Colca Canyon.

Well this weekend, we hiked to the bottom of the 2nd deepest canyon in the WORLD! And there is only a couple 100 meter difference between the first and second.

Sheese it was a crazy weekend, we woke up on Saturday morning around 3:30 am, and got on to a bus and tried to sleep since we knew we had a long day ahead of our selfs.

We arrived to the Condor Park around 9:30 or so, we watched the condors for over an hour just fly throughout this beautiful canyon, some were big and some were small but good god they were a sight to see. They would fly directly over your head, and almost were praising your presence for a good photo to be taken.
From there we took another crazy bus ride for about 15 mins, to the begining of our deep desent into this goregous, almost deepest canyon. In total to get to the bottom, and to our arriving point of the ¨Oasis¨, catchy name huh? It took us about 6 hours, with an hour or so break for lunch as well in the bottom of the canyon. We arrived there in perfect timing before dark. That night we spent steripenning water for a good hour or so. We were all so tired, sore that walked down definantly kicked our ass, and we all knew that we still had to walk up the next day. We had a very enjoyable dinner, of pasta with tomatoes. It was sure nice to get a big meal. That night we stood out in front of our little adobe house and looked at the goregous moon and stars. Boy oh boy were they bright. Good thing though, we needed them at 4 in the morning.

We all woke up again, that next morning and started our ascent up this canyon around 430. Amanda and I were not feeling so well that next morning and road mules all the way up. I cannot speak of how hard it was, yet I can hear stories. Perhaps somebody who walked up will help me post a blog this week to talk about their expereince. I know that we definantly have our worked cut out for Machu Pichu, everybody. Good thing we end with that. Ha! But yeah it was a goregous sunrise that morning heading up the canyon. A bit cold but we came prepared. Everybody arrived to the top of the canyon around 8 am, nothin like a good ol´4 hour hike to start your day! :)

We arrived to this little town, and had breakfast in a hostal. After breakfast we all headed to the main part to wait for our bus. It was a funny sight to see all of us alseep in this park on the grounds the benchs any where we could get comfy. We headed out to Chivay after that, and went to the hot springs. Boy were they nice and HOT! It was so nice to soak your sore body from head to toe, it was relaxing. We ate lunch at this little sandwich shop in Chivay as well. After lunch we headed back to Arequpia, where most of us were definantly looking forward to our beds, and a nice shower.

That was our weekend, it was a crazy & beautiful weekend.

This week we are continuing a nother week of Spanish school. Hopefully on our way to fluency! Haha, probably not but we can always HOPE.

I will post more this week.

Ciao from all of us here in the Southern Hemi.
Hope all is well at home!

- Jenn