Arequipa & Colca Canyon

 Arriving early the next morning in Arequipa we spent the next few days exploring this pretty colonial city and coming up with a plan for our trip to Colca Canyon.

The beautiful Santa Catalina Monastery

We finally decided to take a ridiculously early tourist bus at 3am to Cabanaconde, the setting off point for exploring the canyon, but to do the rest of the trip ourselves.

The bus stopped on the way at the condor cross, a lookout famed for being able to see sweeping condors at the right time of day and we managed to see about 6 or so gliding on the thermals.

Preparing for takeoff

We then packed up our daypacks with overnight gear and enough water for two days, dropped off our main packs at the hostel, and headed off into the canyon.

San Galle oasis at the bottom of the canyon

We arrived almost 3 hours later completely knackered at the Oasis town of San Galle, having timed our steep decent into the canyon perfectly with the hottest part of the day.

Two hours later, refreshed from food and a dip in a local pool, we started off again for the small village of Cosñirhua, where we spent the night with a lovely local family, one of two in the village who offer meals and accommodation to weary trekkers.

One of our lovely hosts

Having the opportunity to practice my basic Spanish with locals amongst beautiful scenery was a real highlight and I wished we'd had time to spend a few more nights down in the canyon.

Amazing rock formations in Colca

We set off the next morning for the gruelling 5 1/2 hike that would take us out of the canyon, climbing steadily for about 4 hours and an elevation of  around 1000m. Back in Cabanaconde that night we slept like babies but feeling significantly more confident about our upcoming Inca trail.