Colca Canyon, Mirador San Miguel to Cabanaconde via Oasis Sangalle

This is a really nice two-day hike across the second deepest canyon in the world (Colca Canyon). You can do the trek easily without any guide. It is exactly the hike you are going to do, if you book a tour in Arequipa. In total it takes three to four days, starting and ending in Arequipa. Attached you also find a map with other trails. The map is provided by the tourist office in Arequipa (at the 'Plaza de Armas'). By clicking on the waypoints you can see how much time it took us to go there from the previous point.

Day 1:
Take any bus from the terminal in Arequipa to Chivay. The trip takes approximately 4 hours and costs 10 soles (May 2011). You spend the first night in the really relaxing village. Nearby the plaza there is a good market where you can buy food and drinks.

Day 2:
In order to see the condors (best time between 8:30 am and 9:30am) at the "Cruz del Condor" you take the 06:00am bus leaving Chivay to Cobanaconde. Tell the driver that you want to get off at the 'Cruz del Condor'. This trip takes almost 2 hours and costs you 2 soles (May 2011). You now have enough time to look for a good spot. Around 09:00am all the tour buses arrive from Arequipa and it gets crowded. At the lower platform we could see the condors closer than on the upper one. After about an hour you catch the next bus going to 'Cabanaconde' (you can ask a park ranger when the buses pass) and you tell the driver to drop you at 'Mirador San Miguel', that's a couple of minutes before you arrive in 'Cabanaconde' (around 20 minutes from the 'Cruz del Condor'). From here you just follow the trail, down into the valley. The trail is really easy to find and you can't go wrong. Once you reach the bridge you might encounter ladies selling snacks and drinks. Continue through 'San Juan de Chuccho', 'Cosnirhua' and 'Malate' before you go down again to the 'Oasis de Sangalle'. There are lots of really friendly locals along the way who can help you showing the way. Spend the night at the oasis, there are a total of five places to stay, you can either camp (5 soles pp) or stay in a simple cabin (10 soles pp). We stayed in "El Eden", a really nice place with a fancy swimming pool. The water is not cold (natural spring) but also not really warm, after a long hike a perfect refreshment. In case you want to drink a cold beer in the pool: buy it in the little store at the end of the village 'Malata'. There it costs 5 soles instead of 10 soles at the oasis. The owner will exchange your warm beer for a cold one for 1 sol :) At night they let all the water out of the pool and fill it again the next morning (takes 2,5 hours).

Day 3:
This is the hardest part. You walk back up to 'Cabanaconde' almost vertically. The way back up takes somewhere between 3 and 4 hours. There are several buses going back to Chivay or also directly to Arequipa. We took the 1:00pm bus back to Chivay and arrived there around 2,5 hours later. In Chivay you can visit the hot springs with 38 degrees warm water, really relaxing after 2 hard days of walking. Make sure to arrive early enough at the thermal springs (around 4:30pm) because it gets again crowded by the organized tour groups. Sleep another night in Chivay.

Day 4:
Go back to Arequipa.