Colca canyon - day II

so we wake up at 2:50am to start moving at 3am.. we have 3h of uphill in front of us.. that is the only walking we will be doing on the trek today.. all the rest is by bus. ok.. so we start the trek... in pitch dark with our flashlights.. 45 minutes later i need to switch the batteries.. i do it in the dark and i break the light bulb of my flashlight... and it is pitch dark.. so i stay behind the guide and walk his steps... that was difficult but the only choice at the time. we go up and up and up. the higher we get the colder it gets.. we put on more clothes and keep going. during the short breaks you just stare at the the darkness.. no pretty views in the dark. some people are being carried up on the mule as we need to make it to the bus by 6am as far as we know.

so finally we get closer to the top.. it is getting lighter outside so flashlights are not needed anymore.. we get to the town just about 6am. then we go and have breakfast.. everybody is tired and grumpy and cold.. we eat and head to the center square... we were suppose to take the local city bus to take us to see the condors... but because of the strike the buses are not going so the tour guides rented a private bus to take us so we have to wait till all the tourist groups arrive. we wait at least for an hour.. maybe even more.. finally we can board the bus. it is crowded.. all the seats are taken and there are about 20 additional people standing in the aisle. we have about 1h ride from Cabanaconde to Cruz del Condor observation point. the road is amazingly bad and the bus driver seems to be indifferent as many times we were nearly thrown out of our seats at the very back.

hour later we arrive at the condor´s place... there are hoards of tourists unfortunately.. but i guess that was expected. and there are also lots of condors :D perhaps about 20 of them.. they come and go so you gotta be patient and wait.. they are beautiful... they are big.. and the way they glide! wonderful... they fly over our head and in front of us and at the distance.. whatta sight! i just keep clicking pictures.. can´t help it :D we are there about an hour.

then we head to Chivay. the road is very bumpy again.. it is impossible to sleep.. it is hot and crowded at the bus again. it seems like forever.. but we get to chivay.. some people get off to have lunch but most of us stay on the bus to drive some 10 minutes more to go to the hot springs :) and have lunch later. hot springs are wonderful! they are natural baths.. 3 are open.. so we just sit an relax.. feels so nice on my sore muscles.. we stay there for 1,5 hours and then we head back to Chivay to have lunch.. it is buffet :) yum :) after lunch we have 1 hour to walk around the place.. there is not much there.. just a market and central square.

we get back on the bus at 3pm to head to Arequipa.. the ride is suppose to be 3.5 hours. i´m calculating that we should be in town latest by 7pm so i should be ok to take a bus to Ica around 9pm... so i think. we ask about the strike and what are the latest news and the tour guides say that there are some road blocks but that is all they know. so we head out.