Peru's Canyon Country

Although we had never heard of Arequipa before visiting Peru, it is Peru's second largest city.  We arrived with some anxiety over hearing of tourists being ripped off by taxis. All the taxi cars looked the same to us, making it difficult to pick the official taxi drivers out of a crowd. Luckily, we made it to the hostel near Plaza de Armas without a problem and settled in. Every city in Peru seems to have a Plaza de Armas, no matter how big or small. Even the very smallest towns in the middle nowhere seemed to have one, and Arequipa's was pretty great, despite the rainy days we spent there.

The main cathedral in the Plaza de Armas stands out in the gloomy weather.

The main attraction in Arequipa was the Monastery of Santa Catalina.  We were both a little skeptical when we arrived, but the monastery proved to be an entire city within a city.  It was founded all the way back in the 16th century and is still actively functioning today, although much smaller.  Most of the many acres of cobblestone and colorful buildings are no longer used, but gave us a great insight to how they lived in those times.  Many of the nuns´ cells, or bedroom quarters, were still set up, and we couldn´t keep track of the number of kitchens and courtyards.

One of the old rooms that served as a nun´s quarters.

Bright blue courtyard inside the convent.

Near Arequipa are the two deepest canyons in the world, Colca Canyon and Cotahausi Canyon. Both claim to be the deepest in the world, and although we read the Cotahausi beats Colca by about 550 feet. Either way, they are both twice as deep as the Grand Canyon! We struggled for a long time to determine which canyon to trek. Although we heard that Colca was much more tourist driven than Cotahausi, we didn't feel up for the 12-hour overnight bus ride on dirt roads that Cotahausi required (we had enough of that in Uganda).

The Cross of the Condor as we passed it on the bus.

So after a day of preparation, we headed out on a morning bus to the main trekking town in Colca Canyon, Cabanaconde. I can see why this canyon is tourist driven, because even the veiws from the bus were not to be missed. We immediately started the 2 hour trek down to the bottom of the canyon, and we made a few friends along the way that followed us all the way down...two of the stray dogs in town. Since we left in the afternoon, we got caught in the rain for the last part of the hike, but since it was much warmer than Torres del Paine in Chile, it wasn't so bad. We made it to Oasis Sangalle around 4:30 pm. We decided not to camp on this trek due to the afternoon and evening rains, so we stayed at a small local hostel, instead, which with a pool. We only paid $8 for each night in the canyon, but one downside is that none of them have hot water. We were just glad for a hot meal and a dry bed, though.

Our hiking friend, one of the stray dogs in town. Who knows how many times he´s been down in the canyon.

A look down at the small village of Oasis Sangalle.

Then next day we were up and off to the next site, starting out with about an hour and a half climb. We decided on the less travelled route to Llahaur because we were told there were natural hot springs. This took us to see the other side of the canyon, with gorgeous views from a lookout about halfway there. Although we never made it to Cross of the Condors, a perfect veiwing spot in the canyon for the famous birds, we saw them flying through the canyon as we hiked. Unfortunately, we found out when we arrived at the small village that the hot springs can´t be used during the wet season becuase the river in the canyon rises so much that it covers the hot springs.  I was very disappointed after a long day of hiking. We took that time to rest up though, becuase we had a heck of a climb out of the canyon the next day. We had descended over 4000 feet into the canyon, and we made it back up in just over 5 grueling hours on the third day. I vowed that this would be the last trekking of our trip!

All smiles on the way down on the first day.

One of the condors stands out against the clouds that were predicting rain.

Getting a great view of the other side of the canyon.

We wanted to head back to the village at the entrance of the canyon, Chivay, as soon as we made it out of the canyon. They also have natural hot springs and I wasn't going to miss out this time. That's when we learned about the landslide that had happened almost as soon as we came into the canyon. The only road leading out of the canyon was completely gone for about 150 feet. The bus that was supposed to take us out was never coming. Instead, we hitched a ride with a truck driver to take us to the missing road. Thankfully, they were letting people climb up and around the road so that we could catch a minibus to town.

Not a bad view from the hotspings just outside of Chivay.

The next morning, we soaked our sore muscles in the hot springs in Chivay for a couple hours before catching a ride back to Arequipa. We were surprised to hear that Colca Canyon was so tourist driven because we rarely saw anyone else on the trail. We were also the only people in the hot springs besides the locals. We are sure it is quite different during dry season when tourism peaks, but I wouldn't have given up our peaceful time in Colca Canyon for anything!

(Written on March 2nd)