The deepest canyon in the world

Day 9
2011-01-17
The descent 

Breakfast with the guys

We got up at around 7:30 to have a good rich breakfast before descending into the canyon. It almost felt like family…having a nice chat with our guides and the other guys that were with us on this trek.

At 8 we were ready to leave and hat packed what we needed for the one night inside the canyon. The road down was quite challenging…very steep, many rocks making it hard to walk and donkeys coming our way. But we had views that taught us how majestic nature can be. It was breathtaking and you almost forgot about the struggle. And then there was of course the amazing view of Sangalle – the oasis at the bottom of the canyon. That made us leap forward to get down as fast as possible.

Down the canyon

It took us almost 2:30h until we reached the bottom of the canyon and Sangalle with its palm trees, fruit bushes and natural pools. It was just unreal – how could something so beautiful survive in between those rocks? It’s the river flowing through the canyon that makes it possible. Once down, we took off our clothes and jumped into the refreshing pool surrounded by mountains as high as we could see. It was unbelievable!

Natural pool at Sangalle

After a very good lunch prepared by our guide Carlos, we had a nice and lazy afternoon just hanging out, reading, napping or playing some volleyball. Later this afternoon Carlos would gather all of us together to give us some more information about Peru, the economy, politics, import and export, religion, beliefs and many more things. It was really interesting to hear someone talk about his country with such passion.

Sunset in the canyon

In the evening we had an early dinner so we could go to bed early and rest for the way up in the early morning. After the moon came out – and it was full moon – this place became just magic. You could see the stars sparkle and a tremendous peace came over our camp. Did I mention that we slept in tents? I haven’t done that in years and I felt like a young boy again hanging out with his friends. The night was quite chilly but we had sleeping bags and it was awesome to sleep almost underneath the stars.