Following the Dream

Christian April 3rd, 2008

After our five hour bus ride from Puno we arrived in Arequipa, Peru’s second largest city. We were impressed by our room at the Casa de Avila. It had nice hardwood floors and a nice bathroom. We were starving so we made our way to the main square, the Plaza de Armas. We ate at a restaurant called Johnny Coyote. It was a complete rip off of Johnny Rocket’s in the states. The burgers were great. Arequipa is a nice city. The main square is pretty. Many of the buildings are made from white stone, which is why it is sometimes refered to as the white city. The next day we got our tour for the Colca Canyon figured out. We ended up going with a company named Land Adventures. They were recommended by a few people to us. The three day canyon trek cost $45 plus the cost of the park pass. This included a guide, lodging, and meals. We then spent the rest of the day getting ready for the three day trek. We bought snacks, packed our things for luggage storage so that we would not have to lug them around, and called our families. It was easter and my birthday. So we ate lunch at a fancy restaurant to celebrate. It was a pretty good lunch, the part that really made it was dessert. We had a warm brownie topped with vanilla ice cream. It was awesome. We headed back to the hostel to get a good night’s sleep before our long trek into the world’s deepest canyon.

We woke up at quarter to five to have enough time to check out and store our bags before our 5:25 pickup. The pickup did not show up until closer to six. A taxi was the pickup and took us to the bus terminal where this random peruvian guy came up to us and was just hanging around. It freaked us out, until we realized this guy was our guide. He was not happy this early in the morning. Apparently, he went to pick up an Irish guy for the tour and the guy was asleep. He left and told the front desk that he would be right back, that he was going to pick up someone else in the meantime. When he returned, the Irish guy apparently had left. Averlo, our guide, ended up being really cool. Once we got on the bus for the trip, he started telling us all about the canyon. It was a six hour bus ride to the canyon. We got to the town of Cabanaconde where we ate lunch and started our trek. From the top of the canyon, we could see the little village on the other side that we were going to hike to. The hike the first day was mainly downhill. We hiked and hiked, each of us sliding on the loose gravel numerous times. About 3/4 of the way down the sky opened up and it started to pour rain. It continued to rain for the rest of the way down. When we got to the bottom, our tickets were checked and we crossed a bridge. After crossing the bridge we started the climb up the other side. The first part was steep, and then we were walking along a narrow muddy path that dropped 200 ft to the rocks below. It was nerve racking. We kept hiking up some more until we arrived at Cosñirhua. This is a small village that is only accessible by foot or mule. It was here that we spent the night with a family. The accomidations were very simple, but the people were very nice. We saw Gineau Pigs running about. They are not pets, but meals. Our dinner was not very good that night, it was Qinua with Rice. Qinua is pretty much like rice with protein. So dinner was like a big plate of plain rice. Apparently the rain earlier had messed up the electricity and we did not have hot water and the electricity was limited. It was fine though, we were all tired. Casey and I watched a movie on my iPod and fell asleep.

The second day, we got eggs and a grilled cheese for breakfast. We think that the guide was trying to make up for the night before. We started hiking early. We passed through some more small villages. Many of the children knew our guide. Apparently he volunteers a lot with the local communities, helping the kids, teaching them art, and running donations for school supplies. Along our hike he pointed out many plants that are used by the locals for everything from stomach aches, to headaches, to burns, to natural insectides. We stopped at a local museum that one of the local women owned. It was a bit cheesy, but interesting. She had some of the traditional tools that the Incas had used. Another thing that she had was stuffed animals (foxes, skunks, a deer). She said that we could not take photos of these. The hike lasted about three hours before we reached the oasis at the bottom of the canyon. This is a tropical place due to an underground river that lets water flow into the area and makes it lush. Some local peruvian entreprenuers put in swimming pools that used the water from the natural springs to attract hikers. The pool was great, a nice place to relax before the tough hike that was ahead of us. There was an Alpaca that we could pet there as well. After relaxing, we knew we had a tough three hour climb up the canyon.

All of the girls rented mules to ride up to the top. It was a tough hike, so I don’t blame them. It was 3000 ft. to the top. We had a head start up the hill before the girls on the mules. Mules are apparently faster than us. We climbed up and up, my legs were burning. The trail snakes up the mountain in a series of switchbacks. Even with the switchbacks, it was steep and scary at times. At one point I saw a trail that went straight up instead of on the switchbacks. You could tell it was not used very often. I asked our guide if it was one of his shortcuts, he said “Yes, do you want to try it”. What a mistake. When we started up it, there was another guide leading a women up the trail that looked at us, shook his head like we were nuts. I started climbing up it when I realized how steep it was with dropoffs that lead to the bottom of the canyon. Some parts you literally needed to climb up near vertical slaps of rock. I was terrified, but there was no going back down. It would have been impossible to go back down. There must have been two parts when I froze in fear and had to push myself to keep going. It was a workout and a half. That was the last “shortcut” I was going to take. The girls did pass us on the mules about 3/4 of the way up. One thing that was funny was there was a guy from another group on a mule, who “hurt” his knee and left his wife by herself to walk up. When he passed her on the mule, he said to her “I will see you at the hotel”. What a pud. The trail was tough, my muscles felt like they were going to snap. It was such a good feeling when we did reach the top. We actually ran into the guy with the hurt knee. His guide made him wait for his wife. As they walked away, we noticed he walked fine when he was walking behind his wife, but as soon as she looked back he would grab his knee and limp. We took a group photo and headed to the hotel. The hotel was really nice. We ate dinner which was good and went to bed.

The next day it was another early day, waking up at 6:15. We ate eggs and hopped on the bus to go to the Condor lookout. At first the condors were only out in the distance. After a while they began to soar very close to us. It was amazing. The largest flying bird in the world soaring across a mountainous backgroup only meters from you at the same level. We took many photos and enjoyed these magnificent birds. The end of the trip was spent in the bus for a few hours making our way back to the tour office. At one point they had to stop the bus, an old indigenous woman on the bus was having some problems and people helped her off and one man escorted her in a taxi. It was very sad, she was crying due to the pain. We arrived back in Arequipa where we ended up spending an extra night to relax before another overnight bus ride. We went to the movies and saw Jumper in english and relaxed in our room. It was a good trip.

• Peru
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