What can I say that’s new about hiking almost 4,000 feet up and out of a canyon?
We started up just before 4 a.m. with Omar setting a nice slow pace that I could easily match. (I’m much better at going up than down. I take after the turtle racing the hare, slow and steady. That way one doesn’t have to stop and catch one’s breath all the time.) With my headlamp focused on Omar’s feet just a few paces ahead, I didn’t have to worry about falling down the side of the cliff, and I wasn’t psyched out about just how far we had to go up. Unlike my hike out of the Grand Canyon though where I had all day, the bus was going to pick us up at 9 a.m., and we needed to eat breakfast in Cabanaconde before it arrived. Remember, it took me 3 1/2 hours to get down.
First light, about half-way up (5:53 a.m.)
It started to get light about 5:30 and by 6, we were half-way up, and Omar let me take a break to eat a mandarin and trail mix. I was enjoying the hike. In the dark, one pays more attention to the sounds and smells, and, temperature-wise, it was very pleasant.
The sun is up! (6:20 a.m.)
Within a half hour, the first rays hit the tops of the mountains. The picture just doesn’t capture the moment; it was spectacular. Of course, I knew the temperature was about to climb, and I still had more than a 1000 feet to go.
It's 7:10 with another hour to go
There were now other people on the trail. Children heading up to school; men with donkeys laden with supplies heading down.
I made it to the top! (7:52 a.m.)
Unlike the Grand Canyon where as one nears the rim one has a good sense of where the top is, it’s not the same when climbing out of Colca Canyon. There are peaks all around you. The sky doesn’t seem to expand and suck you up to the top.
Just 15 minutes from the top of the Grand Canyon and the end is clearly in sight
At Colca Canyon, you seem to just arrive at another ledge and wonder if you really have made it and your guide is just giving you another pep talk so you can forge onward and upward.
It took me four hours to climb out of the canyon, and it was almost another half hour back into Cabanaconde. We finished breakfast well before the bus arrived to pick us up.
My summary of the trek: a great experience, down was more difficult than I expected, up was easier. I’m glad I did it. Would I do it again? Sure, but I would take one of the longer treks that goes through villages inside the canyon and make sure most of my hiking was in the cooler parts of the day. On the other hand, I yearn to return to the Grand Canyon even though it is a much, much harder hike; I don’t have that kind of feeling about Colca Canyon.