We woke up incredibly early 2:30 AM to catch a 3 AM van going from Arequipa to the Colca Canyon. As the second deepest canyon in the world, it promised a lot of views, hikes, and interesting accommodations to us. However, the day didn’t quite start as planned.
The van ride was hard to take. Constant turns and quick stops not only didn’t allow us to sleep but also made us pray for the ride to end as soon as possible. I and Gabriele both felt dizzy, but for me especially, even anti-motion sickness medicine has proven to be useless. 4 hours into the trip, with less than an hour remaining I couldn’t take it anymore and started puking from motion-sickness 🤢, the first time since childhood. Someone opened the door and I jumped from the van telling Gabriele that I’m not coming back to it. The guide in the van wasn’t too surprised, Gabriele took out the bags, he wished her good luck and the van left.
We didn’t have any reception in the area, but the workers around had shown us which direction to walk to reach the town. We were already at an altitude that is not familiar to us and also the first hour we continued walking uphill. Although we were catching our breath, I was just extremely happy not to be in that damned van.
The hike was unexpected, pretty tough but we didn’t lose our spirit. The views were incredible which we wouldn’t have been able to see and appreciate otherwise. The cars and vans passing by were beeping and offering a ride but taking it was out of the question. When we reached the highest part of the road, Gabriele bought a colorful hat from a local Peruvian woman 👒.
We finally arrived at the Cabanaconde town in the afternoon with the burning legs. Although the town is in the canyon it wasn’t touristy at all. Everywhere around in the canyon agriculture and farming is far more important and we witnessed workers finishing their day. We had our dinner and coca tea served by a local granny which was a perfect ending to a rollercoaster day.
