Gallivant 2.0: Colca Canyon

From Nazca we caught an overnight bus to Arequipa, where we stayed one night and then caught another bus to Cabanaconde on the edge of Colca Canyon. Another local bus, which I particularly enjoy. The trip from Arequipa was very scenic and we were about to spot some wildlife along the way. This canyon is the second deepest in the world and is about 1200m from bottom to top (well that is how far we walked). More time at altitude and I got sick agan!! Very annoying. When we arrived there had been a few volcanic earthquakes, which had created some rock falls and closed some of the walking trails. There was another earthquake the night we were there, which freaked everyone out but was nothing to us Christchurch dwellers.

The track conditions put our walking plans on hold for a while, so we went for some walks up behind town and that was tricky enough at height! The town is surrounded by loads of amazing terraces that also seem to be built in the most unlikely places on the edge of the canyon too.

After two nights in town we headed down into the hot, dry and dusty canyon to a town at the bottom with hot springs. It did not take us long to get to the bottom accompanied by our trusty guide dog that adopted us at the top and stayed with us for the whole two days, including sleeping outside our room at the bottom of the canyon. We stayed in some rustic rooms at the bottom and enjoyed washing off the dust in the hot springs and a quick dip in the cold river (but not by Bruce). We headed of at 6am the following morning to avoid the worst of the heat while we climbed back out of the canyon. We were very hot and dusty when we arrived back at the top and VERY much enjoyed our cold coke and ice creams. Cabanaconde is a very beautiful and special place, as well as not being a big town hurrah!!, and we would have loved to stay longer.

PS on this computer the photos look really yellow and weird but hopefully the come out OK.......damn foreign computers!!