Colca Canyon / Chilca / Cabanoconde

We finally felt better enough to continue our journey onward, towards the world’s deepest canyon. It was a gorgeous four hour bus ride from Arequipa through high desert country side filled with cactuses, yellow high mountain plains, 18,000ft snowcapped volcanoes, incredible moss filled valleys with streams running through and alpacas grazing, dusty little villages, and even a few wild pecunias. We got off in the charming little city of chilca. It was the first place we visited where many of the women wore traditional handmade dress including fabulous embroidered hats, jackets, and skirts. Every town in peru seems to have a beautiful central plaza, and this little town was no exception. We rented bicycles one day and peddled to the local hotsprings a couple miles outside of town nestled in a gorgeous little rocky valley with a river running through it. The hotspring were fantastic, it was a huge place with multiple swimming pool size tubs and very few tourists…at least early in the day when we arrived. It was a great place to relax for the day, soak up some sun, which was a little too easy at that altitude, and sluff off the layers of dead skin and grim we had been collecting since our arrival.
A few rugged hours further on a crowded bus we made our way along the bumpy dirt road to Cabanaconde. Along the way we passed extensive Incan terracing, still used for agriculture, many little villages, a few tunnels blown through the mountain sides, a condor lookout at 4,800 meters, and views of the world’s deepest canyon. We arrived in Cabonaconde to a band rehearsing for that nights festival, we got an awesome room with panoramic views over the plaza where the festival was to held and scenic mountain range surrounding the town. While the locals gathered for the festival we went on a scenic hike out to the canyon edge where we could see clearly down to the tourist oasis at the bottom. However spectacular the setting was, the canyon didn’t seem too impressive in comparison to say the grand canyon, and not as vast, probably because it was more the convergence of two huge mountains more than anything I would necessarily call a canyon…but hey, we did see some condors. One interesting thing about the area was their use of small scale canals to channel water around…it was gorgeous because out of nowhere it seemed little waterfalls and creeks would rush down the hill sides passing through the boulders, green grass, and grazing sheep…the whole scene on the outskirts of town was very pastoral and lovely. Making our way back to the plaza we could here the music blaring from the hillsides…it was a very repetitive kind of call and response of drums and horns between two sets of musicians that went on for hours…one was a bit mellower which chilled out the twirling dancers and the other was pretty hype. The dance was consistent throughout the night, always in a large circle, with twirling, and occasional paradings around the plaza. It was very entertaining for sure though, and a visual splendor indeed as most all the participants were dressed in their finest ornate hand stitched colorful traditional outfits. Drinking was a must, and the kids carried on the tradition of water balloons, dye throwing, and spray foam. The event carried on late into the night with more and more people pouring in from the hillsides and neighboring villages…a fabulous festival experience indeed!
The ride back to chilca the following morning was a dreadful experience…the bus was packed with people returning to their villages from the festival so we had to stand for three hours on the super bumpy winding mountain dirt road after a night of basically not sleeping…not cool…but we made it…and spent the next two days at the hotsprings.