Canyon del Colca Trek
After a couple days in Arequipa, we head out for another 3 day trek in the Canyon del Colca.
CANYON DEL COLCA
The Colca Canyon is the second deepest in the world, it is 62 miles long and it’s depth varies between 3,280 ft and 11,155 ft (it’s two times deeper than the grand canyon in the US). It was long thought to be the deepest in the world but the Cotahuasi Canyon (a few hundred miles away) is actually 426 ft deeper. The Canyon is also known to be the habit of many Condors, a mystic bird for the Inca culture.
As with the Santa Cruz trek, it is possible to trek the canyon using a travel agency. But as you can guess we decided to go solo, traveling with a group isn’t something we enjoy too much. Also, it is super easy to find all the necessary information online and finally there is no camping since we were able to find hostels all along the way (Maider was more than happy not to sleep in the tent…).
The trek starts in Cabanaconde, a 6 hour bus ride from Arequipa and at 10,784 ft altitude. The first part of the ride (from Arequipa to Chivay) is pretty smooth, the roads are in great condition, nothing compared to what we experienced going to the Santa Cruz trek. On the way, we cross the pass of Patapampa at 16,110 ft altitude.
Quick stop at Chivay to drop off and pick up some people and there really starts the canyon.
We only have 34 miles left but the dirt road is winding and steep… we do have a great view on the canyon though!
The scenery is fantastic between the cliffs of the canyon and agricultural lands.
We arrived in the tiny village of Cabanaconde were we booked a night at the hostel on the Plaza de Armas.
The manager of the hostel is waiting for us when we come off the bus and walks us to the hostel! Even offers us a cup of mate de coca to help us acclimate to the altitude. Thankfully we were still in Huaraz less than a week ago so our bodies are still used to it and no mountain sickness to be reported. The manager takes the time to give us a map of the trek and explains how to leave from the hostel. We tell him that we want to be back for the world cup game France-Uruguay three days later, so he tells us what time to leave the final morning to be in time for the beginning of the game. Finally, he tells us that France is going to win and be world Champs, let’s hope he’s right!
Day 1 : From Cabanaconde (10,784 ft) to Llahuar (6,627 ft)
Summary of the day:
4h10 hiking
7 miles total
Altitude loss/gain : -4,412 ft / +607 ft
After a great breakfast at the hostel, (mate de coca, banana smoothie, bread with jam and butter and scrambled eggs) we head out for our first day at 7am, full of energy.
And we will need it! This first day we need to go down 4,265 ft in altitude. Our knees and ankles are in for a rough day... but the scenery is incredible. After a few minutes hiking we already see our first condors!
The trail is very arid and it gets warm pretty quickly.
But the view on the canyon is breathtaking.
As usual we have a dog hiking with us…
After 3h20 hours of hiking we are finally at the bottom of the canyon, and to our surprise there is a geyser just by the river.
From there, we only hiked an hour to get to the village of Llahuar to get to our hostel.
Llahuar isn’t really a village, it’s just a spot near the river with 2 different hostels. We booked the hostel with the hot springs!
This trek will definitely be nothing like the Santa Cruz one… Indeed we have our own private little hut just overlooking the river, with a table and a couple of chairs outside.
Delighted with where we are going to spend the night, we grab lunch on our own little patio before going to the hot springs.
We spent the afternoon in the hot springs.
There were two different pools both at 102° F and we were all by ourselves! Paradise!
Matt almost complains because the water is too hot… so he jumped in the nearby river… didn’t spend more than 15 seconds in there before running back in the hot springs.
As you can imagine, we felt as we were in a completely different world, and once again the view on the Canyon was terrific.
For diner, no need to prepare anything, the hostel proposed a unique menu for everyone! This is really becoming a luxury trek!
Day 2 : From Llahuar (6,627 ft) to the oasis of Sangalle (7,152 ft)
Summary of the day :
4h hiking
7.5 miles total
Altitude loss/gain : -2,132 ft / +2,559 ft
Once again, we are treated to a royal breakfast (orange juice, pancakes and mate de coca of course!). The previous day we met yet another dog, who stayed with us all afternoon and through diner and even slept on our doorstep.
Needless to say that he hiked with us all day on this second day of our trek… It is incredible these dogs that simply accompany you on treks, we almost start to feel emotionally attached to ours…(and for those who know Maider, she usually hates dogs but apparently traveling the world changes people… and the first big change for Maider is starting to like dogs… who would have guessed?).
Back to our trek, for this first part, we need to climb back up and pass the small villages of Paclla and Belen.
Honestly, after doing so much downhill the previous day we are glad to go uphill for a while… it isn’t as bad on the feet, knees and ankles. The view on the Canyon as the sun rises is once again incredible…
Really the entire journey offers an incredible landscape.
The second part sees us hiking on a road for a while (keep in mind this is a Peruvian road in the mountains, so it reassemble for a wide hiking trail than a road, we only crossed path with a single vehicle during the 3 hours we were on that road…).
From this pretty flat road we can see from afar the oasis of Sangalle were we will spend the night. This small green spot in the middle of the desert canyon is really beautiful to see.
We cross the village of Malata before starting the downhill portion to the oasis.
The view from the village is once again breathtaking.
It only takes us an hour to get all the way down. On the way, the vegetation gets greener and greener with waterfalls and palm trees.
Completely different than anything we have seen so far.
We get to our hostel a bit before noon. Once again, we have our little private hut and icing on the cake, there is a swimming pool at the hostel!
We spent our afternoon there reading and diving in the pool when the sun was getting to hot! Impossible to ask for anything better! This fits our definition of luxury.
To celebrate this second day completed without problem, we order ourselves a couple of mojitos… Heaven on earth!
As for the previous day, the hostel offers a diner menu, unfortunately this one will be more expensive and not even closely as good as the day before. Sangalle being the closest to the main city is also the more touristic place of the canyon and we can feel it. But this doesn’t affect our good mood and we go to sleep early as the next day will be rough.
Day 3 : From the oasis of Sangalle (7,152 ft) to Cabanaconde (10,784 ft)
Summary of the day:
2h25 hiking
3 miles total
Altitude gain : +3,632 ft
For this last day, the alarm clock rings early, very early, at 4:30 am. Once again breakfast at our hostel and off we go at 5:30 sharp. We saw a lot of groups leave between 4:30 and 5 but we choose to take the time to grab a nice breakfast.
As it is still pitch black outside we will need our headlamps for the first 45 minutes of the ascent. At that point the sun is rapidly rising and the colors on the Canyon are once again amazing.
On the way, a few donkeys overtake us transporting the people who didn’t feel like climbing the 3,632 ft height gain. We continue our climb on a nice steady pace and after an hour we overtake all the groups that left earlier. The trail kind of becomes the hiking highway and we really wonder where all these people were the first two days… seems like a lot of tours propose a different itinerary in only 2 days.
Finally, we reach the top of the canyon in only 2 hours. A 3,632 ft altitude gain in as low as 2 hours we had never done before… seems like the coca leaves infusion really works! A last half an hour to get to the village of Cabanaconde where we started 3 days ago.
We head towards the hostel we spent the night in the first time, and get there around 8am. Why so early? Well first because we know there serve a great breakfast, and after walking 2h30, a second breakfast isn’t too much… and of course because the France-Uruguay game starts at 9am!
So we enjoyed a nice breakfast an spent the morning cheering for France and once again we are glad they won! Only problem is now we need to figure out a way to watch the semi final… this isn’t helping with our scheduling!
Our bus to Arequipa left early afternoon so we spent a couple of hours simply reading and enjoying the sunshine on the Plaza de Armas. After spending a final night in Arequipa our night bus to Cusco awaits us next.