Into the Canyon

Today (31st July) we entered Cotahausi canyon. At 3500m deep, it's the deepest in the world.

We continued along from the village for a couple of hours along increasingly narrow, winding dirt tracks until we reached the stop for our first walk of the day to Sipia waterfall. Just before we started out on the walk we looked back at the road we had just driven along and saw a cloud of dust from rock slide!

Sipia waterfall has 4 tiers and drops for more than 100m. During our walk we only encountered 1 other family, local Peruvians on holiday - they were the same family who were staying in our hostel.

Less than 5 percent of tourists that visit Arequipa come this far, we haven't seen another international tourist since we left Arequipa on our first day which made the journey feel much more special.

The Peruvian family seemed to be quite a forgetful lot as they not only left their camera case behind at the waterfall (which we had to run after them to give back to them) but they also left their teddy at the hostel. So we now have an extra passenger who goes by the name of Minny Mouse! The guide will give it back because they live in the same town as her.

After another hour of driving, past another forest of cacti, we arrived at the end of the road and had to make a 350m ascent up the canyon by foot to reach the village of Verlinga where we are staying tonight.

When we got to the village we went for a walk around, looking for fruit on the local farms and ending up at the edge of the village for sunset looking out into the canyon.

Our host family have lived in this house for generations and are the local wine makers. So before dinner we went to his wine store and sampled some of his 1 year old wines and boy were they strong!

After dinner we sat on the balcony and looked at the night sky - the Milky Way was clearly visible. The perfect end to a perfect day.