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Unfortunately I´m not sure how far exactly I walked but I know it was far. The deepest parts of the canyon are apparently 3400m deep so it could have been anything up to that! Most of it was downhill so it wasn't really really tiring but my feet hurt alot as I kept kicking stones - needed steel toe caps on my walking boots really. After 3 hours we arrived at San Juan and after a bit of a rest I just sat for a few hours appreciating the general piece and quiet. My lunch of Alpacha arrived which was very tasty - better than the guinea pig in Cusco! |
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A bit later another girl arrived and so I spent a lot of the afternoon chatting to her but after dinner it was pretty much dark and as I lost my torch I decided to go to bed before I lost all visibility. The night was spent in a little bamboo hut with a bed which was suprisingly comfortable although quite noisy because of various birds in the surrounding trees. Breakfast was sometime after 5 in the morning after which I set off to the oasis. Although the walk only took about 1 1/2 hours it was really tough as the sun was really strong and a fair bit of it was uphill which is always knackering. Along the way my guide told me lots about all the different trees and their medicinal properties (all in Spanish). He also insisted on pointing out lots of fruit trees and then telling my they wouldn´t be ripe till February which was annoying. At one point we passed a football pitch in the middle of the canyon which is where once a year the canyon villages have a big tournament for a cup. It´s quite cleaver as due to the way the land is there is almost tierred seating all around so that all the spectators have a good view! |
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We eventually arrived at the oasis and I was shown to my bamboo hut. There were a few people there already sitting by the swimming pool. Unfortunately the pool was being refilled as they´d cleaned it out the night before so I had to wait an hour or so before I could go for a swim. It was worth the wait though as it was very refreshing. More people then arrived in time for lunch and a bit of a swim. I think I did quite well with my guide though as I had alpacha again but another group were presented with a plate of rice and mashed potato - they weren´t very impressed. Everybody then left as they decided to do the walk to the top then as the sun wasn´t so strong and they didn´t fancy having to get up at 3am to walk before sunrise. I was therefore on my own for a bit so I went down to the river with my guide for a bit of a look around. We managed to see a snake although I think it was poisonous as we had to wait till it had gone away before we could pass. A bit later a few more people arrived and so I had some company. We set up a bonfire which we sat around for a bit after dinner before going to bed at about 8 as some of us had to get up at 3 to walk to the top. |
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3am wasn´t as bad as it sounded although walking in the dark for an hour was a bit strange. Once the sun started to come up though it was a bit easier to see which helped. The walk to the top took 2 1/2 hours and was actually easier than the walk the day before as it was cool and because at first I was concentrating so hard the time went quite quickly. I was quite knackered towards the end thoughas I hadn´t eaten anything and my legs were tired. It was a relief to finally get to the top and know that I only had to walk a bit on flat ground and then I could eat breakfast!
Breakfast was back where I had started from where I also wrote in their comments book and dressed up in some traditional clothes which made me look about 12 years old. After all this I got on a bus back to Arequipa. |
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The plan was to get off the bus at the Condor Pass and have a look at some condors and then get on another bus back to Arequipa. This changed as on the bus I was chatting to some of the people who were in the oasis the day before and their plan was to get off in Chivay and go to the hot springs there to relax for a bit. This sounded much more appealing so I joined them. The people I was with were 2 English girls Emma and Ray and another couple Rosie (Scottish) and Dan (Irish). After spending ages relaxing in the extreemly hot water at the springs we went for lunch in the town. Even though it was only 11am we decided that a jug of sangria would be a good idea - i´d been up since 3 so it was about the right time to start drinking! Unfortunately we then had to get back on a bus for another long journey back to Aprequipa. |
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Once in Arequipa I attached myself to Emma and Ray who had been travelling for 9 months already and seemed happy to have me around. We found ourselves a hostel where we were given a family room with 3 single beds and a TV downstairs and a double bed and a sofa upstairs which we decided was probably enough to keep us occupied.
After hot showers and a bit of chilling out we met up with Dan and Rosie for dinner. They took us to an English pub a little out of town that they had stumbled across a few days earlier. It turned out to be quite an entertaining evening as the lady who ran the pub was from Liverpool and could talk for England. She´s been living abroad for quite a few years and about 5 in Peru and speaks Spanish with a Liverpool accent. She told us lots of random stories but the one which seems to have stuck in our brains is when a few years earlier she went on a bus journey that was suposed to last 4 hours and in fact lasted 2 days due to a farmers strike blocking the road and because she always takes so much food on journeys with her she was able to feed a whole bus full of people for 2 days with her food. (we thought it was funny - you had to be there!) The food was very good though and after that and another jug of sangria we were all totally shattered and decided we all needed sleep |
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