Friday 28th September: Setting off to trek the worlds deepest canyon
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Sunday 30th September: Experiencing the grandness of the Andean Condor...
So after succesfully finishing a 5-day trek through the Andes, I eagerly booked my next adventure into the Cocla Canyon with a group called Land Adventures. 3 days, 2 nights, all meals and accommodation and transpot included... at an unbelievable price of 40 US dollars!! There would be no porters to set up my tent and gently wake me with a hot cup of coca tea on this trek!!!!!
At 5.15am I got picked up by my guide and joined 10 other young backpackers (mixture of Germans, Belgium, English, Australian and Americans) to arrive at the (very) public bus station to catch a local bus to Chivay and then on to Cabanaconde where the trek was scheduled to begin.
6 looong bus hours later, we arrived at Cabanaconde. The bus journey was.... interesting. Think Africa local busses (live animals on board, overcrowding, people standing and sitting wherever there is space and luggage strapped to the roof) but substitute the African languages for Spanish and you have our trip. For the last 2 hours, I somehow ended up with an 8-year old boy sitting on my lap with his box of galletitas (biscuits and chocolates) that he had been trying to sell to some tousrists in the previous town, on his lap.
Well, they did warn us that we were going to experience the life of the locals... and that we did, yessireee!
After a lunch of cold rice, onions and 2 dodgy pieces of chicken (thumb size each), we headed off into the Cabnyon. Wow- magnificent views!!! A 3 hour steep and dangerous descent found us at the bottom of the canyon and we then woulnd our way through 2 tiny little villages on our way to Tapay where we would spend our first night. At around 6 pm, we arrived, hot tired to a cluster of mud brick buildings that were to be out accommodation for the night! Beds made out of pieces of bamboo with horse blankets thrown on top, and cold showers were a strangely welcome sight after 5 hours pf busses and another 5 of trekking!
The local family cooked for us (see photo of kitchen on Facebook!!) whilst we all brought hellishly expensive bottles of water and coke from the local store.
The only access to these 8 villages in the canyon is by foot or donkey, so everything is locally produced and anything brought (carried) into the canyon is hiked up hugely!
Needless to say, I scratched and itched my way through the night.
Saturday 29th- after a leisurely breakfast of oily pancakes and black coffee (milk is a huge commofity in the canyon), we set off to visit some of the other villages, see how the people live, visit their farms (mainly cactus), schools and the one hospital that services the entire canyon region. The doctor had just got back form a 2 day trek over the mountain to visit a sick patient in one of the 8 ´´counties´´ of the canyon and had been up all night doing paperwork. One doctor, one nurse and VERY minimal equipment and medicine. A really heartbreaking story. Any very sick patient has to be carried up the valley by 4 men and 2 pieces of bamboo, up to Cabanaconde (at least a 3-hour journey on foot if not more). In fact, the hosptital has got so few equipment that if the doctor needs to sterilize any of his equipment for a birth for example, he first has to walk up the canyon to Cabanaconde and get the instruments sterilised there and then return to the 3-room hosptital...
(to be continued...internet time runnng out!!)
Monday, 1 October 2007
Arriving in Arequipa...
Wednesday 26th September: An interminable Bus Journey
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Thursday 27th September: the second longest day of my trip!
As with most backpacking trips, there are some days when one must forget about all the good parts of travelling and focus for a couple of hours on the mundane and boring admin side of travelling in a completely foreign country... and so this was my day.
Having only made a decision the night before (after a few too many of Paddys excellent Pisco Sours), it was now up to me to run around town and find the best priced bus ticket to my next destination- Arequipa, as well as wash my loaded backpack full of dirty clothes (never have I wanted to throw away so many otherwise decent clothes and just buy a whole new set... eeeughh, 5 days of trekking had not been kind to my wardrobe!).
And so it was, that the Wednesday was spent in internet cafes, travel agencies, coffee shops and then a final farewell to my fellow fantastic trekkers before heading off to the Cusco bus station for the night bus to Arequipa. Hopefully to be my first and last 9 hour overnight bus journey!
Let me just sum up in a few words- the buses are great, the roads are not. And so after bumping and winding for a full 9 hours, we finally made it to Arequipa and I took myself off to a hostel.
Having managed to doze for all of 20 minutes, this was not going to be the day of happy chicken. The hostel turned out to be miles from the centre of town, and really expensive for a tiny room, an opened pack of condoms, and the dirtiest shared bathroom Ive come across.
Deciding that maybe a brisk walk into town for a cup of coffee and a look see would make the situation seem a bit better, I set off with the worlds worst map and found myself wandering the streets of Perus second largest city with no sign of Plaza de Armas. After a couple of interesting conversations with the local hairdresser, shop owner and ice cream vendor, I was back on track!
Spent the morning exploring the Santa Catalina Monestary: Founded in 1579, it has been a working nunnery since then. Opened to the public in 1970, it has been named as one of UNESCOS top destinations world wide. Constructed from Volcanic rock, the nuns constructed private cells where they were hidden by high walls from the rest of the world. Shrouded in mystery, only a handful of people have been allowed to enter the monastery in the last 500 years and the cells, the chapels and the courtyards have all been beautifully preserved. It is an amazing experience to see how these nuns lived, cooked, cleaned, ate and worshipped all those years ago.
It is still a working nunnery and 30 nuns still live in a secluded area of the monastery.
After touring the city, I tracked down another hostel that had been recommended to me in Cusco and promptly checked myself in to this (cheaper and far nicer) hostel!
I also booked my next adventure- a 3 day Colca Canyon trek into the worlds deepest canyon and a day with the amazing birds- the Andean Condors!
Caribbean Chickens Backpacker tip of the Day: Overnight busses and dodgy hostels do not a happy chicken make.
to
Thursday 27th September: the second longest day of my trip!
As with most backpacking trips, there are some days when one must forget about all the good parts of travelling and focus for a couple of hours on the mundane and boring admin side of travelling in a completely foreign country... and so this was my day.
Having only made a decision the night before (after a few too many of Paddys excellent Pisco Sours), it was now up to me to run around town and find the best priced bus ticket to my next destination- Arequipa, as well as wash my loaded backpack full of dirty clothes (never have I wanted to throw away so many otherwise decent clothes and just buy a whole new set... eeeughh, 5 days of trekking had not been kind to my wardrobe!).
And so it was, that the Wednesday was spent in internet cafes, travel agencies, coffee shops and then a final farewell to my fellow fantastic trekkers before heading off to the Cusco bus station for the night bus to Arequipa. Hopefully to be my first and last 9 hour overnight bus journey!
Let me just sum up in a few words- the buses are great, the roads are not. And so after bumping and winding for a full 9 hours, we finally made it to Arequipa and I took myself off to a hostel.
Having managed to doze for all of 20 minutes, this was not going to be the day of happy chicken. The hostel turned out to be miles from the centre of town, and really expensive for a tiny room, an opened pack of condoms, and the dirtiest shared bathroom Ive come across.
Deciding that maybe a brisk walk into town for a cup of coffee and a look see would make the situation seem a bit better, I set off with the worlds worst map and found myself wandering the streets of Perus second largest city with no sign of Plaza de Armas. After a couple of interesting conversations with the local hairdresser, shop owner and ice cream vendor, I was back on track!
Spent the morning exploring the Santa Catalina Monestary: Founded in 1579, it has been a working nunnery since then. Opened to the public in 1970, it has been named as one of UNESCOS top destinations world wide. Constructed from Volcanic rock, the nuns constructed private cells where they were hidden by high walls from the rest of the world. Shrouded in mystery, only a handful of people have been allowed to enter the monastery in the last 500 years and the cells, the chapels and the courtyards have all been beautifully preserved. It is an amazing experience to see how these nuns lived, cooked, cleaned, ate and worshipped all those years ago.
It is still a working nunnery and 30 nuns still live in a secluded area of the monastery.
After touring the city, I tracked down another hostel that had been recommended to me in Cusco and promptly checked myself in to this (cheaper and far nicer) hostel!
I also booked my next adventure- a 3 day Colca Canyon trek into the worlds deepest canyon and a day with the amazing birds- the Andean Condors!
Caribbean Chickens Backpacker tip of the Day: Overnight busses and dodgy hostels do not a happy chicken make.
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