Paradise garden – Colca Cañon
26 May 2011 Leave a Comment
in Stories from the world and me Tags: beauty, Peru, Veronika Jemelikova
I will be going it time, because as I mentioned before, there are stories, smells, sights and feeling worth sharing.
Imagine a paradise garden. Imagine waterfalls, rivers, mountains, flowers and fruit trees. When I decided to go on three days trek to Colca Cañon near Arequipa, Peru, I didn’t know that what I discover there will be a homecoming.
Descending over 1000 meters of altitude down to the second deepest canyon on the world (twice as deep as Grand Canyon) I felt like I’ve seen the place before, like if all the mountains were talking to me in a language I knew a long time ago and suddenly remember I can speak it.
We started our little expedition very early, around 3:30 in the morning, when I got on a bus with seven other adventurous hikers and a guide. After three-hour intense crazy drive we got close to the canyon got breakfast and started walking. Some 4 hours of steep downhill were in front of us before lunch. One of my friends Nimh was especially unlucky. After only 20 minutes of walking her shoes fell apart so she had to walk down this immense hill on her socks. The fact she did not give and ended up finishing the whole trip in flip-flops was amazing and she was a true hero 
After the long descent we reach the bottom of the cañon with bridge and extremely cold river. Although we were tired and worn out by walking and we wished to jump to the water only the bravest ones put their feet in it. We kept meeting people walking up the hill with their mules bending under the cargo and another ones carrying supplies to the valley. The only access to it was the trail on the huge hill we just descended. An old women past us when we reached the river and with bag attached to her back she kept walking up the hill so easily as if she was on a walk along the beach with incredible speed and relentless determination to reach top of the hill as fast as she can. We rested only for a while and kept walking and when we tried to look for her on the trail, she was almost on the top. The journey which took us almost 3 hours would be daily routine, question of survival. I imagined how big hearts of these people must be. It takes a lot to walk this fast up the hill every day of elevation over 3000 meters.
After lunch and couple stops at little stalls of little peruvian women offering us fruits in beautiful local dresses we finally arrived to tiny village where we stayed for the night in gorgeous houses made from palm tree leaves . We went to bed with the silence of the valley and were woken up by the morning valley alarm – roosters 
After another day spent hiking in the valley, eating local delicious fruit tuna – the cactus fruit and walking through small villages we enjoyed the afternoon in place called Oasis. If the rest of the valley looked like the paradise, this place was what defined the very word oasis. Palm trees and flowers, little pools where we could chill after long walk and hammocks where you could just soak into the atmosphere, fresh air and mountains surrounding you. Afternoon volleyball match was a necessity and comfy bed in palm tree covered cabins was even more rewarding.
The third day was the biggest challenge. We had to conquer the mountains to get from the canyon back to civilization. We woke up around 5 am and walked up towards the sun.
We took the three-hour hike steep uphill as a challenge and after two hours stand on the top of the canyon, sweaty, tired and feeling just amazing.
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