After many days of debate and searching for the perfect way to visit Colca Canyon we decided to DIY it without a tour or guide. The tours were great value for money (we ended up only saving £5 each by going alone) but we didn't fancy the 3am pick up time, we couldn't find any 8am tours that were going within our price range and we also fancied going at our own pace without the crowds. So we caught the 8am public bus to the canyon getting off just before the town of Cabanaconde at 1:30pm. Colca Canyon is the second deepest in the world at 4,160 metres; only a few metres less than its neighbour. The Grand Canyon is a mere 1,800 metres deep and has been renamed by our friend Mike as The Grand Pothole. On the bus we passed amazing scenery, snow capped mountains, herds of Vicuñas and tiny villages - some of which we would explore a bit on the return leg as we had booked a tourist shuttle to take us back to Arequipa. Many of the women on the old bus were wearing beautiful traditional dress with embroidered hats and waistcoats, brightly coloured dresses and cloths which their luggage and babies were wrapped in. My favourite observation from the bus was that cacti were grown on top of dry stone walls to act as barbed wire. We observe so much more from the bus when movies aren't being played as in this case.

When we got off the bus we were meet by a deafening silence and after walking past a football pitch where sheep were being used as lawnmowers, we looked into the stunning canyon. Our first day of walking (3 hours) took us 1,000 metres down to the really small village of San Juan and although it wasn't far in distance we were glad we had only brought the minimum with us this time - the rest being left in the hostal in Arequipa. The path was steep, rocky and dusty and our legs felt like jelly by the time we reached the river. Our side of the canyon was dry with the only life being scrub and cacti but the other side of the canyon was green where it had been terraced for farming. At the bridge we were met by a very nice woman, Gloria, who offered us a room for the night. We had plans to look elsewhere but it felt rude to refuse seeing the room and we accepted at a price of £4. Also at Gloria's place were 3 other groups, all with guides, and we got chatting to them all very quickly. Although when dinner arrived we were split up because 2 of the groups didn't get meat like us so weren't allowed to sit with us. But we chatted to the very nice guide of the only meat-eating group before getting an early night.

The next day was the only possible day to get lost on the walk but we didn't need to worry as there was always a tour group within sight during the tricky bit, which was actually a bit of a shame because it took some of the excitement out of it. But the canyon continued to wow us with its landscape and we enjoyed walking through two little villages during the 2.5 hour walk to the oasis where we stayed the night.

The village in the oasis had previously fallen into disrepair but had been rebuilt to host tourists and now seems to only contain basic rooms and swimming pools. The benefit of being without a group became clear when we had a wonderful garden and pool all to ourselves for over an hour before the groups started to arrive. Eventually 40 odd people stayed at the same place as us and again we think we were the only ones without a guide. And again this caused problems at dinner. We were chatting with some very friendly Australians but were asked to sit by ourselves. We obliged because we presumed we would get different food again but in the end got the same food so were left confused as to the reason for this. But we started to get the feeling that the guides weren't 100% happy that we were there.

On our final day we set off at 5:15am to reach the village of Cabanaconde, 1,000 metres above us, in time for our bus back to Arequipa. Here it was impossible to escape the tour groups but we were pleased that we overtook many. Our side of the canyon was in shade for the climb, which made things easier, and we arrived at the village after 3 hours. Over an hour before our bus but we spent this time eating large portions of banana pancakes and a sandwich. Katy also said good bye to Tabitha (a dog that had been following us and the other groups over the 3 days) as she set off to do the whole thing again.

Lots of tourist shuttles came and went so we started to get worried but eventually a driver called our names and we were reunited with a tour group who we had stayed in the same places as us over the last few days. There were also some local Peruvian tourists who were just doing a day driving tour of the canyon (totalling 12 hours driving). We first stopped at a mirador and then the thermal baths for an hours soak. For lunch we were taken to a large buffet restaurant, which was good although a bit expensive. The next stop was at the highest point in the area at 4,910 metres from which many beautiful mountain peaks could be seen. The area also contained hundreds of cairns (stones stacked on top of each other). The guide gave the Peruvian tourists a description of the area in Spanish and then simply said to the rest of us that it was the highest point. When I asked him about the cairns he ignored me and then basically said that he wouldn't answer my questions because I wasn't part of his walking group. I was surprised because neither were the Peruvians. To try to understand a bit more I apologised (although I didn't mean it) and said that I didn't know we were different although he didn't reveal any more information. We can only imagine that he wasn't too pleased with us doing the hike without a guide and was just being petty. This did sour things a bit but we had beautiful views and later we stopped to see a herd of llamas and alpacas which made Katy very happy. We know that there is a lot of competition between tour agencies and that the guides don't get paid very well (£8 per day) as is evident from us not saving much by going it alone. But despite some of the guides not being very friendly we were very happy by the way we saw the Canyon and were kind of proud that we did it alone despite it being very easy.

Simon