Colca Canyon

Hiked 19 hours in 3 days at an elevation from 7,000 to 10,000ft. This is one of the harder but more rewarding hikes I've done. This is me on an outlook overseeing some Incan ruins. This is where the warriors stayed.

We left from Arequipa at 3:30AM. I slept on the bus as it got to the cruz de condor. This is the canyon where the huge condors fly around in the morning. We then drove to Cabanaconde, had lunch, and started the first leg of our massive hike. We decended 3200ft in 3 hours which was pretty good. Everything is high altitude so it wore me out pretty fast. We spent an hour resting at the oasis at the bottom and hiked back up 1200ft (seriously exhausting) to the town of Malata. This is where the Cacatchuan people live. They are the modern descendents of the Incas and we stayed at the travel agent's parent's house. We were too tired the first night except to eat and go to sleep.
Second day we travelled 3 hours to the ruins of Tapay. We ate a packed lunch out on the rock perch and hiked back. Once back in Malata, though exhausted, we were shown how to make foods with traditional tools. After, we danced while wearing some traditional Cacatchuan clothing (yes, the men wear skirts..and a "mating" hat) and had dinner.
The next morning we left at 3:30AM to hike down to the oasis and back up to the Cabanaconde. This was one of the hardest hikes I had to do but it was really rewarding.
It was an amazing experience.
Link to pictures.