Colca Canyon, Peru

For Memorial Day Weekend we spent three nights and four days in Colca Canyon, one of the main attractions near Arequipa. Colca Canyon is about 100 miles northwest of Arequipa and is one of the deepest canyons in the world. Most people go on tours from Arequipa and spend one to two nights in the canyon, but we opted to spend three nights and go on our own (using a route we found from hiking/blogging sites). One nice thing about Colca Canyon is that it is filled with little villages that have small guesthouses, so you don’t have to pack any food or camping gear.

We arranged transportation to the canyon through one of the tour companies and then split off once we arrived at the canyon. On the way to the canyon we stopped for breakfast in a town called Chivay and then visited Mirador Cruz del Condor. This “mirador” (lookout point) is home to many condors, a type of vulture and the largest flying land bird in the western hemisphere. Many people who come to Colca Canyon just come to this lookout point, so there were tons of people here. We did see many condors flying pretty close to us, but unfortunately it was a little hard to get a good picture.

Afterwards we drove a little further and split with the tour group at the start of our hike. For the first day of hiking we had to hike down into the canyon, cross the river, then hike partway back up the other side to get to Tapay, the small village where we planned to spend the night. When we were hiking down into the canyon there were a decent number of people, but once we crossed the river we didn’t see anyone except two locals.

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We finally arrived at Tapay, a cute little town with a few houses, a government building, and a small main square. We initially thought it was a tiny town but later realized it was a big city compared to some of the other places we stayed in the canyon. We found a guesthouse for the night and were pleased to have a nice warm shower. We went to explore the town (which did not take very long) and ended up chatting with the sweet family that owns the guesthouse. There was one other couple who stayed at the guesthouse that night, and we also chatted with them over dinner.

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The following morning we had some breakfast and set out on our second day of hiking. This was scheduled to be the longest hike, but also the flattest. We had to hike down from Tapay and then walk along a long “road” on the edge of the canyon (there are some cars that come through the canyon but very few). We passed through a few other towns before turning a corner and entering a different section of the canyon.

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We then had to go up a very narrow path on the edge of another section of the canyon, which was probably Shari’s least favorite part of the whole trip. We saw some locals casually jogging down this path and riding on horses, clearly much less concerned about the steep drop into the canyon beside them.

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We eventually arrived to Fure, which was our favorite town and lodging of the trip. Fure used to be larger but only has two families now. We stayed with one of the families in a tiny guesthouse that had a deck with great views. There were three other solo travelers staying there who were around our age, and we had fun hanging out with them at night.

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In the morning Davy went with one of the other hikers on a small bonus hike to a waterfall just past the guesthouse. Shari opted to stay back and read on the porch, deciding one treacherous hike along a narrow path on the edge of a canyon was enough for the weekend.

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After Davy got back we headed out on our third day of hiking, which was our easiest day since we only had to hike downhill and did not have to go very far. We also fortunately did not have to go back on the same narrow path that we took to get to Fure and instead went down a far less treacherous path. We crossed the river again and passed a nice, scenic church right by the river.

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We made it to the town of Llahuar around lunch and enjoyed a nice lunch in the garden of our guesthouse. Llahuar was the most popular village we visited since it has hot springs and is accessible by bus, but there were still only two small guesthouses.

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After lunch we headed to the hot springs, which were right on the river. After three days of hiking, we enjoyed spending a couple hours relaxing in the springs and the river (although being in the freezing river was not quite as relaxing as the hot springs).

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In the evening we chatted with some of the other people at the guesthouse, did some star gazing, and went to bed early to prepare for the following day’s hike.

On our last day we woke up early so we could start our hike out of the canyon before the sun got too strong. This was definitely the most challenging day of hiking since it was primarily uphill and became quite warm once the sun came out.

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After about four hours we made it to the town of Cabanaconde, one of the biggest towns near the canyon.

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We got a quick snack then got on a local bus headed back to Arequipa. Since it was a local bus, it made many stops along the way, seemingly in the middle of nowhere, and we passed through one stretch at 16,000 feet of elevation. The ride was pretty, but it took six and a half hours (including one stop) and did not have a bathroom, so we were pretty pleased to eventually make back to Arequipa.

We realize we say this about a lot of places, but Colca Canyon was a real highlight for us. We were also really glad that we opted to stay for longer and go without a tour so we could see some less visited parts of the canyon.

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SPICY BONUS PICS

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