Woken up to the most annoying sound in the world and surrounded by darkness we struggled to get out of bed. Knowing we were being picked up at 3 we chucked our clothes on and waited for our bus.
Looking like we were having to sit next to strangers, thankfully someone offered to move and we tried to get comfortable in the little space we had together for our three hour journey. Sleeping and bouncing would be the two verbs to describe the drive as once gain the roads were bumpy but we managed to sleep most of it off.
A quick stop for breakfast and it appeared that the group were split by mini groups pre-formed. Squeezing back into our spaces for an hour we stopped at the checkpoint to watch condors. They were enormous and kept swooping past us to and fro as if deliberately putting on a performance. After a while longer in the van we arrived for our trek. We had three and a half hours of walking which we were not fazed until we discovered what we faced. A gradual and repetitive zigzag down the canyon edge getting steeper and with looser rocks, the walk seemed to take an eternity. When arriving at the bottom there was an option to walk on, or stay by the swimming pool in the canyon. There was only one choice and with a conversation of football flowing for hours, we stayed for a quick dip and a hundred game of cards in the sun.
With Abigail's feet and knee in agony she elected to shower and relax by the pool and I wandered off exploring the canyon and the stream. After a thousand cactuses later I reached the bottom to walk in the stream and bask in the the little natural light that remained.
An hour later and reunited in our private hut, we went to speak to the rest of the group and have food. The moon had emerged through the canyon gap for another amazing sight and a pleasant way to eat food. A good laugh over dinner and a list of places to visit in Brazil later, we all again had an early night as we had three hours of walking back up our path today and we were starting at 5.