As I plan my travel itinerary, I do a lot of research about different places to go. Usually, a destination that at first seems too difficult or remote sticks its little seed in my brain and starts to sprout. After awhile, it becomes the focus of my route. Such was the case of Colca Canyon. One of the world’s deepest and most beautiful canyons located in Southern Peru- just waiting to be hiked by me!

To give you some perspective, Colca Canyon is roughly twice as deep as the Grand Canyon with a much different habitat- lush vegetation, ancient agricultural terraced walls and the chance to see the giant Andean Condor flying in the thermals above. There’s also a lot of families who have lived down in the canyon for generations, surviving on what they can grow and carry in. 

The locals supposedly hike up and down the trail in about an hour. My tour group, and I included, took a little longer than that. But I’m getting ahead of myself… let’s tell this story from the beginning.

Friends and Drinks in Arequipa, Peru

Arequipa, Peru is a lovely colonial city with wide streets, plazas and stone buildings all quarried from nearby volcanos. It’s also home to Santa Catalina Monastery, a beautifully engineered city within this city that housed over 450 nuns in its heyday during the 1700’s. All of that means that Arequipa was a photographer’s dream. I had a good two days of wandering!

Next, you need to meet Daniel. He was traveling this region for a few weeks and we got to know each other on the Cholita Fight-Night Tour in La Paz, Bolivia. After exchanging numbers, we met up again on Isla del Sol in Lago Titicaca, and finally for pisco sours in Arequipa. Daniel is from Buenos Aires, Argentina and he is probably the happiest and most positive person I’ve ever met. Hanging around with him for a few days was a delight. 

Daniel is not a hiker and knew nothing about the Colca Canyon. He liked to say that it was the pisco sours that got him to agree to this extreme adventure. I like to think it was my powers of persuasion. Either way, I knew he’d be fun on the tour so I convinced him to come along and truth be told, he did better with the hiking than I did! 

Day 1

We started at 3am with a three-hour drive to the small community of Chivay where we had breakfast and got our first glimpse of the steep canyon walls.

Then, we headed to the trailhead situated at 10,800 feet where we started the hike down into its depths.

To hike the canyon, Daniel and I joined a tour group with the agency Peru Baby Llama. Our tour guide was a very funny local named Jhersy. Other hikers in our group included travelers from Italy, Israel, France, Sweden, Germany, the Netherlands, and Argentina.

After a couple of hours of hiking down, we crossed the river and had lunch at a family’s home in the community of San Juan de Chuccho. 

In the afternoon, we continued hiking for a few more hours to Sangalle, situated at 6,900 feet. Sangalle is an oasis at the bottom of Colca Canyon with hostels, natural fed pools of water for swimming, and a yummy dinner waiting for us to arrive at sunset. All in all, the days descent was 3,900 feet in just over 9 miles.

Jhersy, our guide, liked to point out the zig-zag hiking route we would hike up the next morning. Do you see it?

Day 2

Day 2 started at 4:30 in the morning. The idea was to make the ascent to the rim before the scorching sun arrived. I love hiking before dawn, listening to the birds awaken the sun, and watching the light streak across the sky. Up, up, up I stepped, gasping for the high altitude air. It was an ascent of 3,900 feet in just over four miles. It took me exactly three hours to climb it. I was very proud of myself!

After breakfast, we soaked our tired legs in a hot springs and then hastily said our goodbyes as I caught a bus heading on to Puno, Peru. 

Colca Canyon was a great adventure! I’m glad the seed sprouted in my brain and gave me the confidence I needed. I’m glad Daniel came along and kept me laughing, too!