Day Two in the Colca Canyon

So we woke up at 2am and started our uphill trek. We had our headlamps ready but it wasn't necessary. It was a night with the full moon so the trail was perfectly lit. As soon as we started our trek, it was an immediate ascent of 1,000m. Despite the cool and dry 10-12C temperature, I was still sweating buckets. When we were about 700m up, Remi told us to keep going slowly. I looked back and he disappeared into darkness. I first thought he wanted to return nature's call, but he never quite reappeared. So I just kept going slowly. All of a sudden we saw candlelight in the middle of the trail. It was a snacks stall. Who would sell snacks in the middle of the night?! "Okay?" Oh, there Remi was! How the heck did he manage to pass us? He was fast! No wonder he said he's hiked quite a few 6000m mountains in Chile and elsewhere.

We reached 3290m Cabanaconde again at around 5:45am, when the sun was just coming out. We couldn't see sunrise because we were high among the mountains. So we had our breakfast again at Remi's place and then took the 6:45am bus to Cruz del Condor to watch the condors. Remi wrote down all details of the bus for us and explained tediously how the bus system worked using Spanish, English, body language, and the help of physical aids such as books and boxes. It was very sweet of him.

So we took the bus and got off at 3660m Cruz del Condor. I felt a bit dizzy with a slight headache as I stayed there. We saw lots of condors up close. At one point there were six condors soaring at the same time. I managed to take some cool pictures of the condors in action, although the pictures themselves weren't the best I've taken.

We left Cruz del Condor upon the next bus's arrival at 9:45am. Remi came down the bus to fetch us in case we missed it. He and his wife were taking the same bus to go to Arequipa to visit his wife's family. Remi is Quechua and lived in the mountains. His wife used to live in Arequipa but moved to the mountains with him. Remi's wife got us seats in the front left. I kind of think she did it on purpose cuz we had great views on the left. I took lots of pictures en route. Everytime I saw the snow-capped mountains I just had to keep pressing the shutter, despite knowing my antique P&S wouldn't be able to capture the soul.

We had a long stop at Chivay, the same place where I was almost left behind the previous day! This time I had a good look at the bus station and the surrounding. We chatted with Remi while waiting for the bus to depart again. We also saw alpacas boarding another bus. They're so cute!

As we continued with our journey, we reached 4800m where it rained for about 5 - 10 seconds. I started to develop a headache no long after we reached 4800m, and the headache remained even after I got back to Arequipa at 2300m. I wasn't sure if it was altitude sickness or my contacts. Maybe it's both. I hate how I'm so extremely prone to headaches.

After arriving in Arequipa, we went back to our hostel Los Andes to ask about info on Puno and the bus schedules. We then went to a nearby museo (museum) which was an inglesia (church) and had a quick tour. Then we headed back to Los Andes, claimed our backpacks, and took a shower in their shared bathroom. What a deal! We paid only 16 sols (around US$6) and we used their bed, their computer, their very friendly service, and took 2 showers x 2 persons! They even helped us call our hostal in Puno and made reservations for us. We definitely recommend this place. :)

We took the 7:30pm bus to Puno which would take 5 hours. My headache didn't go away all night so I didn't sleep very well on the bus. I also forgot that Puno was at an altitude of 3830m, so it'd be chilly especially when we were arriving after midnight. Oh well. It was cold, but my bare toes in my sandals survived. Our pre-arranged taxi actually came to pick us up just when we started to find out it was very difficult to find a taxi in Puno's bus station in the middle of the night. So we got to the hostal alright and I went right to bed with a headache.