22-9-2010: Day 12, Cañón del Colca

Actually taken the day before in the bus, overlooking the little town of Chivay.

The next day at 8:45am, I started hiking one of the deepest canyons in the world.

Prentend to be a cóndor!

The deep canyon with Río Colca in between.

I reached the bottom of the canyon in 3 and half hours, reaching a suspension bridge crossing to the other side and began to climb up again!

The rocky but clear Colca river.

Ready to cross another suspension bridge, going to the little village of Malata.

Passing through some amazing Inca terrancing which the locals still use.

Almost arrived to the Sangalle, an oasis deep down in the canyon where is almost tropical.

This is the inside of the cabaña that I spent a night. Very basic and rustic, but very clean and comfortable.

If you wants to die, you should come to Cañón del Colca. Well, not because there are many options (but trust me, you constantly feel you were dying!), it´s because you would probably appreciate life a lot more. For starter, walking often over the edge of cliffs makes you feel like you can fall anytime. Secondly, you can feel like you would get lost easily in the poorly marked trails if you go to the less touristy and more strenuous hike. And not to mention the steep and slippery rocky and dusty road that if you were not concentrated, you would slip and fall. And the constant feeling of being so small as a human when you are among the gigantic mountains. Despite all these, the Cañón del Colca is an unforgettable experience. Not just because it´s one of the deepest canyons in the world, an impressive 3191m deep which is double of the Grand Canyon in the USA, but because on top of being in such gigantic canyon it has a twist of rawness of South America travel and its history.

I started my journey at 8:45am, leaving my hostal in Cabanaconde, a town which is most accessible to the canyon. At the entrance of the trail, an tourist official checked our tourist ticket which I didn´t have, so I had to buy one. The 3.5-hour walk down to the bottom of the canyon was not challenging at all, but the scenery was just breathtaking. The difficult part had come, which I didn´t know at that point. I was supposed to pass through 3 little villages, but the poorly marked trails made me scratch my head many times. I made it to San Juan de Chuccho, and made a detour to some Inca ruins and then back on the main road. The major problem started: I was supposed to go to a village called Malata, but instead I went up and almost made it to a 4500m town called Tapay! Fortunately there was a family who lived on the road, and a gentleman showed me a way from Tapay to Malata. So extra hour detour. Before I knew it, I went down the canyon again, and another problem came: my water ran out! I thought, "I´m going to die with no liquid!" Thank God, I saw a spring flowing down from the rocks onto the river, and I thought to myself, "this is spring water!" So immediately I refilled my 2.5L bottle. It was delicious! To be safe, I added some antioxidant stuff in it. But it was definitely a save from God! I continued on the rugged and over-the-cliff road, and finally I made it to Malata. And after another hour of walking downhill, I finally reached my finally destination, the Sangalle, the oasis down in the canyon! I spent a night there, and when I laid in my bed, it almost felt like heaven! I had simple but delicious vegetarian meal with some other French travelers before I called it the night at 7:45pm.