It took seven months of traveling through Latin America before Kristin and I entered Peru. In that time, we met many tourists in other countries who had already been to Peru, and more than a few raved about hiking in Colca Canyon. I had to claim ignorance on this: I had never heard of this purported amazing trek in the deepest canyon in the world. I soon learned that Colca Canyon, at 4,160 meters (13,648 feet) from top to bottom, is twice as deep as the Grand Canyon. However, there is no consensus on the “deepest” title as there are a variety of methods to measure a canyon. There are a few canyons in the Himalayas and one other in Peru that some consider deeper. Regardless, Colca Canyon shot to the top of our list of must-see natural wonders.
ARTICLE OUTLINE
# WORDS: 680
# PHOTOS: 16
Member Exclusive
A Premium or Unlimited Membership* is required to view the rest of this article.
* A Basic Membership is required to view Member Q&A events
Discussion
Become a member to post in the forums.
Companion forum thread to:
Tall Tales from Colca Canyon, Peru: Global Test Photo Essay
Beautiful photos. What an amazing trip that must have been! How I wish I could afford to do something like that, but I'm unemployed with no hopes of a job and so the only "travel" I can do is via articles like this. Thank you for sharing and helping to relieve my empty existence a little bit.
Thank you for your beautiful photo essay…where did you start to get here? Any tips on logistics would be awesome…
Hey
Scott the logistics are fairly effortless. One can take an organised tour from the Peruvian city of Arequipa, however it's more fun and a little cheaper to do it solo. You take a local bus from Arequipa to a town around 40mins away from there the journey is interesting as you take a second bus for maybe around 2hours, but it's a fight to get a seat on the bus (no seats left, no problem sit on the floor! on and plays a hilarious and interesting ride.
When the 2 hour bus ride is over you spend the night in a small village type place at the top of the Canyon. The following day you fill up with supplies and head down.
At the bottom of the canyon accommodation is readily available for maybe no more than 4/5USD per night. In addition, the hostel down there put on dinner for around another 5USD.
If you decide to take the solo route then while you're at the bottom of the canyon 'grease up' a tour leader as he pull the shoots for a minibus ride back to Arequipa via a natural thermal spring and restaurant. The tour leader will charge probably a dollar or so more than going solo. And plus you'll get to meet people on the bus etc
Any question just ask.
Kind regards
Kevin @Kevinhanks1
Pack seems to be interesting. As well as the shelter, you shoes, water bottle etc. Any chance at a kit list and names of the companies that make them?
http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/global_test_gear_list_part_1.html
Anna – thank you for posting the link to our first article, which shows our initial gear list.
Tom – Our follow-up article in the Global Test Series was just published.The final kit list is included, in addition to notes on performance, more photos and a map of highlights from Central and South America.
The Global Test Part II: Evaluating System Efficiency for a Round-the-World Journey
Become a member to post in the forums.