27/11/2009 18:00

Now I am back from the trek in the colca canyon near Arequipa. The ticket claimed that Colca Canyon is the deepest canyon in the world, which was a bit odd because last time I trekked in the worlds deepest canyon it was in Nepal and it was about 2 km deeper.... I gues it is just a matter of definitions. It was very beautiful though. The Colca canyon cuts deep into the baren desert like volcanic highlands of southern peru and its sides are covered with ancient acricultural terraces dating back to the inca days. Its bottom is very fertile and almost jungle like. I went on the trek in a group of 6 people and a guide. There was Caroline, an american from the spanish school and 4 girls fromthe north of Spain. Trekking with all these girls was really good for restoring my matcho pride after I was the waekling on the Huaraz trek because here I was by far the most fit in the group. For me the trekking was rather light with only up to 4 hours walking each day, but it was a bit harder for the girls and actually all 5 girls ended up hiring mules to ride out of the canyon on the last day instead of walking the 1250 m up.

The easiest day of the trek was the second day where we just walked along the canyon floor and finished at a place called the oasis wich had a beautifull pool build between two huge boulders and sorrounded by a fantastic varity of flowers. The hostel was called New Paradise, but it was not quite paradise, since they did not have electricity and therefore the beers were not cold...

After walking out of the canyon on the last day we went to a place with nice hot springs,which were great for relaxing the muscles. Finally we were taken back to Arequipa driving through the highland known as the Valley of Volcanoes because you can see 7 volcanoes from there. El Misti, which overlooks Arequipa is the only one which is still active, though. Caroline went back to Lima after the trek but I might meet the four spanish girlsagain because they are booked on the inca trail on the 30th just as I am.

We also tried to see Condors on the trip because there is a certain point along the canyon cliffs where they ofthen ride the winds up and they often get quite close. However, both days that we tried it was partially cloudy and there was not enough heat to generate the winds and therefore no condors.

In Arequipa we also visited an old cloister which was like a small closed city within the city. It has become famous for its narrow scenic streets with brightly colored walls and filled with plants whose colors contrasts beautifully with the walls.

After the trek I stayed another night in Arequipa before going up to Puno by Lake Titikaka where I stayed the night and today I went on a boat tripon the island before I take the night bus to Cusco tonight. The sky feels very big when you lookout over lake Titikaka and it is very deep blue with very sharp sunlight because of the height (3870m) . On the tour we went to visit some floating islands which were built by the local Uru people to escape their warring neighbours. Today, they have opend up for tourism because the fishing they relied upon collapsed due to a fish plague brought by the trout that the city people released in the lake. It wasinteresting to see the island and their boats which awas an obvious source of inspiration for Thor Heirdahl when he built the Kontiki straw boats to cross the Atlantic. Afterwards which visited another island named Taquile,which was famous for its waewing and local custumes. They were very pretty, but it was not as interesting as the floating islands.

Now I am of for dinner before the night bus and tomorrow I will be in Cusco.