting: dirt houses, sheet metal roofs, a church and a nice view.
The cool thing about the villages is that the women wear the most intricately embroidered hats and matching jackets and at least 3 skirts at a time. The outer skirt is heavier and they tuck it up halfway in front to reveal the other layers, which are each embroidered at the hems.
After our sidetrack to Malata and talking to a local, we turned around and took the upper trail towards Llahuar, where there is a HOT SPRING (our other option was a shorter trail towards San Juan de Chuccho with no hot spring). This part of the trail was great…it was mostly a ridgeline with great views of the canyon and the Oasis, where the pools looked like little specks. We were on that trail for about 1.5 hrs and we came to another crossroads and met a cool couple travelling solo like us from Austrailia (who gave us that map and we swapped stories and commiserated about corruption).
From there we took the trail to the left and went down a steep grade (my calves felt like iron) for at least another hour and we came upon a cute town called Paclla that had date palms, cacti gardens and trees (and shade). We had a little picnic lunch and then continued on to Llahuar (1 hour more), which was easy since someone had painted arrows on rocks. We had another steep downhill to cross another river, then a quick uphill and we were there!
The day was clear, the views were great and we even saw a few condors playing in the thermals. We saw some cute birds, tiny grasshopper type insects and beetles (I think they were cochinillas, which is a natural red dye found in yoplait yogurt and makeup and such) and that was it for wildlife. Llahuar was pretty cool, too. No swimming pools but the hot springs was right next to the raging river. The springs looked like they hadn’t been cleaned in a while (algae on the bottom) but the water was great and we were there for about 3 hours, rubbing each other’s feet and trying to work out the day’s hike. It wasn’t all day of hiking but it was hot, exposed and STEEP.
The next day we woke up around dawn, soaked in the springs again and took the trail out via another bridge (which is kind of downhill from Paclla, but there’s another trail that’s a ridgeline above the river and it’s more direct). The day out was tough. We heard the hike was about 4, maybe 5 hours (It took us 7). After the river crossing, it was straight uphill for most of the way back.
I got into a zone, felt great and just kept hiking like a mule. Up, up, up. After a few hours of steep straight uphill, Matt started feeling bad. It could have been anything from heat exhaustion, altitude sickness to dehydration (although we were drinking a lot of water, we were sweating most of it out). We took our time, had breaks but Matt wasn’t doing better. The trail just kept climbing and there seemed to be no end. Luckily, a local came by and told us we were close (perhaps in his terms, without any weight) so we plodded on and eventually reached town, me with throbbing feet and Matt feeling ill.
We got into town and had some soup and juice and coca tea and he felt better. I think everyone should carry some Tang or EmergenC powder to spice up the water because that’s all Matt was craving at the end of the hike, some sugery juice solution. I had some superfood powder in my bag and he said that made him feel better for a bit.
So my legs have recovered and Matt is back to normal and the canyon was an adventure. If Matt was worse, we always had the option of hiring a donkey to ride out of the canyon (we saw a handful of travellers doing the uphill portion of the canyon on donkeys). So no worries, it was fun and beautiful and challenging and I’m glad we didn’t waste our money on an incompetent guide…but there should be a better map out there (even though all the trails are visible from most places in the canyon, which is helpful).