We left Cobanaconde by 9am, early by our standards but apparently not early enough according the merciless Peruvian sun (second only in power to Queensland – true fact!). Just outside of town we found the start of the trail down into the canyon and began our descent. We could see a few towns dotting the hillsides on the opposite side of the canyon walls and while they were a reasonably distance away we could roughly make out the path that should would lead us to the oasis at the bottom. Don’t question why we had to trek to the opposite canyon wall to reach the bottom.. it made perfect sense before we started 😛
We reached the bottom within two hours and no incidents of note. Then began the walk up the other side to reach a town midway that we could stop for lunch. While tiring and tedious we made it to the town after another two hours slowly winding our way up the canyon wall. All day long we’d heard what sounded like cannon fire and assumed it was in celebration of something important – what could there be to worry about, we’d simply join in the fun, right?
As we reach the edge of our lunch stop we noticed a slow parade of swaying, singing and dancing men, holding banners, playing instruments and throwing lit fireworks onto the road behind them. Our initial excitement of joining some festive parade evaporated as we determined this was some local political rally and involved quite drunk, angry faced men with explosives, guns and knives – I presume they weren’t simply protesting over student fees. This wouldn’t have mattered a great deal if 1) There was more than one road in town, 2) we weren’t standing in the sun and had run out of water, 3) they paid less attention to Jess and requesting her to join their ‘dance’ 4) we weren’t shit scared of having a firework explode under us.
Anyhow we eventually pushed through them and found a cafe to consume more of that deliciously varied Peruvian cuisine. The remainder of the afternoon was spent with me sheepishly accepting I had grossly underestimated the distance we needed to cover while we slowly dehydrated and our bodies succumbed to bodily pains that I can only assume octogenarians experience on a daily basis.
With a few minutes of sun remaining in the deep chasm we had ventured into we found our oasis and checked ourselves into the cutest and most rustic hut we’d ever seen. Grabbing a much needed beer and sitting by the pool we watched as the baking heat of the day was slowly replaced by the encroaching night darkness down the canyon walls. Magical! Amazing how quickly we forget our aches and pains when presented with a beer and a beautiful setting 🙂
