Colca Canyons and Condors...

Friday 28th September: Setting off to trek the worlds deepest canyon
to
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!!)