Lowri For backpackers travelling through Peru, trekking the Colca Canyon should definitely be on the to-do list.
Be warned, trekking the Colca Canyon is no easy feat; the canyon is the world’s second deepest! We’d say the challenge is certainly worth the reward.
Begin in Arequipa
To visit the Colca Canyon we first made our way to the beautiful town of Arequipa. Known as ‘The White City’ due to the volcanic rock used in the majority of it’s colonial-era buildings, travellers to Arequipa will easily be enthralled with this place.
Arequipa itself definitely warrants at least a couple of days for travellers to explore.
Some of the most well-known sights include the Monasterio de Santa Catalina, the Sillar Route, hiking Misti Volcano and visiting the Incan mummy Juanita.
Sadly, despite our ambitions for Arequipa, we didn’t do a whole lot. Poor Rhys spent this short time recovering from what we can only assume was a minor bout of altitude sickness (we had just made our way from 500m in Nasca to 2,300m overnight).
We did however manage to get some exploring in via a free walking tour.
It was a great insight to city’s fascinating history and culture. It seems there is quite a bit of rivalry between Lima and Arequipa… the Arequipans are certainly very proud to call this their home, as our guide’s passion indicated.
For travellers looking to do some shopping, then Arequipa is the place to do it.
It was way cheaper here than the capital and maybe not surprisingly cheaper than Cusco too. I was super excited to finally get an alpaca poncho!
Tip: Unless you are travelling from Cusco (i.e. you’re travelling from Lima or the Ica desert) we recommend spending two days in Arequipa to adjust to the altitude. Even the valley base of the Colca Canyon is 2,160m high!
Booking the trek
The cheapest way to book a trek to the Colca Canyon is when arriving in Arequipa i.e. not booking through an expensive tour operator online in advance.
While we normally do our best to shop around, sometimes it’s not necessary. We simply chose the easy route, booking directly through our hostel as we thought it was a great price.
Clearly aimed at budget backpackers like ourselves, the 2-day trek was very reasonable at just 100 soles ($30 USD) each. This cost included transportation and our 3 meals for the first day, plus breakfast on the second.
Note that there are additional costs to pay while on the excursion. These include the Colca Canyon entrance fee of 70 soles ($21 USD) each, lunch on the second day plus 15 soles for the optional hot springs on the return trip.
Note: Hostel prices may differ slightly. We stayed at the Friendly AQP hostel which we recommend. It was cheap for a private room, was clean, had a nice outdoor space and included an awesome pancake breakfast!
The only thing we might change is that our hostel advertised the Colca Canyon trek’s difficulty as moderate. Pfft!
I appreciate that some might find this a breeze but we would be inclined to at least put moderate to hard..
The Trek: Day 1
Our trek to the Colca Canyon began with a very early rise (don’t they all). We were up, showered and ready for our 3am hostel pick-up.
After a few more pick-up stops to fill our bus of 20, we began the four hour drive to the village of Chivay. Being a more suitable time for breakfast we stopped here while having a briefing of what the rest of the day would entail.
Bird watching
Back on the road, our first stop was at the Mirador Cruz del Condor. This lookout point offers sweeping views of the Colca Canyon and the region’s impressive Andean Condor.
While this bird might not win any beauty pageants, their large size and near 3m wingspan make them one of the largest in the world that are able to fly!
Close to 9am we reached our third and final stop of the morning: the trailhead. Here we would begin our trek down into the depths of the Colca Canyon.
Being South America, not everything runs on time, or as planned. Being a large group of 20 we were meant to be split into two with a guide each. Semi-patiently waiting, it appeared the second guide was a no-show.
We decided as a group to crack on and have the guide catch up (if they ever arrived) rather than waste time waiting.
Setting off
Even from the get-go, Rhys and I found ourselves falling behind as we were just in awe of the incredible views! I just wanted to take all the pictures!!
The first 20 minutes were a joy. We followed our guide along a blissfully flat path that scaled the edge of the canyon, reveling in the beautiful sunshine.
Having rounded a corner along the path, it was then that we found ourselves glaring down at the winding trail that would be our decent.
For inexperienced hikers (like us at the time), we had no concerns about this part. I mean, it’s downhill so it’s easy, right? Let me just tell you, there’s a reason our guide called this portion ‘The Gringo Killer’ (explained further down).
We kept a decent pace the whole way down. The most difficult part at the time was more mental as we knew every step down was a step back up the next day!
The valley base
It took us 2.5 hours to reach ‘kilometre zero’ at the Colca River. Here we managed a ten minute rest while everyone regrouped before continuing on.
We crossed the suspension bridge over the river and began following the trail the other side of the canyon.
Here we experienced our first steep, but luckily short, incline.
After this tiring climb we gratefully reached another flat portion of the path that we followed for 20 minutes more to reach the tiny village of San Juan de Chuccho.
Finally it was time for a proper rest and lunch.
I was ravenous but strangely Rhys had almost zero appetite, which we still think was the lingering effects of altitude sickness. Not one to waste food, I made sure his meal found a good home.
After eating we had time to further rest, lying on the grass in the sun until we were summoned to continue our journey. This was where it got hard.
Our guide described this portion of the journey as ‘Peruvian flat’.
Basically, what it meant is that we were following a fairly flat direction, close to the valley floor, only instead of being actually flat, the path ran up and down, up and down, up and down. This, for ten kilometres!
It was honestly brutal but at least the views served as a great distraction from the struggle.
Breaking through ‘the wall’
We must have made it about five kilometres further before the effects of the aforementioned ‘Gringo Killer’ began to set in. Our knees were shattered.
The uphill portions were fine (albeit tiring) but the downhill sections became agonising. At least we were both feeling the strain, although I will admit I may have complained more.
We luckily found the strength to power through, although we fell a good distance behind the rest of our group.
It was such a relief to make the second bridge with the finish line of the oasis in our sights. We knew it was just 10 minutes more!
A slightly negative point that I do have to include here is that we were frustratingly abandoned by our guide. Our issue only materialised when we arrived at the oasis and got a little lost. We hadn’t known that there were multiple accommodations and so wandering around inquiring where our group was did test my patience.
Once on the right path our annoyance eased and we were elated when we finally arrived!
Some recovery time
The remainder of the afternoon was heaven. We got to freshen ourselves up with a dip in the pool on site and enjoy a couple of beers with our fellow hikers, none of whom seemed to be quite as drained as us, ha!
Another perk was being shown to our stone and bamboo lodge, which we were surprised to find was just for the two of us.
Dinner that night was modest with a vegetable soup followed by spaghetti, during which we were briefed on the plan for the following day.
This plan included the option to ‘sleep-in’ a little longer and ride a donkey for the final ascent up the canyon. We were tempted and I think the guide was encouraging us. But we’d made it this far and I am extremely stubborn; we were walking up!
Ensuring we were as rested as possible for the next morning, we snuck off to bed at 8.30pm as soon as we’d eaten.
The Trek: Day 2
Even for morning people like myself, getting up at 4am is a struggle.
For Rhys, who typically can’t function without at least one cup of coffee in him, it is particularly difficult. At least he slept well whereas I kept waking for fear of sleeping through our alarms! Luckily we didn’t.
Our group assembled at the oasis at 4.45am, ready to tackle the 6km climb up out of the valley. Before setting off our guide advised that we had to make it to the top by 8am. I’m not quite sure what the alternative was if we couldn’t make it by then..
Luckily I was feeling very positive. My knees were still battered but they thankfully worked fine going up.
The climb
And so we set off, making the most of the cool shade before the sun came up to further tire us. The scenery was still spectacular but we far less distracted today instead trying to focus on the challenge at hand and plough on.
It was a big challenge.
We kept each other motivated and tried to limit our breaks and finally (FINALLY!) we made it to the top!
Arriving at 7.30am it had taken us two hours and 45 minutes to conquer the canyon. Our group overall was mega-fast with someone hiking it in just two hours! It was just us and one other trailing at the back reaching the summit just before three others that had chosen to take the donkeys.
To say we were chuffed is an understatement. We were so proud of ourselves and completely elated at our achievement!
Enjoying a well deserved rest we soaked up the views until our guide found us all and instructed us to follow.
More blooming walking, ha! Under normal circumstances this 30 minute walk would have been easy. Our final destination was a small café in the town of Cabanaconde where breakfast was served while we waited for our bus.
Returning to Arequipa
The journey back included a few extra rewarding stops. The first mirador offered more breath-taking views as well as an tourist-attracting alpaca.
Our second stop gave our hard-working muscles some much-needed relief in the form of natural hot springs. The toasty 38 degree (100F) water felt magical.
Feeling very refreshed, we returned to that first village of Chivay for our lunch stop.
As we were covering the cost of this ourselves there was the option for ordering off the menu, a la carte, or indulging with a buffet. Rhys got a very sad looking sandwich with his non-existent appetite but I went all out with the buffet. It was delicious!
Fat and happy (from where I sat at least), we continued back across the mountains heading to Arequipa. There was still one last look-out high in the Andes as our journey peaked at 4,910m!
Not quite what we had been expecting… rather than views for miles we were greeted by a surprise blizzard!
While another view would have been great, it was actually quite exciting being caught in the middle of a snow storm! Minus the cracking thunder which was a little scary.
That last drain on whatever adrenaline we had left in our systems helped us all to snooze for the remainder of the trip back to the city. It was 5pm when we woke to find ourselves back in Arequipa being dropped at our hostel.
Needless to say, we treated ourselves to a few beers that evening!
After thoughts
We have definitely stepped up our hiking game since our visit to Colca Canyon. I often reference back to this venture using it to spur us on to yet more challenges. It definitely made our journey to Machu Picchu not seem as daunting a week later.
So for any travellers making their way through Peru we would strongly recommend a minor detour to Arequipa. Like us, you don’t need to be a super-fit, avid hiker to consider an adventure like this, although it will add to the challenge for sure.
Trekking the Colca Canyon remains one of our most rewarding hikes and hope you too will think it’s totally worth it 🙂
Happy trekking!
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