On The Way To Nowhere - Exploring the Colca Canyon

As usual the night bus meant that I never got the best nights sleep, but I had enough excitement that my body wasn’t to phased by it. We arrived in Arequipa just after 6am, giving ourselves the one day to sort out all our things before making our way to the Canyon in the morning. Like all new cities I’d been to so far, Arequipa had its on unique feel, particularly in its architecture.


Many of the traditional buildings, including the some of the churches were constructed with white stone, and were all very simple in their design. The main plaza was one of the nicest that I’ve seen so far. Everywhere that I’ve been so far, from the biggest cities, to the smallest of towns, seems to have a main square known as a “Plaza de Armas.” Some of them are very impressive with rose gardens, ancient trees & statues, while others have been no more than a few weedy bits of pavement, accompanied by a couple of lonely seats.

The first priority after grabbing breakfast was to sort out exactly how we were going to get to the canyon, and also how we were going to go about navigating our way through it. Our first plan was to go there and spend just the one night down the bottom before returning back up and into Arequipa by that night. After doing some research on the internet and making a brief visit to the information center we decided that the two day itinerary was the best option to go with. In the hostel we even met another person who was keen to join the team. Having only one night to spend in Arequipa we decided that we’d still go out and sample the night life, so we agreed that 10am was a good enough time to get going in the morning. We had a few beers and went to a club, one beer lead to another and we didn’t end up getting to bed until about 3am, but we remained adamant that we would still leave on time the following morning.

At about 11.30am the next morning we were finally on the bus and on our way to the first village of the canyon called Chivay. The four hour bus ride wound through desert roads and as usual we had the entertainment of an on bus salesman. In Peru if you get onto any local bus you can almost guarantee that you’ll have to put up with a live infomercial on the bus for at least an hour or two. They start off by giving a rant and telling you every possible reason why you need to buy their product. They then proceed by handing out the product to everyone on the bus. Once you see the product for yourself and decide that it really could enhance your life in some way, you gladly give the guy some money when he returns again. Throughout my bus rides I’ve seen people try to sell anything from fake jewelry, to candy, to “natural health products.” But on this particular ride the man was trying to sell instructional DVDs on how to learn English. Obviously this wasn’t able to enhance my life in any way so I politely declined when he offered it to me to have a look. I saw that he had a few other options in the stack as well like “sexual education,” and “effective parenting.”

As we got off the bus in Chivay, we noticed two girls who had come on the same bus as us, both of whom were carrying guitars. I’d left my guitar at the hostel, so the prospect of having two guitars share the journey strongly appealed to me, as did the idea of having two girls joining the team. After introducing ourselves and telling them what our plan was (or lack of a plan,) they agreed to join us for lunch as we decided on our first plan of attack. We now had two more for the team from Malta, Amber and Yasmin.

It was about 3.30pm and we still had to get to the next town, Cabanaconde, before we could begin our hike down into the canyon. This was a two hour bus ride which we had the opportunity to take at 4pm that same day, but we decided that we wanted a bit more of an adventure. We instead chose the option to aimlessly start walking in the vague direction. It took us long enough to get out of the town. Every time we stopped to ask a local where we go for Cabanaconde, they’d point us in the direction with a very puzzled look on their face, convinced that we must be crazy. Eventually we got out of the town and we were heading well in the right direction, but by now it was about 5pm, so we barely had any daylight to keep walking. Eventually we walked passed a spot that made the perfect camping site for the night so we ventured off the road and borrowed some local farm land for the night.

It was nestled in off the road further away enough in which we had our own wee private space to jam out with the music and get a good nights sleep for the next day where we were going to get up for an early start and…… well we still didn’t really know at that point exactly how we were going to approach the following day. Our site was surrounded by a couple of little streams and all around us was a view of the hills, which were all lined with terraces, individually separated off by stone walls. One thing we didn’t quite take into consideration, was the temperature in the nights. Gareth was keen to try out his new hammock, but later found that it wasn’t perhaps the best conditions for a hammock trial. The following morning revealed the extent of the cold. One bottle of water had completely frozen, whilst Amber woke up with ice on her hair which had frozen on from the tent condensation. Meanwhile Gareth never woke up because he never got to sleep. Instead he spent his whole time moving around to prevent himself from freezing. I had an average nights sleep. At least I managed to avoid the cold by wearing all my clothes to bed.

The next day we still hadn’t really decided how we were going to try and get to Cabanaconde. Despite last nights cold, everyone still had a strong hunger to do it the “adventurous” way, so we decided that we’d try walking in the general direction of the town and just flag down any ride that we could get on the way. At about 10am we started walking, still not having a clue how well our plan would work. After about half an hour of walking a van came past with plenty of seats left inside. We ended up getting a ride, but they were only going as far as the next small town. We decided that it would be best to take the ride and then plan our next move from the next town.

It was only a short ride before we’d arrived in the next town. The driver told us that there was a bus passing through at 11am, and also another one later on at 4pm. With only ten minutes until the 11oclock we decided to relax for a while and try our luck hitchhiking again. The locals said that there was no way that we’d get a ride there until the next bus (4pm,) but we insisted amongst ourselves that we will find a ride to Cabanaconde, arriving there just after lunch. We made our way back out onto the road and carried on walking. It was now very hot with the sun out so the best option at the time was to find some shade and wait for a ride there. As soon as we sat down another van came by, and once again there was enough room for us all to pile in. The guy got out of the van and threw our bags up the top, while we all jumped in with the locals. This ride still was once again only going to the next town, but we decided that it was still at least one step closer to where we wanted to go, and if we just kept doing this then surely we would eventually get to where we wanted to go.

Our luck stopped at this town. From here we no longer saw any traffic going in the direction of where we were going. We were now stuck in this tinny little town in the middle of no where, not knowing when or how we were going to get to Cabanaconde. The only option we had now was to wait three hours until the four-o’clock bus passed by. It was quite funny to look back at the day before, knowing that we could have just taken the bus then, arriving where we wanted to be a whole day earlier. But everything going wrong was defiantly part of the fun. By that evening we had finally arrived. We originally had only intended on doing Colca Canyon for two days, but it had taken us two days to get to the point where the hike started, so once again we decided to change our plans.

On the morning of departure, the guy at the hostel suggested we take a three day route through the canyon. He insisted that this was the best way in which to take in the whole diversity of the canyon, and also the culture of the small towns throughout. Straight away I was sold on the idea, and now our two day trip had become a five day epic. The plan was to walk right into the canyon on the first day, and then head back up the other side to spend the first night in a small town a wee bit higher up. This was meant to be a very small town and we were told that it had one of the better authentic cultural feels. The second day required a walk around the higher part of the canyon before dropping right back down to a small town tucked away at the bottom, then the final day required the dreaded climb back to the top.

It felt great to be at the starting point of the hike; it took so long to get there that it was a real relief to finally be staring down the throat of the canyon. The first view was of a vast barren rocky landscape with sparse patches of cactuses randomly dotted over the placed. The river that wound through the bottom of the canyon seemed miles away, but apparently it was only two hours until we reach the bottom point.

The beginning of the first day wasn’t to tiring. We didn’t take long to reach the bottom, and after a short break for lunch we began our climb back up to reach our first town. The climb back up proved to be a lot more challenging. The sun was now at its full intensity by this stage, and the track was mainly loose rocks, so it made for a tiresome walk. It was very interesting walking up, often we’d come across locals doing their day to day business, loading up the mules with wood for the return trip.

After a long three hours we were finally at the location of our first town. It was very small and didn’t take us long to find one of the two hostels. Unlike the previous night, this night we had proper rooms to stay in, although very rustic. That night we sampled the local apple wine, which tasted good on the first few sips, but then got pretty nasty after that. With a much better nights sleep we were well ready to tackle to second day.

The second day was set to be a lot easier than the first. We’d climbed to the other side so all we had to do now was follow it round before dropping down at the end of the day. We passed through many small towns. The trial was never marked so there were many times where we had to ask the locals to point us in the right direction. This day was the most spectacular for walking. The scenery of the canyon constantly changed as we moved around. We also seemed to have taken some random path that the guided tours stay away from. This meant that we didn’t see any people for the whole day, apart from a few villagers here and there. The perfect weather meant that we had perfect panoramic views in all directions. The further we went across, the more impressive the canyon became. As we started to drop down, the true size of the canyon really started to become apparent. It was one thing staring down from above, but being right down in the bottom was where I really felt the full depth of it. The final night was on of the coolest places that I’d yet come across in South America.

Once we got right down to the bottom of the canyon, it was as if we’d stumbled across a random little oasis in the middle of no where. Perched up slightly on the top of a small hill was this tiny little village. It didn’t seem like it really even contained much more than the hostel. After bargaining for a good price of 10 soles we relaxed, happy that we’d come across such a good deal. Our room was a little wee cabin close to the river. The best part about this place was that it had a natural hot spring right down by the river, which was open all night. It also had a place to light a fire just outside our cabin, the perfect set up. As soon as we got down there the first priority was of course the hot pool. By now the sun had well and truly disappeared, setting the stage for the best night of stare gazing I’ve ever had. The combination of being down in the bottom of the canyon, sitting in a thermal pool on a freezing cold night, and a view of the stars unlike anything I’d ever seen before, set the stage for one of the best nights of my trip. There were many times throughout that night where I thought to myself, “damn, I really am living the dream at the moment!”

The only thing that either of us was dreading was the huge climb back out of the canyon the following day, but luckily somehow, somebody found out about a bus that goes back up there. It only left a couple of times a week and it just so happened to co inside with our trip. There was just the one bus that left at 10am, so the pressure was really on for an early start the following morning in order to get there in time to catch it. With the consequence of missing it being a huge climb back up, it wasn’t hard to motivate ourselves to get up on time in the morning. After a quick breakfast we had our bags ready and we were ready for our final day in the canyon.

The walk to the car park was very short, lasting about two hours. It was once again quite different from the other days of the trip. This time we were navigating our way through the bottom of the canyon, often spending our time boulder hoping. After one final bridge crossing we’d reached the car park. It was nothing like I’d imagined. There were no signs or markings of any kind; it simply looked like the scene in a wild west movie where everyone had abandoned a site in the middle of a desert somewhere. There were bits of steel scattered around the place, and a number of other things that were obviously there to be picked up by the bus. There were only a couple of people there who seemed to look a bit puzzled when we started waiting there. I got the feeling that we were about to jump on a bus that wasn’t the typical tourist bus, I laughed to myself, noticing that this trip just continues to become better and better. After about a half hour wait the “bus” appeared, and it was once again nothing like what I had expected.

It was basically a bright blue pickup cargo truck. As it came closer we all looked at each other with a big grin on our faces. I’d seen these all over Peru and always thought to myself that I’d love to have a ride on one, now was the perfect chance. When the bus backed up and all these people just pilled out. They just seemed to keep coming, and when they were all out, they all helped each other unload the masses of cargo that they had onboard also. The car park had gone from this dead abandoned place, to a hive of activity. It quickly became apparent that this truck was one of the lifelines for these communities to get back into town and get their supplies. We decided that we should grab our bags and get ready to jump on as soon as they were ready, just to confirm our seats. As the final things were unloaded we got the sign from the driver, and we all pilled on in, using our packs as some sort of padding for the bumpy ride back up.

The novelty of sitting in the back of a Peruvian cargo truck lasted for about half an hour, then it became a painfully bumpy ride. Occasionally I would try standing to catch one last glimpse of the canyon, but found that an awkward sitting posture was the most effective. After about two hours we arrived back in Cobanaconde. As I slowly struggled out of the truck, I realized that it was probably just as hard on my body as the huge walk back up would have been. Never the less we were now in civilization, just one bus away from arriving back in Arequipa.

By the time we were back I’d decided what my next step was, Bolivia. Gareth had decided that he would join me to La Paz, Yani was going his own way, and the girls were going to Puno. We all joked about how a two day trip had turned into a five day extravaganza, it was the first time that I’d been on a trip of that nature and knew that it wouldn’t be the last. After spending one more night in Arequipa, Gareth and I joined the girls on a bus to Puno, before crossing the border to the fresh new land of Bolivia. After our latest adventure we were buzzing for more, and La Paz seemed like the perfect place for the next stop. Before that was Copacabana, a small town on the Bolivian side of Lake Titikaka. The plan was to spend a few days kicking back on the Isla del Sol (Island of The Sun,) before going head on into the chaotic vibe of La Paz.

Well thats about me for now. There has been a wee bit thats still happened since, and I will make an effort to get them up over the next coming days also. The photos will also be updated over the next couple of days. Hope you enjoy. Rob.