Day 218: Colca Canyon or Typhoid Oli is back

Ok, some of you noticed that I'd had a lot of problems with my digestion... Turns out that I had Paratyphoid, a less severe form of Typhoid. I guess I've had it ever since I was in the north of Argentina in February. However, I never had typical symptoms and always thought that I'd simply had bad luck with my food o_O
When I got worse again in Cusco I finally decided to go to a hospital and get checked up. Diagnosis Paratyphoid. After three days of infusions I'm finally on my way to recovery and can finally look after the blog again :)

Note: If you're ever in South America and have diarrhea for more than two days don't do it like I did, go see a doctor right away! They have experience with this kind of stuff. In the hospital in Cusco a guesstimated 50% of patients were tourists being treated for altitude sickness, parasites and other types of infections.

So, where was I?

06.-12. May 2018, Colca Canyon

I don't know if you heard or not? Some 4 weeks ago or so two busses with tourists had fatal accidents on the way to Colca Canyon. On the way there it became clear to me why this could have happened. Almost all tours start around 03:00 a.m. in Arequipa for the 6h drive over a really good but curvy road without any guardrails. So you can imagine what happens if a driver falls asleep.

Anyhoo, Tobi, Petra and I wanted to do the whole thing without a tour. So on Sunday morning we drove to the bus terminal and took a regular bus to Cabanaconde. That's where most hikes into the canyon start. By the way, Colca Canyon is the second deepest in the world with about 1200m. Only Cotahuasi Canyon right around the corner is deeper.

Cabanaconde is a quaint little town which lives from tourism. There we had a nice three bed dorm for 70 Sol (about $21.-) including breakfast. What a great deal :)

Aafter having paid the entrance fee to the national park we were on our way to Llahure (about 1200m down and 100m up) and the hot springs. And it was good that way because none of the regular tours go there :)

Almost all tours start at the Cruz del Condor around 09:00 a.m. together with hundreds of other tourists to see the Condors. Then they walk to the edge of Cabanaconde to have a short breakfast. Afterwards they descend about 1000m to San Juan. The ones who booked the 3 day tour spend the first night there. The ones with the 2 day tour go on to oasis Sangalle. Nice but almost like Miami during Spring Break! The ones with the 3 day tour spend their second night there. Then at about 04:00 a.m. they start their 1000m ascend to Cabanaconde where they have breakfast!!! They are nutts!

We knew right away that we didn't want that. We're on vacation.

So we started our hike passing sheep,

fighting bulls,

and the locals at the breed show.

Unfortunately it was a little bit hazy but the landscape was awesome. All the way down there in the middle of the picture lies our goal for the day.

Here's the old bridge over the Rio Colca. We're standing on the new one which supports the regular bus which services the villages once a day. Depending on the distance to the road all goods have to be transported my mules for the last kilometers.

After a leasurly 4h hike with increasing temperatures we were almost there. Only this last bridge and a couple of meters up the hill.

After that we'd really earned a bath in the hot springs. However, at first we weren't that keen on it but after a tasty lunch we were fine again.

The next day we hiked into a side valley towards Fure.

Passing great landscapes and waterfalls.

Here's the view from the porch of our hostel in Fure. The village consists of about 50 houses two of which are hostels which are very simple.

Here the porch and a view of the kitchen :D

Petra and Tobi wanted to continue the 1.5h to the end of the valley and the waterfall there. I was feeling exhausted and stayed at the hostel. Here's view back to Fure.

The next day we left in the direction of oasis Sangalle. There we wanted to have lunch and then hike up to Cabanaconde right away because we had no desire for Spring Break. The paths are quite exposed in parts.

Here a view of the oasis and the track back up to Cabanaconde. Why oh why is there no bridge???

On the way up we passed some interesting stone formations.

Also quite a number of mules came down the track. All heavily loaded with construction materials and everyday goods. On the way back they'll be carrying tourists and trash...

And then we got really lucky because right next to us a Condor used the rising winds for its ascend. You can recognize them by their size and also by the white colar.

What a great hike without guide and tons of tourists.