Colca Canyon

Ever been to the Grand Canyon? In places, it´s a mile deep. Impressive, right? You aint seen nothin´ yet. Try two-mile deep canyons. When it comes to canyons, Colca Canyon is the head honcho, the big cheese, the whole enchilada, the top dog. It´s the deepest canyon in the world... depending on who you ask. Some say another nearby canyon is a bit deeper, others say Colca wins. I´m voting for Colca. Mostly so I can say I´ve been to the deepest canyon.

As you recall from the last post, we arrived at Colca Canyon at 6 AM, after 60-ish hours of travel. (If you haven´t read the last post, shame on you. Go back and catch up. Don´t worry, it´s short. I´ll wait.)

The spot we got dumped off at is known as the Cruz del Condor... a lookout point that has a family of condors nesting nearby. We, and several busloads of other tourists, were entertained for a while by the huge birds soaring above us, below us, in front of us....

...and, occasionally, even among us.

Eventually the birds floated off in search of roadkill, and we wandered along the rim of the canyon for a while, enjoying the view, enjoying the sunshine, and enjoying not sitting after 60 hours of buses.

Where we were, the canyon was ¨only¨ about a mile deep, but the views were still spectacular.

We also discovered that it is extremely difficult to take pictures of the deepest canyon in the world. Especially if you want to also be in the pictures. Below are some of our best attempts...

My feet, with the river a mile down.

Some of our clothes had gotten wet on the volcano hike, and had been sitting in plastic bags in our packs for the last 60 hours... so, with a hot sun and no one around, we took the opportunity to do a little laundry.

After several hours of wandering (and after our clothes had finished drying), we decided to head back into town. Unfortunately, the busloads of tourists, and, more importantly, the buses, were nowhere to be found. We wandered along the road back to the Cruz del Condor (the most popular tourist stop) and waited for a while. Eventually some park rangers came along in a van and told us that a bus would be coming by... in about 5 hours. Then they were kind enough to give us a lift back to town. Ah, the life of a south american backpacker... sometimes things work out great. Not always, but sometimes.