The day started way to early at 4:15 am with a 4:30 light breakfast. Then we were off in the dark to basically go straight up the canyon.
4:30 am way to early and cold
The trek up took 2:48 with a few stops along the way. We saw a nice moon and the sunrise over the mountains on the way up. Mules with the "lazy" tourists passed us a few times. I was very glad to finally see the top around 8 am. I was feeling good about making it up in under 3 hours until our guide Juan said he has done it in 1:15 (although his slowest group was 6 hours).
Moon over the canyon
Mules carry up the not so fit tourists
Finally at the top with our guide
Next it was off to breakfast at a nice restaurant/hotel. Although first it was a 30 min walk to get there. Not being able to eat eggs meant more fresh cheese and bread for me, but at least the coffee was drinkable
Dinky enjoying breakfast
Next we got on a cramped small bus with 12 other people. We stopped at Cruz del Condor briefly but there were hardly any birds. The next stop was an overlook to see all the Inca Terraces. They said there are over 20000 terraces in this valley mostly from the Inca time and mostly still in use.
Inca terraces in Colca Valley
Next small stop was Maca to see the colonial church and small market. We tried prickly pear but it was slightly bitter. Some people were already having it blended with pisco and eggs (gross!). We picked up a little ornament that said colca canyon at a small shop and got pictures of this cute kid and his llama.
Maca handcraft market
Then it was back on the bus again. The final stop before lunch was thermal baths. We got an hour to soak in the warm water with lots of locals. Warm water helped but I was pretty sore by this point
Thermal baths near Chivay
Finally it was lunch time. We stopped at a large tourist place with a buffet. It was pretty good with the main attraction being plenty of food. We got cokes in glass bottles and 2 plates of food each. The buffet had salad lots of soup, meat dishes fried plantains and of course potatoes. After this we stopped to get our travel pillows left at breakfast yesterday. It was quite the ordeal because the place wasn't opened but finally somebody came and we got our pillows back.
Part of buffet lunch in Chivay
After lunch it was off to Arequipa. We stopped at the highest point along the road to see volcanos. Here it was a little cold and hard to breath, but we did see 6 volcanos in the distance
Volcano overlook
Driving through the national park we saw domestic llamas and alpacas. We also saw a few small groups of vicunas. These are the wild camalids that are endangered. After that it was a drive into Arequipa with the sun setting. We got let off on the road near our hotel and Juan hailed a taxi to get us all the way to the hotel. I would highly recommend our guide and Carlitos Tours. It was a very good price and the information and organization was wonderful
Vicunas in national park outside Arequipa
We got the same loud room as before. After dropped off some stuff we walked into town to do some shopping and finally have some good beer at Chaqchao. I had a mocha again plus a decent IPA. Zach had a quinoa kolsh. Next stop was dinner at ZigZag. After a small wait we were seated and had a good meal. I had quinoa gnocchi, Zach had alpaca. All was good and we were pretty full after that. They called a taxi for us, and luckily Zach was paying attention because we headed the wrong way. We got it straighted out and managed to get back to the hotel.
Unfortunately there was no hot water at all so after packing we went to bed and hoped for hot water in the morning.
Finally good local beer
Appetizer at ZigZag
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