Our trip to the Colca Canyon began at the ungodly hour of 3am. The canyon is remote and we had a long journey to get there. It's just not natural to get up this early so we grumpily got on the bus, closed our eyes and went back to sleep.

6 hours later we arrived at the canyon and what a sight ... it is massive! At over 4km deep it's more than twice the depth of the Grand Canyon in Arizona and we planned to trek down to the canyon floor and back up again - maddness. Our guide for the trip was Carlitos - a local guy with lots of enthusiasm and a great sense of humor. The path down was steep and dusty but fairly easy going, we just had to watch our footing because one mistake could easily take us over the edge and to certain death! The worlds largest flying bird, the Andean Condor, circled above - the vultures were looking for fresh meat. This was Carlitos' 400th walk into the canyon - he knew every step and took the lead like a fearless mountain goat. Every so often we would stop for a break and Carlitos would fill us in on the history of the canyon, telling us all about the people and the animals that live there ... as well as providing much needed snacks!

We reached the bottom in about 4 hours, but it was another 90mins before we reached the tiny village where we would spend the night. We stayed with a family in the village - our hostess was Rufina, a friendly little local lady who loved a giggle. She cooked our dinner of cheesy potato turnovers with rice over an open fire. Our room was a simple mud brick hut, but very clean and comfortable. After our 3am start and the long trek down we were exhausted and slept well.

The next morning, after a breakfast of banana pancakes, we said goodbye to Rufina and began walking to the "Oasis" - a little slice of paradise with palm trees and swimming pools, a mear 3 hours away. It was a great place to cool off out of the midday sun and try not to think about the inevitable grueling climb we faced to get back out of the canyon. There was an option to hire a donkey and be carried to the top but that seemed like cheating, so we set off at 3pm hoping to reach the top before dark.

It was a tough walk - climbing the steep slope under the hot sun was hard but the views across the canyon were amazing. Carlitos kept our spirits up with his many stories - apparently the oldest tourist to climb the canyon was 82 - we had no excuses! It normally takes 4 hours to reach the top (the local people can do it in under an hour!) but we did it in 2hrs 45mins - not a bad effort!

Check out ‘Peru - Colca Canyon’ at http://gallery.me.com/peterjprice/101801