Trekking Colca Canyon – Day 2

November 20^th

I slept well after yesterday’s descent into the canyon but we were told to be up for a 6:30 breakfast of banana pancakes (well they call them pancakes in this country but really they are crepes).  We packed up and started our hike towards the Oasis.

Good morning Colca Canyon!

Gloria's Posada:

Since it's a long way to the nearest grocery store, they try to grow as much food as they can.  This is a healthy and bountiful avocado tree:

Along the way, Clever stopped here and there and explained some things about the Incas and also about the local flora and fauna.  We started walking up a small side canyon and he pointed out that there were some little caves high up on the side of the wall and that they were Inca graves.  The Incas believed in the condor, puma and snake as symbolic representations of the three stages of life.  Already during my travels, I have seen these animals painted on walls or sculpted into the front of churches.  The condor represents the heavens, the puma the middle world of earth, and the snake represents the underworld.  So being buried in these high up caves was a good way to get yourself closer to the heavens for your next reincarnation.

 On our way:

The Inca graves are somewhere up there:

We crossed a small bridge over a dry creek bed and then began the climb up the side of the canyon with the graves, but further upstream (if there had been a stream).  Reaching the top there was a small hotel where we sat down at an outside covered deck to have a short break.  We couldn’t help but notice a small building at one edge of the deck that had wire mesh covering the one side.  Peering in, we could see that it was a cuy farm.  Not sure what cuy is? (pronounced “kew-ee”)  Well it’s guinea pigs folks.  Not as a pet, but for eating.  Cuy is a bit of a delicacy in Peru and you may have read back a few blog posts ago that I just tried a taste of Reinier’s cuy, and wasn’t exactly blown away.  There were probably 40-50 guinea pigs in a variety of pens.  One pen had a bunch of big, fat ones.  My guess is that they were likely the next ones to be shipped out.  They are cute little things…but that doesn’t matter in this country.  Alpacas are also cute but I have to admit that they are tasty.

 

The Cuy Ranch:

Our hike continued along a dirt road that was relatively flat and we passed through a few little villages.  Clever seemed to be walking very slowly and I couldn’t help but be out in front of the group as I found that sluggish gait challenging to do.  Soon we had a glimpse of the Oasis.  We could see at least three pools and Clever pointed out which one was our resort.  The path passed by a nice little waterfall then we crossed the river and entered the Oasis.

 

Looking back from where we came:

This area reminded me of one of the final scenes from "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly"...

Our group selfie:

The Oasis:

The waterfall:

A sign before the bridge:

The reason I took the previous photo is due to a sticker on it.  A couple I met back in Paracas in my second week in Peru gave me a sticker.  It said "Look, Listen and Speak with Love" in Spanish.  They had given out over 300,000 of them and their goal was a millions.  And here I am, a few weeks and hundreds of kilometers later and there is one of their stickers!

The view from the bridge:

Our resort seemed to be devoid of guests.  We were given a brief tour by Clever and shown to our huts.  Clever warned me that I might be sharing my room with someone who was arriving yesterday in a group doing the 2-day trek.  Unfortunately, there was cloud cover preventing the heat of the sun from getting through, so I didn’t bother with the pool although Geraldine did.  We were fed lunch and I read my book in a hammock.  It was a nice lazy afternoon.

 

A delivery just after we arrived:

The resort filled up with hikers in the late afternoon.  Our group walked over to one of the other resorts to see if we could find the Danish guys from yesterday but they must have been relaxing in their rooms.  We had a few beers, admired the resort and then headed back to ours for dinner.  We sat around a smoldering fire before being called for dinner.  There must have been at least 60 people dining there that evening and we were served a less than inspiring pasta but it must be hard for a couple of people to cook for that many hungry hikers.

The pool at the other resort.  I like how they incorporated the large boulder:

Enjoying a beer at the other resort:

Once again, even though we hadn’t had that strenuous of a day, I was off to bed early.  Tomorrow we have to climb our way out of the canyon!