Cañon de Colca: Hiking Day 2

We woke up the next day to a beautiful morning, in spite of our sore legs.  After a filling breakfast of pancakes we organized our stuff and got ready to leave Huallar.  We had been told that the first part of our hike this morning was going to be the hardest, as it was nonstop climbing for about 2 hours. Our guide reassured us that after this, it would be flat for a while and then we would descend again to our hostel at Sangalle.

 But, we started off with a smile--it was a beautiful day and we were in a beautiful place!  Our legs warmed up a little on the short walk back to the bridge, but then were quickly challenged by the climb.  After just a few minutes, we saw this:

We realized that we were already quite a height above the river, which is cutting across from left to right near the top of the photo.

We also realized how hard we had worked the day before when we saw the path we were on:

That zig zag pattern cutting across the hill is the way we descended into the canyon--it felt steep, but we hadn't realized it looked as steep as it did.  We continued climbing, winding through some small terraced farms with donkeys and prickly pears.  We took a break to talk about the animals that live in this area and a few of the other features, and then kept walking. 

In this picture you can see the trail we were on--the thin white line crossing the mountains, and how much higher than it we already were. (Again, it may be easier to see if you click on the picture to be taken to the bigger version.)

 

The first photo above shows our height in relation to the river, this was probably about 90 minutes into the hike although I sort of lost track of time. And of course the second picture is my wonderful husband on one of our many water breaks. We stopped frequently for water and a couple times for fruit and crackers as well.  We kept walking and drinking water and climbing and climbing and finally, we reached a flat, open area:

The flat part can be seen on the left side of the photo, and the much straighter path that awaited us leads away to the right.  While we were tired, it was still beautiful to see so much of the canyon laid out before us in the sunlight on such a nice day.

We continued walking along the nice flat path, and were happy with the day and the fact that our legs felt much better.

 However, we knew that the flat part would not last forever, because we could see what lay ahead:

The path we were on is the light brown strip to the left of the photo. We would have to round this hill, then begin to descend slowly to the flat area in the center of the photo. From there, there was another steep descent (you can see the zigzag as a lighter line on the dark hill that descends from that light flat area in the middle to the trees and river bed below, again this may be easier to see in the larger version of the photo).  However, we were motivated, because this is what awaited us:

All that green green and those blue pools marked the place we would stay for the night.  Once we reached it and had lunch, we didn't have to do anything else but relax.  We continued on the path, enjoying the straight part, and working hard on the descent again.  We reached another bridge to cross the river, but at this point I stopped taking photos because I was tired and ready to get there.  We crossed the bridge only to find we had to climb again--as our guide said, "just a few more zig-zags", "good job, only one more zag!"--but eventually survived those to descend again and reach our resting place in Sangalle (the pictures speak for themselves):

Several of the hikers who had taken the easier route, a few of whom were on our bus the first morning, had gotten to the hostel in the midmorning after a 2 or 2 1/2 hour hike and were already swimming and relaxing by the time we got there. Our hike was closer to 4 or 4 1/2 hours and we were much more sore and dusty, but we felt proud of how far we had come.  We had a great lunch, a nap, a quick swim--the water wasn't that warm--and more time to relax and totter around on our stiff legs.  We only had one morning left of hiking and had to rest up for the last day!

Next up: Day 3