Colca Canyon Trek

Last Friday, Jeff and I embarked on a three-day trip to the Colca Canyon.  It was a rigorous journey, but well worth it.  While the canyon was a treat in itself, one of our companions, unwittingly, provided us with a great deal of entertainment as well.  Jeff has already written a post profiling our friend, Highlander (There can be only one!), so I will keep my refernces to him at a minimum.  The following post is a glimpse of our time on the trail. (Please note that I am very sorry there are no photos. It looks as though we may have lost thousands of pictures because one of our memory cards got messed up.  The picture to the right is from Wikipedia).
Thursday
9:00PM
There's slim chance of having a decent shower during our trek, so I need to suck it up and wash my hair before bed (Just for you, Peyton and Mom!).  Though we've been fairly lucky so far with showers, the place where we have been staying seems to only have scalding hot, or frigid cold water.  The scalding water only lasts for about a minute before turning to frigid cold.  The Andes are not warm in the evening.  I want a warm shower.  Garg.

11:00PM
Our alarm is set for 2:45AM.  We've been told we will be picked up between 3:00 and 3:30 in the morning. Gross.  Though we got in bed early to try and get some rest, neither of us can sleep.

Friday
2:45AM
The alarm goes off.  I am fairly certain I have not yet fallen asleep.  I drag myself out of bed and get ready.  Jeff barely slept as well.  The lady who runs the hostel told us we should stay in our room and that someone will come get us when the van arrives to pick us up.  So once we are ready, we both lie down and wait.

3:30AM
They still have not arrived.  Jeff, of course, is starting to get worried.  I have to remind him that we are in South America and that we should expect them to be late.  This does little to calm him.  He asks me what our "contigency plan" should be.  My plan: if they haven't arrived by four, I'm going back to bed.

3:50AM
They finally arrive.  I'm a little disappointed because going back to sleep wouldn't have been so bad.  The tourist van is packed.  Apparently Jeff and I were the last to be picked up and the only seats available are at the very back, squished beside two other people.  There is no place for Jeff to put his backpack, which contains everything we need for the next few days, so the poor guy has to keep the thing on his lap.  I remember riding in a van like this the last time I was in Peru last April: it was just me, my guide, and my driver.  Ahhhh, those were the good old days!
Our guide makes her way to the back of the bus and introduces herself.  She tells us it will take about three hours to get to the park entrance and then another two to get to the starting point of our trek.  She then says to try and get some sleep before we get there, which I think should be no problem at all since I only got about one hour of sleep the night before.

4:30AM
I have no idea what is wrong with me, but I am still not asleep.  I stare out at the window at one of the most beautiful, clear night skies I have ever seen in my life.

6:00AM
Still not asleep, I watch as the sun rises above the mountains.  Amazing.

8:30AM
We arrive at our first stop: an area frequented by condors.  We see a few, but they are a ways off.  One does actually fly over our heads, but in my sleep-deprived state my reflexes are not quick enough to get a good picture.

10:30AM
We arrive at the town from which the trek starts.  We stop to have lunch and meet the other person that will be on our tour: Highlander.

12:30PM
Fortified from our lunch, we begin our trek.  We have a 45 minute walk to the start of the path.  On the way, it starts to drizzle.

1:15PM
We arrive at the beginning of the path, which will be about three hours of pure descent.  This shouldn't be too bad.  I realize I need to go to the bathroom.  Great.
Jeff, loaded down with all our stuff in his backpack, charges ahead.  In Ecuador, Jeff had a bout of altitude sickness due to not drinking enough water during our Quilotoa hike.  In an effort to avoid a repeat episode, I make him stop every 15 minutes to drink.

2:00PM
I am feeling the lack of sleep.  At our condor viewing stop I bought some coca candies from one of the vendors.  Coca is supposed to be good for fighting altitude sickness and is a natural energizer.  I pop one in my mouth and quickly begin to feel better.  This stuff is awesome!  Throughout the walk I find myself chomping on coca candy after coca candy and plotting how I will cram as much of this stuff into my mom and Lee's bags when we see them in Chile.  I figure if anyone can convince a Customs Agent to allow them to bring coca into the States, it's my mom.

2:30PM
Legs are shaking a bit.  I have to practically run to keep even remotely close to Jeff.

3:00PM
99 bottles of beer on the wall, 99 bottles of beer, take one down, pass it around . . .

3:30PM
I feel pretty pathetic for not being able to keep up with Jeff and Highlander, but in my defense, my legs are a lot shorter.  I decide to just walk at my own pace.  As I walk along, still singing 99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall in my head, a dog joins me and acts as my companion for the rest of the walk.  Poor Jeff has narrowly avoided my adoption of many stray animals throughout the trip so far, but I am not sure he will be able to talk me out of this one.

4:00PM
We finally make it to the bottom of the path!  Unfortunately, we still had another two hours of hiking.  Lucky for us, the last two hours would be mostly uphill.

4:30PM
After our Highlander scare, we arrive at the first village, where there is finally a bathroom!  There are very few times in my life that I wish I were male, but going on long hikes where there are no bathrooms available is one of them.

4:45PM
Our guide warns us that the last part of our walk will have a challenging ascent, similar to what we will be hiking the next day.  Given his near-death experience, she thinks it best that a mule take Highlander up this portion of the hike.

5:30PM
After some moderate uphill hiking, we arrive at the base of the last steep ascent.  Our guide waits at the bottom with Highlander for the mule to arrive and Jeff and I forge ahead.  I take the lead as Jeff trudges up with the backpack.  Due to the altitude and our exhaustion (did I mention we only got about one hour of sleep the night before?), Jeff and I quickly are winded.  It only takes about ten minutes to reach the top, but by the time we get there, Jeff and I are dead.  We begin to worry about the next day's hike: we have to do that for three hours?
Fortunately, it is a very short walk to arrive at the place where we will be staying the night.  Jeff and I are shown where we will sleep: a small, mud-walled room with a dirt floor.  We both collapse onto our beds, unable to move.  "How are we going to do this tomorrow?" is all Jeff can muster the strength to say.
While letting us into our room, our guide informed us that there was hot water, but I was skeptical.  After much internal coaching, I finally am able to coax myself off the bed to go take a shower.  It's a good thing bugs don't bother me, because there are quite a few cockroaches scurrying around the floor.  I turn the water on and wait a few minutes before timidly stepping in.  I almost cry with delight as I feel the hot water.  I am probably the happiest person in the world at this moment.
Feeling much better after my shower, I try to convince Jeff to take one as well.  All I receive from him are grunts.  It's a good thing there are two beds in our room because he stinks!

8:30PM
After a quiet dinner, sans Highlander, Jeff and I return to our room.  Both of us are sore from the hike, particularly Jeff after carrying the backpack.  So, with the help of some Tiger Balm, I give him a long back massage before we hit the sack.

Saturday
7:00AM
I can feel almost every muscle in my body as I pull myself out of bed.  Jeff looks over at me from his bed and says, "how are we going to do this?"  I am wondering the same thing.
Our guide fixes us a filling pancake breakfast and then gives us a mini-lecture on the different plants found around the area and their uses.  The number of uses a single plant can have is amazing.  For example, my beloved coca leaf not only is good for altitude sickness, it also aides in digestion, is a stimulant (no wonder I like it), and may be rubbed on sore muscles.  We also get to try a couple fruits indigenous to the area.  Jeff embarrasses me greatly, making horrible faces and refusing to finish the fruit that is given to him.  Apparently his culinary adventurism extends only to different meats.
We then got to see the owner's pen of cuy (guinea pigs) before heading off on the hike.  The first part of our hike was easy, taking us through the rest of the towns in the area.

9:00AM
Shortly after beginning our journey, we were passing by the house of an older woman who was busy in her garden.  When she saw us, she got very excited and insisted we take a picture with her.  I was, admittedly, a bit confused, but agreed.  Jeff and Highlander opted to stay on the trail, as I went down with the guide to meet the nice little old lady.  Apparently, however, I was not enough, and she insisted the men come down as well.  I warned her that Jeff was mine ("mio"), but that she could have Highlander if she wanted.  She thought this was very funny and kept asking me to give Jeff to her.  Eventually, Jeff agreed to come down and we got a very cute picture out of it.  She then asked for her propina (tip) for taking the picture.  Suddenly her insistence in taking a picture made sense.

9:30AM
One of the fruits we tried in the morning was from the cacti found in the area.  Our guide stopped us to show us that the fruit, however, is not the most valuable part of the plant for the people in the area.  The cochineal insect makes its home on this plant and has been of great economic value for the red dye that can be derived from it.  This dye was used for centuries to dye clothes and is still used today in different products, such as dyes for pharmaceuticals and makeup.  For fun, we had some of the dye put on our faces as war paint.  Jeff, who clearly didn't really want to have bug insides put on his face, was a trooper and agreed to have his face painted as well.

11:00AM
The final part of our morning hike was another steep descent into a valley of lagoons where we would stay for a couple of hours and have lunch.  The first part of the hike had been alright, but I definitely felt my muscles as we were walking down.  Jeff, ever the trooper, followed behind me with the backpack, though I could tell he was worried about our impending hike up the hill after lunch.

11:45AM
We finally make it to Paradise, one of the many hostels in the valley outfitted with a pool.  We happily changed into our swimsuits and enjoyed a dip in the pool and a little rest before lunch.
After the previous day's little scare, our guide insisted Highlander hire a mule to take him up the hill for the second part of our hike.  Being the good (smart) wife that I am, I decided that it would be best to get a mule for our backpack as well.  Though Jeff had been great and I knew he was capable of getting up the hill, I didn't see the point in his suffering any more than necessary.  Knowing he would object, I went to our guide and asked her to not say anything to Jeff until it was time to leave and took the fifty soles out of my monthly spending money.
Just before leaving, I inform Jeff of what I have done, and of course he is not pleased with me.  OH WELL.  To make him feel better about his manhood, I let him carry my purse most of the way up.

12:30PM
Despite having lighter loads, we are quickly out of breath as we start our ascent.  Our guide asks us if we need a break, but I tell her we are only allowed to take breaks every fifteen minutes and that I have already set the timer on my watch.  Unless I do it this way, I'm fairly sure I will never make it up the hill.  In order to distract myself I have to resort to my old standby . . . 99 bottles of beer on the wall, 99 bottles of beer, take one down, pass it around, 99 bottles of beer on the wall.

12:38PM
Our guide, who makes this trek at least once a week, asks me if it has been 15 minutes yet.

1:20PM
We make our way up the mountain, stopping at 15 minute intervals.  After our first three, I start worrying how I'm going to do this for three hours.  I am greatly relieved when our guide tells us we're making great time and are close to the halfway point.

1:35PM
We make it to the halfway point in record time.  Both Jeff and I are very pleased with ourselves and for being on track to make it up in about two hours.  Just as I am starting to feel pretty good about this, I start to feel a little pain.  Oh no.  My little friend has decided to visit . . . blisters.  I need to get some better socks.  Luckily, I was smart enough to bring along some bandaids and I bandage up my feet.  This helps considerably, but my pace becomes greatly slowed.  By the end of the hike my right sock is soaked in blood.

3:11PM
Despite being slowed by my blisters, we still make it up the hill in about two and a half hours.  Jeff, if it weren't for me slowing him down, would have definitely made it up in two.

4:30PM
We have another short, easy hike from the trail to our hostel, which takes us a long time because by this point I am going very slowly due to my blisters.  Our lodgings for the evening is a hotel in town.  With hot water!  Thankfully, this time Jeff agrees to take a shower.

6:30PM
At dinner, Highlander happily babbles about how much fun it was to ride the mule, as I do my best to keep my head off the table.

9:00PM
Both Jeff and I, exhausted from the trek, are more than ready to go to bed.  Unfortunately, the window to our room, which looks out right over the street, does not fully close and so it is quite cold and loud.

Sunday
Jeff's archnemesis, the rooster, joined by a very vocal goat, start to awaken us around four in the morning.  Though the trek only required two days, we have signed on for a three day package.  Apparently, the third day is a total waste.  After a breakfast of bread, we board another overcrowded tourist bus and are taken two hours away to thermal baths.  In theory, this sounds like a great idea for our sore muscles, but Jeff and I have found most thermal baths to be pretty darn gross.  Add a price tag of 10 soles per person, and we decide to pass on the baths.  The only problem is that there is nothing around the thermal baths aside from a couple vendors. (Some of them rent bathing suits for the unlucky soul that forgot theirs. May I ask, who in the world would rent a bathing suit!?)  So Jeff and I spend the hour discussing how much fun the trek was and which muscles are most sore.  After the baths, we are driven a half hour away to a small town for lunch.  We had been told that the bus would take us to a local restaurant where there was a 20 sol buffet (this is an outrageous  price), but that we could go elsewhere if we wanted.  Jeff and I, of course, were planning on going elsewhere.  However, as soon as we pulled up to the restaurant, the heavens opened.  Unable to spot anything nearby, and starving from having only a breakfast of bread over six hours earlier, we resign ourselves to the fact that we must shell out the 20 soles.  To add insult to injury, the buffet is horrible.  We agree that many of the items offered would have been good, if they had been warm.  Unfortunately, most of the food appears to have been cooked about two hours before our arrival.  After having two wonderful days, Jeff and I gloomily climb onto the bus for the rest of our ride back to Arequipa.

Though we both agree the third day was a complete and utter waste of time, we feel very positive about the overall trip. The trek was a wonderful challenge with some amazing views. One thing I love about trips like these is that you enjoy yourself while you're doing them, but are also glad when they're done!