Five hours by mule, six hours by bus from civilization... Colca Canyon!

Making our way to Colca Canyon was in itself an adventure. Being the smart and free-hippie backpackers that we now are, we headed to the Arequipa bus station at midnight to catch the 1am bus to Cabanaconde, the launching point to the Colca Canyon trek (the second deepest canyon in the world!). We hadn´t bought a ticket yet, but there are always a ton of seats available. Not this time!

The 1am bus was sold out, as was the 3am... we might not even catch the 11am! So, while Stacen slept onthe bus station floor (covered in a fleece blanket bought by Nicole in cold desperation at 2am), Nicole battled. She elbowed her way past 30 Peruvians, so happy she is at least a foot taller than everyone around her, and succesfully bought the last two tickets on the 6am bus!

A bumpy six hour ride later, we arrived at Cabanaconde, a little town with a few shops and hostels for trekers. We got some food, then started our trek down a hill for a 1100 meters descent, then back up another 450 meters to Malata, a tiny village with mud huts, no running water, and beautiful views. On the way up to the town, Stacen became incredibly weak and faint, stumbling happily into the arms of Modesto and Victoria, a kind older couple who would take us in (unknown to us!)for the next 3 days. Stacen quickly developed a fever and felt the wrath of some pretty vicious bugs (remember, just an outhouse!). The following day, he fluctuated between fevers and chills, and hefty tummy aches. Nicole dutifully cared for the ailing husband, reading outloud for about eight hours ¨Autobiography of a Yogi,¨ a pretty groovy book. Modesto and Victoria (the happy ones weaving in the pictures) kept us fed with a steady stream of eucolyptus tea and soups.

Sidenote: Stacen hates potatoes. With a ridiculous passion. In Peru (home to the potato), there are over 4000 varieties! Nicole has delightfully watched as Stacen has tried many of them. He also hates Peruvian rice. As you can imagine, the soups are always potato soup, with a serving of potato and rice as a second course :)

On the second full day in Malata, Stacen´s fever broke and he walked for half an hour! Nicole continued to read outloud for hours, and eat soup (she was getting pretty tired of soup too).

On the third day in Colca Canyon, we finally headed on an all day walk, to the town of Llatica, an even smaller and more remote town. When we asked where to go to the bathroom, we got got a smile and a point to the field. Nicole felt like she back home in Chirikayen again! We were served by an incredibly industrious woman in town, who ran the only store and restaurant in town. She also grew cuys... guinea pigs!! To our surprise we have learned that cuys are quite the Peruvian delicacy... we haven´t dared try them yet.

In Llatica, eveything is made out of mud, except for their beautiful, government built elementary school, where one dedicated (and incredibly nice) teacher teaches first through sixth grades to all the children in the village... all ten of them!We luckily had lunch with her, and got permission to use the sink and bathroom in the school. For the first time in almost five days we performed a ¨shower,¨ scrubbing ourselves in whatever way possibly with the cold water, absolutely loving it. We were actually able to show up dinner that night ¨clean¨!!! (which meant we could smell eachother by just sitting next to eachother). We had a great egg and rice dinner-no potato- happily chatting with the restaurant owner. She was especially intrigued by prices and how much things cost in the USA. Most awesomely, she let us play with her cuys, all 35 of them. Stacen also cooed at a four month old kitten that sat herself down in the middle of the cuy´s food. He loves his kitties.

The following morning, we woke up at 5am, on a mission to finally dominate the canyon. Breakfast took a while to get ready, at at 6am we got it: tuna and potato fried with rice on the side. Stacen also hates tuna.

We then headed to the town Lluhaur, a paradise of tourism (it had running water!)and hot water pools. We undressed and jumped in, delighting in the warm water.It was like a shower! Nicole especially enjoyed it, since she had been ravaged by moquitoes, broken out in hives and itchy bumps, which then had erupted in yellow blisters. So really, the water was NICE.

We then began our five hour climb 1100 meters back up the canyon. It was hard, but our booties are finally in shape! We were also tickled the whole way by the fact that every local we passed gave us times at least half asmuch as they were in reality. For example, gettin up a certain hill? The nice man with a donkey would say 15 minutes. In reality, 45 minutes! We are definetly not true canyon peaople just yet. Finally around 4pm, we arrived back in Cabanaconde, sad to leave the beutiful canyon behind. We had loved the kind canyon people: all friendly, curious, and none trying to mooch off our money! It was wonderful just to be around nice, humble people.

In Cabanaconde, we arrived starved, ready to devour a pizza. Nicole became angry and mean when we got our pizza-- it was microwaved, the crust was two pieces of bread stuck together, and it took a looong time. She bought a chocolate bar to cheer herself up. We then headed to an incredibly fancy hotel to check our email, and wound up hanging out in the hotel lobby for 3 hours playing cards (they were super nice there, even offering us tea!), until our 9pm bus back to wonderful Arequipa. We arrived at 4am, and happily returned to the lovely Santa Catalina Hostal...