20th Sept - Colca Canyon Day 1

Alarm went off at 3, hopped up, ready to go, bus arrived really quickly after that. Dying obviously, collected rest of tour from different hotels/hostels and on we went. They gave us headrests and blankets for the journey which was sound enough. Had breakfast and arrived at first stop which was the condor viewpoint just before 9. We were lucky that there were a few condors around, they swooped right down over our heads, beautiful graceful elegant birds. Mad stuff altogether.

Next we split up the bus between the lads who'd booked the 2 day tour and the 3 day tour. I was on the 2 day tour with two couples, one English one Canadian. Oh super. But in fairness it turned out that they were all very sound and great craic was had. Certainly better than the alternative, which was going on the 3 day tour with 4 Israelis and 4 Frogs who barely had English.

In the spirit of travelling - and putting the Thierry Henry unpleasantness to one side - I decided to introduce myself to one of the Frogs outside the bus.

Me: "Hi there, I'm John" - held out my hand.
Frog: <Blank face, stays completely silent - stares at me, refuses to offer hand>

... ah, maybe he doesn't recognise me, it's early, there are hundreds of people here etc etc, I'll try again.

Me: "aah, I'm actually on the bus with you, I'm down the back seat?"
Frog: "yes, I know" <Blank face - stares at me>

What a prick! Stupid f-ing frogs! I was bloody happy when they went on the other tour about 10 mins later!

Anyway, the 5 of us on the 2 day tour met our guide. His English was brutal, but he seemed a nice lad. So we set off in the baking sun on our 3 hour downhill hike. I certainly looked good:

Sadly, the guides had omitted to inform us that the condor place was last chance to get water. I only had half a small bottle! Good craic on the way down, lots of tours doing it together, met these legend Irish girls who were on a 3 day tour but following same route as us. They were all in runners and had an awful time of it trying to climb down. Few Aussie lads around too, and bizarrely, they seemed ok! Flamin galahs. We all managed the walk despite the lack of water, lovely lunch, then another couple of hours walk in the afternoon and we landed at this class place where we'd stay the night.

On the way, i passed this poster for an election candidate - he has such a silly name!



This place was great - had a swimming pool, hammocks etc, you can see the pool from this photo:

Great place to spend the night!

What you can't see is that the pool had installed a hot Brazilian girl in it so I decided to brave the now freezing cold and go for a dip. Sadly the pool was deeper than I thought and I panicked and almost died with the water gushing through my lungs. I ended up splashing everywhere, gasping, wheezing while about ten people looked on with really concerned faces. Nightmare. Even more sadly the hot Brazilian turned out to be incredibly boring. Can't win them all I suppose!

The place we were staying had no electricity so dinner was by candlelight. Had a couple of drinks w dead on french couple (they exist!) and then bed. We had to be up for 4.50 to start the 3 hr uphill trek!

My group - me, Meara, Saul, Anna, Dan

Sound Frenchies + Brazilian