There were five Israelies, two Frenchmen and two Aussies on a trek...

Start of trek!
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And what a great trek it was! This was our first trek so we always knew it was going to be an experience. We just didn’t know what type of experience it would be!

We left from Arequipa at 5.30am and met our fellow trekkers at the bus terminal. It was a crack team consisting of five Israelis (three girls and two guys) who had just completed their military service, and two French mountain men who had just completed a 6000 metre mountain climb the day before and thought they would follow it up with a three day trek through the deepest canyon in the world. To say Emma and I were a little intimidated would be a massive understatement!

Here we go!
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In the safe hands of our guide Abel we set off on the bus to Cabanaconde which is where the trek commenced. The bus ride there was more like a rollercoaster ride and the suspension (or lack of) on the bus got a huge work out.

The trek that we were about to embark on would take 3 days and 2 nights and would take us down to the bottom of the deepest canyon in the world and back up again, sleeping in a local village for a night and stopping off at The Oasis which was a sort of resort at the bottom of the canyon complete with swimming pools!

Nathan and Nilton
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I was a little worried for Em because she suffers from vertigo and we would be trekking along trails on cliff edges with drops of almost 1000 metres! I shouldn’t have worried - Emma was amazing, I don’t know how she did but she didn’t flinch once!

The view from the canyon was amazing and I can’t even begin to describe it but hopefully the pictures will tell the story. Our guide was excellent and told us about all the history in the area which dates back to the pre-Incas, and spending a night in the village was a great experience. Even down to the matrimonial suite which Emma and I got to share, very romantic (see attached picture).

The hung bridge. Emma's favourite aprt!
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Our assistant guide Nilton was great fun as well, he was studying English from this little book that he carried with him the whole time and whenever Emma and I needed a rest we would have little language lessons on the run, him teaching us Spanish and us teaching him English. Apart from being a guide he was also an electrician and potato farmer - a jack of all trades as we taught him!

On the second day we visited The Oasis which was like heaven after the trek down. After having lunch there we had the last part of our trek which involved climbing back up the canyon to the town of Cabanaconde. This would have to be the hardest part of the trek but was good training for our Inca Trail trek in a couple of weeks.

Dinner!
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We finally got to the top after 3 ½ hours of blood, sweat and tears (the tears were from me) and found the crazy French mountain men had finished about 1 ½ hours before!

At the top we decided to wait for a 75 year old man from the U.S.A who we had passed along the way. He had been offered a mule to carry him up to complete the trek but had refused and ended up making it all the way by himself. Pretty inspirational stuff, hope I’m going that strong at 75! Needless to say he got a round of applause at the top from everyone when he arrived, including the police and medical team that had been called just in case!

It's getting dark up here!
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That night we stayed in Cabanaconde for the night and Emma and I had the privilege of being involved in a ceremonial festival to mark the beginning of the planting season after we were dragged into the dancing by some excited villagers. Emma even got a couple of kisses on the cheek from the male participants, I don’t think that was part of the ceremony though.

The next morning we visited the Condor Cross where condors circle every morning. For the first 30 minutes not much was happening but then out of nowhere about five condors appeared all circling around us. They were huge birds (3 metres wide by 2 metres long) but really graceful, just floating on the thermal currents to reach the top of the canyon.

Matrimonial suite
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We then headed to the hot springs in Chivay which were a welcome relief and then headed into the centre of town where children were wandering around carrying new-born lambs to have your pictures taken with and Andean women dressed in traditional dress walking llamas on leashes, pretty cool stuff!

This topped off a great couple of days and definitely a once in a lifetime experience… I’m serious, I couldn’t go through the pain again, my legs are still killing!