After our 3 friends left for Lima we decided to another physical activity, 3 days trekking in the second deepest canyon in the world, the Colca Canyon. With 3191 m depth we knew that this journey was not going to be easy, because every step we go down then we would have to climb it back afterwards. Hehehe…

We ended up doing the tour with a tour for almost the same price of doing ourselves. In our group we had 3 Brazilians, 3 Germans and 1 Finnish.

We started the trip at 3:30 am and after 5 hours we arrived at the first stop, Cruz del Condor, where we could enjoy the beautiful view and the famous Condors flying over the majestic Canyon.

From there we started our friendly descent. What seemed to be the easiest part took us by surprise. Almost 4 hours of descent on a dirt and slippery track and our knees were challenged at every impact. But the landscapes were rewarding. We arrived in San Juan de Chunccho for lunch totally finished and then we slept almost all afternoon.

The next day we had a light walk, just 3 hours without much uphill and with beautiful views. It was a nice walk and we were all anxious to get to our next stop, Oasis, famous for its pools, palm trees and green area. But the rain came and the pool plan was ruined! :-(

The next day, the feared rise began at 5am. OMG, what a workout! 2 ½ hours of effort rewarded on arrival by the view and the happiness for what we have just achieved. And after all nobody understands why we’re so skinny!

To finish: breakfast, a dip in the hot springs to soothe the muscles and return to Arequipa.

On the same day we left by night bus to Ica, to visit the famous dunes of Huacachina. Intense heat, palm trees, burning sand and pools to enjoy the heat. It’s amazing to think that we can find a place like that so close to a big city.

There isn’t plenty to do there, but the sandboarding and buggy rides, but the best is definitely to watch the sunset from the highest point of the dune.

When we were there the Paris-Dakar was going on, but it was just too expensive to go see the cars just passing by and leave, so we didn’t go.