Arequipa and Colca Canyon
I went to Arequipa after I recuperated from an odd and fast-moving illness that started on the bus ride from Trujillo to Lima. I met my friend Mark in Arequipa and we ended up hanging out together in Arequipa, Colca Canyon and Cusco area for a couple of weeks and that was great to have someone to travel with. Arequipa is about 1000 kilometers southeast of Lima up in the Andes although not nearly as high as Cajamarca and Cusco. It is a large city of about three-quarters of a million residents, but you really don’t know that when you stay in the colonial area. Arequipa is known as the white city because many of the colonial and newer buildings are made from a white volcanic rock called sillar. I would say that it is one of the more beautiful cities that I have visited especially since it has a number of very tall volcanoes around it including El Misti which is the protypical cone-shaped volcano. It is a UNESCO World Heritage site and this is well-deserved… thankfully. Arequipa like the rest of Peru has a history of volcanic and earthquake activity including the devastating 7.9 temblor in 2001.
There are two attractions in Arequipa that were the most interesting to me. The first is the Museum of the Catholic University which contains the mummies of Incans who were sacrificed at the top of local volcanoes. The main attraction is the mummy named Juanita although she was a no-show for us due to the season, but she had a stand-in who I am sure is just as good as far as 600 year old frozen people go. The mummy is interesting, but the real draw is the story of the archaelogical expeditions to the tops of the mountains and the items found with the bodies including textiles, ceramics and metal objects. An archaeologist named Johan Reinhard had determined that Incans had sacrificed royal family children on the volcanoes and when there was a volcano that erupted ash which in turn melted the snows on nearby Mt Ampatom in 1995, he climbed to the top with Peruvians to see what he could find. What he found is now world famous – basically intact mummies and their tombs. The museum provides an excellent presentation of these findings.
The other amazing site is the Convent of Santa Catalina. It is a walled city within the city. For four hundred years, nuns were kept in total isolation from the rest of the world in this five acre site. It is well restored and you are basically turned loose to explore on your own through the buildings and streets. The photographic opportunities with the light playing off the sillar and brightly painted walls was endless. Mark and I had a great time getting lost in this lost world.
We decided to do a three-day trek into the Colca Canyon which was regarded as the deepest canyon in the world until nearby Cotohausi Canyon recently replaced it… maybe! One thing that can be agreed on is that it is twice as deep as the Grand Canyon! We took a bus to the end of the Colca Valley town of Cabanaconde which is about five hours from Arequipa. It is a long bus ride, but the beauty of the landscape is incredible. Indigenous locals crowd onto the bus and some of them stand for the two hours through the valley. And they never seem to lose that beautiful smile on their faces or stop being merry with their fellow locals. Truly amazing people who humbled me all through Peru. When we arrived in Cabanaconde we were greeted by Edward, our local guide, and after filling up at a restaurant, we started the five hour hike down into the canyon.
The path was one switchback after another and one had to be careful not to be staring at the canyon too long and trip on a rock or walk off the path. This is no joke – Edward told us that the locals even lose mules over the side once in a while. The locals cruised by us on their regular jaunts up and down the canyon. Their speed made us look pitiful. The hike was difficult and got much more so in the last hour to the river where it became steep and slick with gravel. The best moment of the trip down was standing on a precipice and having three condors fly by us one of which was just meters away. I had a great photo opportunity with one, but the photos turned out horrible because I could not keep up with the changing exposure as it flew from a canyon wall background into a clear blue sky background. But it really did not matter, we were right there with some of the most amazing birds in the sky. One thing that I was quite amazed with is that you can look up and see glaciers on the surrounding peaks and look down and see orchards of tropical fruit trees like banana and papaya. Know anywhere else that has that situation?
We stayed the night in a simple hut at someone’s home and rested our tired feet. The next day was somewhat easy although at that altitude nothing is simple. We followed the river from above through one village to a hostel called the Oasis. The village is only connected to the rest of the world via mule and walking paths. We noticed that the mud huts have electrical boxes and Ed told us that they just got electricity four months earlier. The mud church was spectacular in its construction. Hardly anyone was in the village because they were all working in the terraced fields below nearer to the river. We looked down and could not believe they walk down to the fields in the morning, put in a very long day there and then walk back in the evening. Next time a farmer with mechanized equipment tells me how hard they work, I will chuckle… to myself. The village is another one of those sites seared into my memory.
The Oasis was right down at the river and included a pool and simple huts as rooms. We had the option of resting there until mid-afternoon and then hiking out or staying overnight and hiking out at 2:30 AM. We chose to stay and relaxed the rest of the day thinking about all the fun we would have at 2:30 AM. Mule rides were offered, but Mark and I felt that was lame. We regretted that decision all the way up until we made it to the top and then it was once again the right decision. In hindsight, we should have had mules take out packs and we probably would have enjoyed the 3+ hours of hiking a lot more. The moon was full and there was a couple of fog belts in the canyon so the lighting was unforgettable. It was quite cold out which was great for hiking except I was soaked with sweat and when we took breaks (which increased in frequency the higher and steeper we went) I would become uncomfortably cold quickly. Because we ate nothing before leaving, I was running on empty when we came across an indian three-quarters up who was selling food and drink. I ate a banana and it gave me the needed energy to make it while removing the pain in my stomach. That will go down as the greatest banana I have ever eaten… by far.
After eating breakfast in Cabanaconde, we took the bus to Cruz del Condor where condors cross right in front of people on the top edge of the canyon. Basically, no condors showed this day, but Mark and I already had seen a much better show two days before in the canyon so we didn’t really care. The ride back to Arequipa was extremely long with our sore legs and tired minds. This is not a luxury bus system nor is it a highway, but we made it and after eating an early dinner we crashed. I felt like we had accomplished something really awesome and we got to see a part of indigenous life that was very real and very difficult. And I was very glad that no mules came crashing down on us from above.
Tags: peru, south america, Travel
vagabondrick
Hi Rick,nrnrI was going through the blog and it seems that you are almost halfway done with the world. I read quite a few of them and was real excited. Good luck with your travels now and take care. nrnrRaj Kandada