22nd of March, 2017
Colca Canyon. Nope, guys, this has nothing to do with having a Coca Cola. 😉
With Peru Hop to Arequipa, which is the starting point for Colca Canyon. First, some nice impressions from Arequipa:
It should get active again in nature the next day. Two days outside. Yeah, lovin’ it! Early morning at 3.30 a.m., off to Colca Canyon. Sleeping on the bus. Waking up from some intense shaking on gravel road. At 6.45 a.m., we arrived at the park entrance to pay. Like everywhere, they have different prices for foreigners and locals. The pricing levels are mostly different at each location. Anyway, each of the guys in front of me payed that 70 Soles (20 €) for this park.
Starting the hike – yeah! Downhill…
I met a really cool guy from the Netherlands: Ivo. Thanks for the fun and great conversations! I will also never forget the luxury 5***** hotel experience. 😉
We had lunch from this kitchen:
River-crossing:
The place where we stayed ovenight down the mountain valley. On the other side, one can see the path we were going upwards the next morning:
Colca Canyon, that’s what the locals say, is twice as deep as Grand Canyon.
We hiked up the Colca Canyon early morning at 5.00 a.m. Just quite exactly 1000 m in altitude at this place, …in a nice 1:53 h. Loved it! 🙂
What do the donkey riders say? 😉
Up the mountain, this shot was taken:
On the way back to Arequipa we enjoyed some more nice places:
Hello silly 🙂
With cool guys on the trip…
This was a very enjoyable trip. Thanks for the recommendation from Simon to do it. And a special thanks to all the guys who where on the trip making this thing such great fun! Karen, Tom, Ivo and all the others – you are awesome! 🙂
In the evening, back to Arequipa, we went to a local dinner place called “Pre Inka Cousine Sonccollay”. According to BBC, it is the only pre-inka restaurant in the world. Walter, the owner, cooks the way the Inkas did. He talks about the alchemy of past times. They didn’t use oil for cooking, solely salt and herbs. We were given the opportunity to not only see the kitchen but also watch Walter cooking. Finally, we put our meet on fire ourselves. The food was absolutely delicious. Not the cheapest option, but defenitely of great value!
Enjoy together with me the flight over the stunning Nazca Lines in the next post.