Cañon del Colca...

So Monday morning, we woke up at 2.30 am, after only a couple hourse of sleep, to go to the Colca Cañon. We were picked up at about 3.30 am by a very uncomfortable mini van. We drove for about 3 hours to Chivay, where we were given breakfast and then continued towards the Cañon. We stop at the Mirador de la Cruz del Condor for about 40 minutes to view condors. We managed to see a few flying around. They are really beautiful and huge! I believe their wing span is about 3 metres. We then drove a little bit further and we started our trek down the Cañon del Colca!
From the top we could see the bottom and the little oasis/resort we would stay at that night! It was a long way down! Our guide told us it would take 3 hours to the bridge at the bottom and then 30 minutes to the next village where we would have lunch. It only took us 2 hours to get to the bridge! It was a nice trek down.. it would be, right? Downhill! The views are amazing. But to be honest, it´s not what I expected for a canyon. I was expect 2 huge cliff type things and a huge drop down the center. It´s more like lots of moutains and a valley in the middle. So we arrived in the little village and at what I think was somebody´s house. We had soup and then rice and alpaca. It was very nice!
We continued on for what seemed like forever towards the oasis. It took us about 2 hours to get there and we arrived about 4pm. On the way we went through a small village where children jumped on us asking for sweets! Some parts of the trail was right on the edge of the moutain.. one wrong step and bye bye!!!
Once we arrived at the resort, it was heaven.. Although it was pretty basic.. hard beds, no electricity. But hey, it´s second nature for me after living in the jungle for 3 weeks! It looked absolutely amazing with the mountains all around. We went in the swiming pool and ate mangos from the tree. Miam Miam!
We were then given dinner around a candle.. Soup, spaghetti and coca tea! And then we were straight to bed at 8.30!
The boys were in on room and the girls in another. Liv and I pulled our beds together in the middle of the room because there were bugs everywhere! And it was a mud house so we were kind of freaked out! The boys thought it was quite funny as we had lived in the jungle and assumed we would be used to all the creepy crawlies and stuff!
This morning we woke up at 5 am and started the hike up at 5.20! On empty stomachs!!! It was a loooong way up! I thought it would never end! But it took us 2 hours to walk 5 km and go about 2 km up. We were some of the first up after Sean who is a freaking machine and arrived in 1 h and 20 minutes!
Then we walked over to Cabanaconde (3287 m) for breakfast! Eggs have never tasted so good!!!
We were then picked up by a very luxurious and confortable mini van and drove to the hot springs near Chivay. It was ridiculously hot already and the springs were boiling too! But we got to sunbath for a little bit which was really nice.
We then drove some more to the highest point in the area which is 4910 m! It was amazing! We even raced down the road to see what the effects of the altitude would have on us! We were very out of breath! Then we had lunch in Chivay and we were on our way back to Arequipa. We arrived back around 4.30 pm.
My whole body is aching!! I better be buff at the end of this trip!!
I must go because I am being draged into the bar to play that giant jenga game again! I´ve already been running back and forth for my turn and had 3 shots for taking a piece too quickly, taking too long to go to the room and dropping my piece!!!
Will write back soon!!
Miss you all terribly!