DEliTOUR: Harry Kipper and Colca Canyon

Arequipa is Peru´s second city. Though it has since been renamed. By me. It has a lovely colonial style heart, that we found very useful for changing Easter Island flight times with LAN, our favourite South American Oneworld group airline. After just a few hours we carried on apace back up across the altiplano towards canyon country. Having been to the Grand Canyon and had such a mind blowing experience we were unsure about what to think of Peru´s canyons. Cotahausi Canyon is the world´s deepest at 3354m (twice as deep as the Grand Canyon), and just around the corner is Colca Canyon, the world´s second deepest, and easily accessible from the village of Cabanaconde. The local hostels have a good system going where they book you into the ´oasis´at the bottom and give brief instruction on how to take a long walk to and from the bottom over two days. Before the off we found lone Bristolian, Amber, and roped her into joining us.

The canyon was about 30 degrees in the sun and 15 out of it, with a pretty harsh wind blowing at times. Distance perception was difficult, gazing across the plunging valley towards the specs of villages we would be visiting. Of course, as ever, we were in the wild, but not alone. There was a steady stream of tourists doing similar walks, many gutted that they had forked out for a guide when we and others hadn´t, and a steady stream of mules ferrying supplies to the villages and the tourist oasis. We had a corking two hour lunch breather and arrived after a total of eight hours walking, at the oasis at nightfall. Our lodgings had a spring-fed pool which, though chilly at 6PM, was still just what was required. Our hut was made of bamboo that really looked like it had just fallen together accidentally. We had sleeping bags and extra blankets and were feeling very smug that we were walking independantly when it transpired that half the visitors were getting up to leave at 0130AM to walk back up as part of their ´tour´. Ouch. The four hour walk, almost vertically up, was a serious test, particularly for asthmatic Amber, who was lovely company throughout.

We jumped straight on the bus after the walk, just as we had done at Huaraz, and back at Harry Kipper we droped by Juanita, a mummified sacrificial victim who, after lying sedate for 500 years, had been exposed after her volcano had erupted, melting her icy covering and revealing her perfectly preserved torso, including skin and tissue. We stayed the night in the family-run El Tumi Del Oro near the plaza and prepared for another night bus.