Some facts on Colca Canyon... At almost twice as deep as the Grand Canyon, Colca Canyon is reportedly the second deepest canyon in the world. (And don't our legs know it)!! We left on Mon 1 Dec from Arequipa at around midday for approx 100km bus ride to our overnight stop off at one of the towns on top of Colca Canyon so we could begin our ascent the following day. This took us around 6-7 hours!! Roads were windy, many stops for cattle crossings, sheep, donkeys and locals wanting to get and off to sell us things or just to get on and off the bus. Ohh and how could we forget the radiator, leaking, blowing up - who knows. After a couple of people ran off to find water and a little bit of handy work we were back on our way. When the bus took a short break to fix the radiator we thought this was an ideal time to get out and stretch the legs seeing though we had been on the bus for over 4 hours. Not realising that we were at the highest point we would reach and not being adjusted to the altitude or the cold our bodies were a little shaken up at first. A very bumpy ride (Sharon not sure how you would handle it without some serious motion sickness drugs). Glad to say that no-one on the bus suffered from motion sickness. Besides the length of the journey and the bumpiness the view was spectacular as we ascended up towards the top of the canyon. Lots of lush green crops against a backdrop of amazing sheer rock cliffs. Cabanaconde: This was the town we stayed at to acclimatise a little and was the starting off point for our three day hike into the canyon. Before we begun our hike we got up early to catch a glimpse of the famous condors that saw through the air early in the morning. Beautifully gracefull birds. Day 1 of the hike: Down, down and more down. Oh and a little more down. After four hours of down i was not happy jan and aidan had to perservere with a very sore, uncoordinated and absolutely exhausted bron. However even i will admit that the day, although ridiculously exhausting, especially in the heat, was well rewarded when we arrived at our town. That is a town of one hostel and two thermal spring pools, a river and the canyon itself surrounding it. Sitting in the thermal springs pools was very well received after a gruelling day of hiking. Day 2 of the hike: A bit of up, bit of down and a little more up. This was a fairly nice day, an early start at 7am meant an early finish by around 1.00. We stayed down by the river at a small hostal, homestay. Sitting on the grass playing cards we got a good view of the animal highway... donkeys, sheep, dogs, horses, pigs all went by over a number of hours. Very relaxing and rural. Day 3 of the hike: From our hostal the night before (at the bottom of the canyon) we could make out the track that laid ahead of us the following day - ouch - straight up the canyon!! (Better than down i guess). Seeing though that side of the canyon got the morning sun we decided to take off early so that we could minimise the amount of time walking with the incredibly hot sun on us. We anticipated the walk would take us around 4hours (and it did) so we left at the crack of dawn - 5am!!! (Trent you can imagine how much aidan enjoyed getting out of bed that morning!) Hike was all over by 9.30 and only a pleasant 1/2 hour walk was remaining to take us into town where we could grab some breakfast and then catch the bus to the next town just 35km down the road (2 hours on the bus)!! We spent the night in this little rural town of Chivay, wandering the artisian markets and giving our bodies a rest. Back to Arequipa the following day!!