Stu and I started our walk a bit after Greg and Leslie today.  We are trying to balance giving our bodies time to get used to less oxygen with keeping ourselves fit.  We are heading up to the ruined church on the hill.  We see these piglets in a sty shortly after we start up.

 

 

As we walk these two guys are look down at at us, very interested.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We are on the way to the ruined church in the background.  A couple of crosses and doors into nothing any longer.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is the view of the town square from our trail.

 

 

Here is my ecology rant.  We move off of the main trail to the church to look over the valley.  A very beautiful valley.  There, not for the first time or the last time I see a discarded empty plastic bottle marring the landscape.  It may be careless tourists or it may be careless locals, no way to tell.  The beauty of the background is spoiled by the trash we see.

 

 

 

We reach the top of the hill.  Stu declares he is at the top of the world.  We have a lot longer to go in 10 days!!

 

 

 

 

This is the view of Cabanaconde from the top.  Not a very large community.

 

 

 

 

Over to the left you can see the rim of Colca Canyon.

 

 

 

 

 

This is the proof that I made to the top of this hill 😉 .

 

 

Down below us is a bull ring,  We don’t know how often it is used today, but we did see horses and cattle inside today eating the grass.  No need for groundskeepers.

 

 

 

We are now walking towards Colca Canyon.  The path at times is very difficult.  More like a dried river bed.  Lots of rocks.

 

 

 

 

 

We reach the rim of canyon and Stu walks out to the viewpoint to look down on the Oasis 1,200 meters below.

 

 

 

The trail head is below me.  There are a few hikers making the decent into the canyon on the path below..

 

 

 

This is me at the edge of the canyon

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And Stu at the edge of the canyon.

 

 

 

At the bottom of the canyon is Sangalle Oasis.  You can stay here overnight, or just pay them 5 soles ($2 CAD) for the day to use the pools and facilities and start the ascent of 1200 meters later in the day when it is cooler.

 

 

This shows the Oasis in the context of the canyon.

 

 

 

 

 

Sitting at the edge of the world.

 

 

 

 

 

Making our way back the trail is still difficult with the large stones on the path.

 

 

 

 

 

This is our room at Kuntur Wasi.  That is a big rock in the corner.  The hotel is built on the hillside, so the rock is part of that ;).