Well Bridget just got in the taxi to head back to the states. I have about 36 hours on my own here. I am feeling really confident and I know the basics so communciation isn´t a problem as of yet. We also set up my taxi for Saturday morning so I don´t have to worry about that. I am feeling good. The plan for the next two days is to take it easy, visit one more museum, and spent the afternoon at the ocean tomorrow.
A little catching up to do for all of you. We left Cuzco and headed to Arequipa. It is a mid size town about 9 hours from Cuzco. The main attraction there is two huge canyons which are both twice the depth of the Grand Canyon. We wanted to spend one day in the city and then do a two day hike in the Canyons.
We took an overnight bus from Cuzco which I mentioned previously...the one that I was completely nauseous on. We arrrived and found a great hostel that took us in even though we arrived very early in the morning. We stowed our bags and walked around the city trying to find a reputable tour company to do our hike with. There are TONS....and they are all selling the same product so it is really hard to tell them apart or have a sense if one is better than the other. Our tour book recommended a few but they were either not open or had moved locations and we couldn´t find them. This is normally fine but it had been happening to us all over Peru and Bolivia and it finally got to me. I got extremely frustrated and annoyed and basically gave up. Bridget saw me at my worst. I basically became super grumpy and moody and refused to make a decision.
We ended up just walking into the nearest tour company we could find and buying a tour within in 10 minutes and walking out. Most would think this was a rushed decision and I might normally agree but I was so frustrated at this point I didn´t care if we ended up going on Donkeys and eating mush. Little did we know that we picked by chance an excellent tour company with a great guide but we were also gifted with great companions.
Our tour was a two day one night trek and we were picked up at 3am the following morning. Why so early...well they spend the morning driving to the canyon so you can arrive around 9am to do the hike. Our guide picked us and the rest of our companions up and by 4am we were on our way. Our guide, Sandro, seemed full of energy and maybe even a little crazy but he was a ton of fun. We stopped at a condor viewing point in the morning...I saw some birds from far away but I can´t honestly say they were condors...they might have been.
We started hiking around 9am at the top of the canyon. Our group consisted of 8 people total. Sandro, Bridget, Me, Anna from the UK, Martin from Ireland, Timmo from the Netherlands, Ping from Singapore and a guy from Canada. This is terrible but everytime he said he name literally nobody could understand him. I thought he said Pierre so I am going with it. We had great conversations down the canyon and the views were spectacular...really somne of the most incredible scenery I have ever taken in. We finally made it to the bottom of the canyon a little after noon and I desperately needed a snack. I had some leftover pizza from my dinner the night before that I had stuck in my bag. It was wrapped in aluminum foil and plastic so it was nice and warm...I shared it with anyone else brave enough to eat it.
We made our way to lunch which was prepared in a local family´s home. By this time our group was getting to know each other very well and had some great laughs over lunch about stealing toilet paper from the hostels and my almost getting bit by a dog...might not sound funny but trust me when telling the story it is hysterical...and no I didn´t get bit but it was awfully close and I was ready to head to the hospital for a rabies shot.
We finished the rest of the hike through a light afternoon rain. Sandro pointed out native plants and their uses and even a bacteria that grows on a Cactus that is used to dye material red. He crushed it up and gave us all paint on our faces. We stayed the night in what they called an Oasis...it is really just mud huts with thatched roofs and windows and they built pools all around the place...the pools are fed with water right from the water falls and are surprisingly comfortable. We all went swimming mostly to wash the grime from the days hike off.
We enjoyed a nice dinner together and then had an early night because well there was no electricity and we were started the hike back up the canyon at 5am the next day. Bridget and I found quite a few spiders in our room so I slept literally the whole night with my head under the covers. It was hot and uncomfortable but I felt better.
We started the next morning bright and early to get up the canyon. I totally underestimated this hike. It was probably over 1000 meters of hiking basically straight up. By 20 minutes in I was compltely wet with sweat and having a hard time breathing. Bridget and I stopped probably two or three times for breaks on the way up but we for sure slowed down the farther we went up. A few people from other groups took the ¨taxi¨up which is basically a donkey...and man can those suckers move up the trail quickly. We are talking about really uneven ground with big rocks and those donkeys sailed up the mountain.
I was probably about 20 minutes from the top when I ran into a man who was a local from the village at the bottom. We started talking and he said he does the hike regulary and it never fucking gets easier...those were his words exactly....I laughed out loud and probably cried a little on the inside. Shortly after that another local man from the village literally...and I mean literally ran right by me and he wasn´t breathing heavy at all. I guess that is the benefit of growing up at high elevation at the bottom of a canyon.
I finally made it to the top where two of my group members were already waiting. They gave me a hearty cheer and Bridget arrived probably 5 minutes after me. It took us just over two hours to get to the top and it wasn´t easy. I was very sweaty and sore...seriously I wasn´t sure my legs could carry me another foot. The rest of our group arrived in the next 15 minutes and we all celebrated our victory together with photos. I honestly loved this group of people. We had a great time together and well they were great hikers because they were all fresh off the Inca trail. I was very impressed with all of them.
We finished out the rest of the day viewing the canyon by van, visiting a beautiful hot springs and heading back to Arequipa. Our van driver was insane so I put on my seatbelt and prayed for safety....I have had some crazy drivers here but he was by far the worst.
The Colca Canyon Trek (sorry that was the name of the canyon) was amazing. The trek itself was great but really our companions really made it a wonderful trip. We all exchanged information at the end of the tour and honestly I would feel totally comfortable visiting them all at some point. Besides the couple from the UK and Ireland are triathletes and do Ironmans. And Timmo and Ping have run marathons...it was really quite odd that our group was full of a bunch of long distance athletes. Anna was the only one not to have run a marathon but she had plans to do an Ironman this coming year.
From Arequipa we headed to Nazca and onto Lima...which I will post about later.....
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