It’s sunny in Arequipa, very sunny and dry. Also, it is 2300m above sea level and surrounded by volcanoes. Very different circumstances than what sailors are used to. We are here with Hugo and Ellen and Marion and Evert-Jan from Happinez. We plan to do the Colca Canyon hike of three days so we need to overcome altitude sickness, for which we apply all the remedies available: coca tea, coca sweets, drinking lots of water and some herbal pills, and of course patience to allow the body to adapt.
In the meantime we enjoy the beatiful town of Arequipa, which was built entirely by the Spanish. There is definitely a Spanish sphere, particularly from Andalucía where most of the first inhabitants came from.
In Arequipa is the most beautiful monastery we have ever seen, the Santa Catalina monastery, which still houses nuns nowadays. Young daughters of prominent families and widows entered the convent and were each provided with independent housing, requiring continuous expansion of the buildings resulting in a town within the city, with streets, squares, gardens, and a church.
We love visiting markets, so Arequipa was no exception and we admired the enormous variety of fruits and vegetables.
Alpacas play an important role in the economy, so time for us to learn more about it.
After 3 days we felt sufficiently used to the altitude and up to what would turn out as the most challenging hike we had ever done. The Colca canyon is the 4th deepest canyon in the world. We would start at a height of 3200m and descend to the village of San Juan de Chuccho at 2300m. On the way our guide Edgar taught us how to chew the coca leaves with quinoa ashes to help with the altitude sickness and told us a lot about the area and how people live in the canyon. With shaking knees, we reached our lodge, Posada Gloria, where we enjoyed the local food prepared by Gloria and Victor and gathered strength for the second day.
Day two turned out to be very enjoyable with mostly walking on one level and enjoying the spectacular scenery until the deepest point of the canyon, the “oasis”, with a tropical climate in the village of Sangalle, at 2100m, with swimming pool and a bonfire at night.
But the worst was still to come….
Everything that goes down has to go back up, and we needed to climb back to the upper rim of the canyon to Cabanaconde at a height 3300m. Edgar wisely suggested to start during the night to avoid the heat, so at 3:30 at night we started the ascent of 1200m in the dark. Taking breaks to admire the sunrise and regain our breath we managed to reach the top, very proud of ourselves, in 3 hours and 15 minutes. This should be the ‘exam’ for the hikes to come. The rainbow mountain, where we will hike above 5000 meters, higher than the Mont Blanc. And the Inca trail.
The last day in Arequipa we did rafting in the Chili river. The name originates from the Quechua word “chiri” which means cold, but we found the river rafting also definitely spicy!
