Once again we're in Arequipa, Peru, only this time, it's after five straight days of hiking in the northern Andes. This past Friday, we left Arequipa to go to Cañon del Colca. Cañon del Colca or Colca Canyon is the second deepest canyon in the world, and home to the extremely rare condor. Our trip consisted of five days. The first day, we took a bus to the small Andean village of Yanque where we met our guide, Octavio. We got our stuff set up in the hostel and went out for a hike. Yanque village is at an elevation of 10,500 feet, so the hike helped us get used to the altitude a bit. After the hike we landed ourselves in the public bath/hotsprings area. It was hard to get out of the hot water with the altitude-chilled air. Eventually, we made it back to the hostel for dinner and a partial night's rest. The next day we woke at 4:30 A.M. to catch a bus to Cruz del Condor. We managed to get on the work bus so we stood for about an hour packed onto this bus like sardines in a can. It was about six o'clock when we had breakfast at a remote condor watching spot. After we had breakfast, we meandered up to the main condor watching spot. When the tourists come, oh boy do they come fast. The viewing area went from virtually empty to overflowing in a matter of minutes. Apparently, that morning wasn't the morning to be out condor watching because we only saw three. An hour or so passed before we hopped onto a bus into a small town above the canyon. From there we hiked a very long 5 kilometers (3 miles) into a small oasis on the bottom of the canyon. About half of the trek was downhill, but after lunch on the bottom, it was a grab bag of flat and uphill. After eight hours, our group of five made it to the oasis. We swam in the pool, grabbed some dinner and hit the hay. Our guide had wanted to get up at 2 in the morning to hike to the top of the canyon but we protested and got to sleep in until 4:40. Pete, dad, and I made it to the top of the canyon in two and a half hours, but our guide and Martina took a bit longer. The uphill climb we endured for that time was 1,600 feet. We had breakfast in the small town atop the canyon wall and lazed around waiting for the eleven o'clock bus. Once the bus came, we rode for a few minutes to Cruz del Condor until the next bus to Chivay came. Little did we know when we clambered off the bus that, the bus to Chivay wasn't coming for another three hours. So, we waited while napping and discussing politics with our two Belgian friends. All that "condor watching" we did paid off because we finally saw one up close. They really are amazing birds. They have nine foot wingspans and are exclusive to the northern Andean area. Hours and a hat purchase later, the bus came. Ridiculously overcrowded (typical Peruvian fashion), the ride was about an hour with twists and turns and lots of standing. We all managed to find seats and I sat next to a couple of people, one from Spain and the other from Russia. We got back to the hostel in Yanque and cooked up some pasta while Octavio got our friends on a bus back to Arequipa. We cooked up some pasta and prepared for yet another 4:40 wake up. As expected the morning came all too fast, but we couldn't waste time as the two guides and donkey were waiting for us to start the trek up to Mismi Mountain. Mismi Mountain is the starting point of the Amazon River and also has water that flows into the Pacific. We were pretty excited to get going because it was our highest peak at 16,668 feet. It was a steady, uphill, 12 kilometer hike to basecamp. Once there we pretty much crashed. We didn't care that it was only six o'clock because we had been hiking for nine hours at altitude. We were awarded with not much sleep at all and another 4:40 A.M. wakeup. We left basecamp at 5:42 A.M. and made it to the summit at 8:42 A.M.; exactly three hours. It was a deceiving climb up due to the many, many false peaks of Mismi. When we did make it to the real peak, we took about a twenty minute break The whole hike up was breathtaking, partly because of the views, but more because of the altitude. After our break, Octavio, dad, and I started the descent. It was really fun sliding down the slopes of loose sand and rock, but once we got to the tricky part, the fun and games were put to an end. The hike down wasn't nearly as bad as the hike up. It took us about fives hours to get back to semi-civilization. From the small town outside of Yanque, we packed 13 people into a taxi that should've been holding no more than 5 people. It was a slightly (sarcasm there folks) uncomfortable ride to Chivay where we stayed the night and said goodbye to our guide, Octavio. Exhausted and beaten up, we went to bed at about seven after our dinner. We got to sleep in til 7 o'clock this morning and got the bus back to Arequipa. Here we got some food and are getting stuff done. All in all, it's been a pretty long six days, but we're no worse for the wear! We went to the bottom of the second deepest canyon in the world and climbed a 16,000 foot peak in a matter of four days. That's quite and accomplishment I'd say. The funniest part is that as we lay tired and beat in our beds, we listened to our guide tell us that he has to go take more clients out the next day. I guess he wasn't lying when he said that he hikes every day!

Phil