Those of you who know me know that numbers are not my strongpoint. Yes, I can count, but that's about it. But counting AND dates, and we're talking about a whole other monster.
I really thought I had my dates right during this trip. I don't know why I thought this, as I barely know what day it is back in Cusco, but I honestly thought New Year's Eve was on that Saturday, not Friday. So we left Arequipa for Chivay on Friday afternoon, thinking we'd hike into Colca Canyon (the deepest canyon in the world) on Saturday morning and spend New Year's Eve at the bottom in one of the oases. Wrong. We spent it in Chivay, the podunk town above the canyon instead. At least our hotel had Direct TV.
We still made the most of it though. The busride to Chivay (about 3 hours and rather uncomfortable because the buses are such crap) was through a beautiful wildlife preserve and the sunset was amazing. When we got to Chivay, our hotel options were limited but fortunately existent. It is one of the jumping off points to the canyon, so simple, clean hospedajes are available. We negotiated our room for 40 soles (about $13), down from 50, since it is the low season and there were lots of empty rooms. Hot water, a comfortable bed and Direct TV. We were set!
The bus ride to Chivay
We dropped our stuff and headed out. Like Christmas, every town in Peru has some sort of "New Year's market" where you can buy all the essential items for the festivities and Chivay was no exception. Per Hum's instructions, we purchased lentils and rice (you put a little of each in a small bag, tie it up and carry it with you for the year for good luck), grapes (you eat 12 of them, each with a wish), really, REALLY bad champagne (you write a wish on a small piece of paper, put it in the glass and drink it), and yellow underwear (don't ask, I really can't remember).
Dinner was cheap Chifa (Chinese food) and pollo (much better than the Chifa). We crashed back in the room by about 10 and Humberto woke me just as the new year began and we hasily put together all of the items to consume/make wishes on/wear/etc. And then I went back to sleep!
We awoke early the next day and took the cramped, 2-hour bus to Cabanaconde, another town at the top of the canyon where we began our trek down. We got a little lost, which took away some of our daylight time, but hopped on the backs of a couple of mules about 3/4 of the way down so that we could get there before sunset. We hired the same mules for the next day to get us back up the canyon -- I had no intention of trekking on this journey -- and I stuck to it!
The top of the canyon at the start of our trek
The canyon is gorgeous. It's very, very steep and the path hugs the canyon walls very closely. There isn't a lot of room to misjudge your steps, but if you don't have a fear of heights, you'll be fine. Hum has a fear of heights. And riding on the back of the mule didn't help.
On the way down...
He got down to the bottom just fine (after about a thousand "Tengo miedos") and we chose one of the oases to stay in for the night for 20 soles per person, including dinner. There was a pool, which I imagine would have been very nice during the day with the hot sun blazing, but just a little too cold for my taste at 7pm at the bottom of the deepest canyon in the world. That wasn't enough to deter Hum, so he jumped right in. I cheered him on from the sidelines.
Dinner was simple. Soup, pasta. Nothing special and certainly not worth 10 soles if we weren't at the bottom of a canyon. We ate with a German guy, a lady from Arequipa and 2 girls from Sweden (I think). It was nice, but we headed off to bed early, knowing that our mules would be waiting for us at 6am.
The oasis
Our grass hut was cute. Just a bed with lots of blankets and no electricity. The door didn't lock, and we had to use a large stone to keep it shut. We used a candle to find our way back to the room and spent part of the night listening to all of the animals shuffling about in the night. I slept surprisingly well.
Our hut
The journey up took about 2.5 hours by mule. Knowing how slow a trekker I am, this was a good option -- it would've taken us all day if we went by foot. And I would've been rather grumpy by the end. Instead, we got to enjoy the views (when Hum wasn't clinging on to the mule for dear life with his eyes closed) and made it back to town in time to catch another overly crowded bus back to Chivay.
Back up the canyon...
We made it to Chivay by lunch, bought our bus tickets back to Arequipa for 11:30pm and then went back to the hotel we spent New Year's in and asked to use a room for "the day" -- which we used until about 10pm -- for 20 soles. Not bad. Our plan was to head to Ica next, but the only major stops from the terminal in Chivay were Arequipa and Lima. Lima was further down the journey for us, so our only option was back to Arequipa. But we had about 12 hours to kill until then.
No big deal. While Chivay is a little podunk, it has one thing going for it: Hot Springs!! Woo hoo! And these were some of the nicest hot springs I've been to in Peru. They were laid out like swimming pools -- very hot ones -- and each one was a few degrees hotter than the last. We soaked away most of the day in one of the medium-hot pools and eventually headed back to town to shower and grab dinner (crappy pizza at the town's crappy Irish pub) before heading back to the station to wait for our bus.
The bus ride was cold and terrifying. We bundled in the sleeping bag, but it wasn't enough. It was COLD. We also stupidly chose to take the front seats on the second story of the bus which meant that our nighttime view was of our bus going at breakneck speed hugging the cliffs of the canyon for the first hour of the drive. We made it back to Arequipa by about 3:30am and booked our tickets for Ica for 6am. Bus stations in Peru are kind of fun. There are tons of mini restaurants and shops to buy food, souvenirs, use the Internet (when it's open) and various other services. Most things were actually open when we got there (except the Internet place -- damn!) and so we got some tea and a little food before I fell asleep on the floor of the terminal while Hum watched our stuff and read.
On to Ica...
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