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The trip to Cabanaconde, the last destination along Colca Canyon (the World's deepest canyon except for some other nearby canyon), didn't take six hours as expected, but 12. The bus broke down in the tiny village of Anchuma. Of course, the company (Cristo Rey) had no alternatives to offer, and payed us the standard price for the rest of the ride. Typically, the only available transport for the continuation was utterly expensive (for Peruvian standards) and after having discussed the issue with some german guys and a canadian we decided to return to Chivay, the "capital of Colca" and wait for the next regular connection. No problem! We got a descent meal (including first and last time llama and alpaca meat for me) and had some experience of this desolate country village. Finally, we reached Cabanaconde just before dusk and found one of the few "hotels" in "town". It seemed primitive, but was really nice. The next day we saw a poor imprisoned condor before joining the two german guys with whom we had travelled the day before and two german girls for a stroll down the Colca Canyon. Starting at over 3000 m.a.s. and ending up in the bottom at approximately 1800 m.a.s., the stroll seemed almost endless to be downhill. Finally, we reached a cosy oasis, where a swimming pool awaited us. I took a bath in the river instead (free is good). The return up the canyon strangely enough felt shorter, although we couldn't do it without the Coca-Cola (see Anna below) that a clever local child happened to offer us just as we ran out of water. The cosy dining room in the hotel felt wonderful after a long day of exercise. The next day we planned to walk up the canyon to the best outlook together with the German guys. |
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We went up at 5 o'clock in the morning. One of the germans was ill so we had to leave by ourselves. Despite the early hour we were in kind of a hurry, since we planned to take the bus from the outlook at 9 o'clock. It was a heavy walk with all the luggage and 300 height meters to gain. By a ruin we took a steep short cut to gain some time, thereby meeting a farmer that told us about some tourists that were camping on his ground. Then we happened to scare some cows (or "kossor" as Anna always cries when she sees them in South America). The weather was gorgeous and the views were magnificent. After a while, we reached what we thought was the famous outlook of Cruz del Condor. In reality, it was just the Mirador de Tapay, but we didn't realize this immediately. This place wasn't too bad either, and having some bread breakfast while watching the extraordinary views felt just right at the time. We saw the incredibly desolate village, Tapay (see below to the left), on the opposite side of the canyon while awaiting the first condors. Two massive birds suddenly made their appearance in the canyon below us. They sailed in the air along the canyon, passing over a farmer family that spent their morning working in the fields. In the opposite direction we could see the incredible abyss of the canyon (see below to the right) and the snow-capped mountains four thousand meters higher. After a long contemplation we started to get worried about the bus that we had to stop in order to get back to Arequipa. It worked out and the trip lasted less than 12 hours (now going with a recommended company). In Arequipa, we immediately found a last-minute bus ticket to Cusco. The whole night and half a day passed before we reached the old Inca capital in the afternoon on the 17th of October. |
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