Woken up on que by the dog barking followed closely by the cockerel at 4.30am! We all popped a dextrose energy tablet and were raring to go.

The first 45 mins of climbing out of the canyon was in complete darkness with our touches lighting the way. I followed closely behind Ivan and this took me back to climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro last year on summit night following Isaac and leading the way up the mountain. However not quite sub 0 temperatures! The climb was brilliantly paced by Ivan, I loved the fact that we stayed together as a group the whole way up and conquered the canyon together section by section.

The last 30 minutes was the hardest because the sun came up and the temperature rose. This is when we were glad we left at 5am! With our tummy rumbling and breakfast waiting for us back in Cabanacode we were the first full group to arrive. Eggs and bread had never tasted so good!

It wasn't the best recovery getting straight back in the bus to head back to Chivay. We made 3 stops on the way; first at Pinchollo where the view was spectacular and we got to see the formation of the canyon; the second stop was Maca where we got to try colca sours a Purvian speciality drink and got some photos with eagles and lamas; the final stop was just outside Chivay where we got to relax in 5 different temperature natural hot springs - the best part!

In Chivay we stopped for a buffet lunch with a wide variety of dishes ranging from alpaca steak, Chinese noodles and Italian. We were hit with some bad news at lunch... Anna, Hilary, Liz and I had to depart Ivan, our group and the nice comfy bus to join another group because there were issues with another bus. We missed out stopping at the lama and alpaca park but we stopped off at the highest point to see the volcanos.

I would definitely recommend the tour with Peru Schweiz company booked through Arequipay Backpackers and Ivan our guide.

After a well needed shower the 5 of us went to Crepmissmo and enjoyed a well earned pear, ice cream and chocolate crepe before having to say our good byes.