The Colca

The Colca Canyon, located a few hours outside of Arequipa in southern Peru, was long known as the world's deepest canyon. Although scientists have recently re-evaluated and decided that a different Peruvian canyon, adjacent to the Colca, is actually a tad bit deeper, the Colca is still an impressive place to see. During my Thanksgiving vacation, I got to spend some time hiking in and around the canyon, led by awesome tour guide and fellow PCV Emily. Emily's town of Cabanaconde is perched on the edge of the Colca, so she knew exactly where to take us visitors.

Emily and one of the señoras from her town in traditional dress

Sunset in Chivay, another volunteer's site on the way to the Colca

Looking back at Cabanaconde across the fields - the Colca is known for maintaining the traditional terraced agriculture, and almost everyone in Cabanaconde grows only corn

View from the canyon rim, looking down on a large portion of the trail we would hike

An awesome hiking crew of Peru 19 ladies ready to start the trek: Lindsay, Anel, Liz, Kendra, Tekela, Emily, Nydelis, and me

Heading down to the Colca river

The canyon is super dry and hot at this time of year (aside from the oases at the bottom), so most of the plant life we saw was cacti

We also saw some pretty cool rock formations - this one reminded me of a toppling stack of CDs

Along the way we passed through some quaint and tiny towns

One of the farmers Emily knew invited us to try some of his miniature pears

On a certain section of the trail, we ran into a lot of rockslides. Most of them were still passable, but we hit one that was very recent, and whose central portion was too dangerous for us to cross. Trying to find a way to continue, we went back to the nearest town to ask about other trails. Instead, we found this tiny (and pregnant!) Peruvian lady who offered to help us get across.

Our new friend proceeded to make her way across the slide by digging a trail into the still-falling sand, no big deal

We all thanked her profusely, and then the trail of gringas managed to traverse the rockslide on the newly made trail

Eventually we made it to our destination for the night: the oasis at the bottom of the canyon, complete with a beautiful pool to jump in

Covered in dust as we were, and tired from a long day's hike, the water felt amazing

The last day was a shorter but steep slog straight up the canyon wall. We got up at 3:45am to avoid having to hike in the blazing sun, and made it to the top just as the day was fully brightening.