We had a lovely breakfast at our hotel and a nice chat with the owners about Poland. We caught a cab to the bus station (S/3), the terminal terrestre (in Arequipa there are two terminals one for the long distances, Terminal Terrapuerto and one for the short distances, Terminal Terrestre, and they are next to each other). We wanted to catch the 8.30am bus to Cabanaconde, but the bus was full! After buying tickets for the next bus at 11.45am (S/15) we returned to the center by cab and went to the creperie Zig Zag where we had nice fruit juices and also very nice crepes. It was nice to enjoy the sun in a quiet atmosphere. We finally caught our 11.45am bus which was packed and started our long journey to the Colca Canyon. The road took us throught beautiful landscapes, very arid and also very dusty. There was so much dust in the bus that it was really annoying. It took us 3h45 to reach Chivay the first village of the canyon and another 1h45 to reach Cabanaconde. Up to Chivay we drove through arid mountains and we saw lots of lamas. After Chivay we enterred the canyon and have been very impressed by the beauty of the landscapes. There were lots of terraces cultivated and the canyon became deeper and deeper and more narrow on our way to Cabanaconde. When we arrived in Cabanaconde we were surprised to see how small and quiet this village is. We booked a room at the Valley del Fuego hotel like all the other tourists in the bus! This hotel is quite unconventional as there is no reception area and the basic rooms (only 6) are arranged on both side of an open corridor. The price was cheap, only S/10 each. We met three French students and two Belgian students. As we all wanted to do a 2 days trek in the canyon we negociated the pice with Pablo the owner of Valley del Fuego. From S/110 each we ended up paying S/78 each for the guide, 4 meals and a night at the Oasis (but we think we could have got a better deal). Next to the hotel they also have a very basic and authentic restaurant. There is a fireplace and you can eat around nice wooden tables, the only lighting being the candles placed on empty bottles of wine. This creates a very nice and special atmosphere. We had a simple but nice meal with all the group (S/10), and went to bed early as we would have to get up very early in the morning to start the trek.
