Canyon Country in Peru

"Bus Trip for a Tour of the Caňon del Colca"

The bus picked us up at 8:30 AM at our backpackers to go to Colca Canyon. Majority of the passengers in the bus spoke Spanish and there were only 4 passengers who doesn't. Dad and I were two of them. The tour guide then tried it in English afterwards, but I could barely understand his gibberish translation. Since Yohann speaks Spanish fluently,he translated it in English for me and French to Dad.

From the fertile valley of Arequipa, our bus climbed the mountains with an average elevation of 4300m above sea level upwards. Past the beautiful volcanic view of El Misti and Chachani, we discovered the National Reserve for the Vicuňas. Moving on, we found Alpacas and Llamas.

"Altitude Sickness"

As we ascended through a bleak antiplano over a high point of 4800m , I started getting dizzy, with my head spinning, I didn’t know whether I would throw up or faint. I could hardly breathe and felt feverish. That was my first taste of Altitude Sickness. The locals say that the best cure is a cup of Mate de Coca (Coca Tea). We had a stopover for a cup of the famous herbal tea and it made me feel a little bit better. What made me forget about the sickness temporarily was the Peruvian Lunch Buffet at Chivay.

We have decided to stay with the Posada family in Yanque. It’s a local family offering cheap rooms to stay for the night. They offered us a trek to the mountains. I didn’t join them because my splitting headache has gone worse so I stayed in bed for an afternoon nap while I missed the hike.

Once I got better, during the late afternoon, we all went for a swim at the hot springs.

We suffered the cold that night. There was no heating and it was around 5 degrees Celsius. We were all freezing. We woke up at 5AM and had breakfast. We went to the plaza at 5:30AM for the folk show and the bus picked us up there at 6:30 AM for another tour to Macca Town, Colca Canyon, Mirador del Condor and short stops at scenic places before heading back to Arequipa.