Up the Colca Canyon

Day 10
2011-01-18
Colca Canyon & drive to Puno

Sunrise at the canyon

As the alarm went of at 4 in the morning, it was still dark outside. I had the chance to take a photo of the night sky with all those stars. We had a wonderful breakfast with pancakes, bananas and chocolate spread. Oh - I should mention that it was my best friends 30th birthday...so basically the birthday cake was a tower of pancakes with bananas and chocolate spread. ;-) Pretty improvised but the thought is what counts. After breakfast it was time to say goodbye to the oasis. 

Goodbye Sangalle

I chose not to walk up because I still felt a bit dizzy from the altitude and so I took a donkey which by the way was amazing! I’m not talking about the comfort…I’m rather talking about the experience to ride an animal that ALWAYS chooses the outer edge of the road near…the abyss! Yes I know – it’s easier to walk up like that because you don’t have to make those narrow turns and so…but – oh my god – I was getting nervous every time that animal went near the edge with me on it climbing up stone steps. Bizarre!!

Cabanaconde

But I am alive and everything went fine – although my donkey was farting all the time! YES – farting. And the man who took care of them (walking behind me) always blamed me for it! Ok…I knew he was joking!

Back up again we met our driver Sergio at the Plaza. We loaded our bus and started our drive to Puno which would last 6 hours. 

Our driver and his dad

We stopped several times to watch the changing landscape and it was really stunning to see how different Peru can be. There were mountains that were rough with no vegetation, then again they were green surrounding a lagune, endless hills, plateaus with Alpacas and Vicunas, small communities in the middle of these giant mountains, rails in the middle of nowhere going along a small river, forests and then again desert. It is unbelievable! The thin air made it very exhausting to be travelling that long but the views...wow!

At the lagune

After an uncomfortable ride we reached Puno in the evening. It seemed to be a very vivid city with lots of people around, lots of music coming out of the bars and really heavy traffic. We decided to hit our beds with no deviation since we were exhausted. Our hotel was awesome – it almost felt like coming to a home. The mom and her daughter who were the owners of the place were SO sweet and the rooms were clean, comfy and we were looking forward to the breakfast the next morning!