I almost died - but it was nice! Colca Valley

After too little sleep, we get up at 3 a.m., leave our Airbnb and wait for the bus that will take us to the Colca Valley. But no bus comes - we think to ourselves, oh the Peruvians like to take their time and never come on time. But then our guide calls and asks where we are. We notice that there are two streets in Arequipa called Lima and of course the bus is on the other street. So we take a taxi to the bus and leave late. We arrive in Chivay around 9 a.m. (we're already way too late due to an accident), have breakfast there with the locals dancing and get to know Antonia, who comes from Nuremberg and spent her semester abroad in Chile. We continue by bus to Mirador de San Miguel, where our hiking tour begins.

Our guide asks us if we want to take a shorter route because we are way too late and there is supposed to be a storm. We decide on the long tour :P and walk about 7 km downhill. Far too slow according to our guide - so we pick up the pace. The view is gigantic! The heat and the exertion are bothering Asma and unfortunately she isn't feeling well at all. Therefore the guide gives her a mixture of alcohol and mint to inhale. We continue up the mountain until we arrive in a small village with around 50 inhabitants and its own soccer field, where we have lunch. None of us can eat anything, except plaice, of course.

After lunch we continue and hike to the sleeping area. Shortly after we start walking, the sky darkens and we come into the middle of a violent storm with lightning and thunder. Still in a relatively good mood, we stand under a tree to protect ourselves at least a little from the downpour. However, we get soaking wet down to our underwear. Asma now continues with the mule (donkey). The others trudge through the rain on the muddy path, some of which is only about 30 cm wide, to a small oasis in the middle of the Colca Canyon.

Completely soaked, we realize that our accommodation has not been spared from the rain and that we have a scorpion in our room. There's only one thing that helps: we treat ourselves to a cocktail.

After a lot of back and forth as to whether we should ride the mule up the mountain the next day or hike up the 1200 meters, Lissi, Antonia and Scholle decide to dare to climb.

The next morning the alarm goes off at 4 a.m. We put on our still wet clothes and set off in the dark. The starry sky is beautiful! After about 20 minutes the sun rises. Our legs hurt, we find it difficult to breathe, but we keep running. The guide gave us a total of 3.5 hours for the climb. If we get to the top too late, we will miss the bus. Therefore, Lissi sets a good pace, Scholle trudges behind. After 2.5 hours we actually made it and covered the 1200 meters in altitude. The feeling when we finally reach the top is indescribable! Asma comes riding about half an hour later and leads the mule troop :D

We continue for breakfast in Cabanaconde. Everything hurts, we walk like grandmas, but we are happy! To describe the hike in Asma's words: I almost died, but it was beautiful!