I´m back from a beautiful, if not slightly wet, three day hike into Cañon del Colca. Myself, Lykke and Andres joined a group and guide, and had a great time getting away into rural Peru. Colca Cañon is the second deepest in the world at 3191m. It´s title as deepest was stolen recently by a neighbouring cañon which is 163m deeper. We started at a town called Cabanaconda and spent the first day hiking to the bottom, where we crossed the Rio Majes.

From there we climbed up a little bit to a small village where we spent the night in a local family´s farm. We all got really wet that day as unfortunately it´s the rainy season in the highlands, hence the dull cloudy look to some of the photos.

The farm where we slept:

There are about 8 villages in the cañon which can only be reached by hiking and mule. That´s over a 1500m high climb to go to the shops and the nearest road! Here´s Lykke and the farmers ONLY mode of transport, :

Colourful maize:

There were lots of guinne pigs running around, the day after I tried some! A bit boney, but a nice gamey flavour!

The next day we were really blessed by the weather which stayed dry all day (unusual at this time of year) and gave us beautiful views:

We hiked along the side of the cañon for a while, then headed back down and crossed the river once more. Then after lunch started the task of climbing back up to the top! Gruling but plenty of opportunity to stop and take a breath and admire the view, We also were lucky to see some Condors soaring above us (not in photo):

The group at the top, we reached it just as night was falling:

The last day was basically spent unwinding in a hot spring. The origional water is boiling, but they cool it down to a scalding 41 degrees C.

We went back to Cabanaconda where I managed to sneak in a few photos of the local women in their traditional dress:

The bus and road back to Arequipa went highter still and for a few minutes we were driving through snow. And only a few days ago I was in the desert!

xxx r