Day 1 of the trek!

Woken up at 2am (an hour before the alarm was due to go off) by inconsiderate travellers who insisted on packing their bags and talking while 6 other people were 'trying' to sleep.

Last night we had met Hilary and Anna who were in our dorm also joining us on the Colca trek so it was nice to know we weren't alone and were gong to have company setting off at 3.15am!

The first leg if the journey took 3 hours to Chivay 3633m above sea level. I was feeling very guilty at this point, after advising Anna and Hilary the night before that it was going to be warm and that wearing shorts would be ok. We all sat at breakfast freezing in the sub zero temperature, whilst everyone else on our trek had received the message and were wearing trousers! On a positive note at least we didn't have to carry them down and up the canyon!

After warming up in the bus we drive to Cruz del condor, where we got to see a large family of Andean condors gliding effortlessly, heightened by the spectacular 1200m drop to the river below and the sight of Nevado Mismi standing at 3000m on the other side of the ravine.

The next stop was Cabanaconde where we were greeted by Ivan our guide and began our trek. The first days trek consisted of a 3 hour horrific trek down into the canyon, Ivan did warn us that today would be harder then coming back up because if the midday sun! However it was nice to chat and bond with our group as we descended together. Our group consisted of the 4 of us, Pete also from our hostel and a Spanish couple who really made an effort and tried to make conversation even though we struggled to understand. But at aged 60 and 65 they were storming ahead down the canyon! Ivan was really motivating the whole way down and made sure we were drinking plenty if water to stay hydrated.

Ivan also informed us that its not just the vastness and depth of the Colca canyon that makes it so fantastical. There are more scenery changes along its 100km passage than there are European countries and I learnt that the Colca is the world's second deepest canyon, a smidgen shallower than it's near neighbour, the Cotahausi and twice as deep as the Grand Canyon!

While descending we were all thinking to ourselves what goes down must come up! So I was already not looking forward to the ascend tomorrow. We did eventually make it to the oasis and thought tomorrow's another day. We enjoyed the afternoon relaxing in the swimming pool and soaking up the sunshine. In the canyon we lost the sun at 4pm and after passing on the extra hours walk with Ivan because we were saving our feet for tomorrow, we had to find something to pass the time. We ended up looking through Liz's passport at all the stamps whilst she told us a story from each of the places she had visited.

After we had run out of stamps we decided it was time for happy hour in the canyon and ordered a round of mojitos. The night ended with the 5 of us playing cards and sharing amusing stories of our travels but this scared us into grabbing all our valuables from the room!

Before bed we were given a short astronomy lesson and then headed off to bed.