Our first stop was a small town called Chivay, where we sat down to have our...breakfast! It was at a hostel, which thankfully had WiFi, and we sat down and enjoyed a good breakfast which included some tasty Peruvian bread. The town was pretty chilly in the morning and the toilets were outside. Very cold toilets!
We continued down the road. The landscape was mostly scrubland, brown and with bushes but not a whole lot of trees. There were occasional llamas and vicuñas on the way. The canyon is quite impressive, and it's very deep (deeper than the Grand Canyon, in fact). Our first stop was Cruz del Condor, a lookout for, you guessed it, condors. There were a few of them flying around, and they were mostly flying below the lookout points. We looked around for a bit and walked to a couple of the lookout spots, but Liz was really feeling terrible at this point so any walking at all was probably overdoing it. We were also starting to get to higher elevations so difficulty in breathing didn't help the matter. At least we got a good look at the condors.
Our next stop was Cabanaconde, the staging point for our hike. Originally, we were going to do a longer hike starting from a different spot, but that was just not going to happen with Liz feeling as miserable as she did. We had to break the news to Hans, who was very disappointed to hear that we wouldn't be doing the full hike. He tried to convince us to do otherwise, almost begging. We think that since we chose one of the pricier tour companies, Hans was accustomed to dealing more with the eldery and didn't often get the chance to do one of the more adventurous treks they offer. So, to Cabanaconde we went. We bought some Halls at the nearest store we could find, and got ready for our hike. We started by following a path that weaved through some farmland. That wasn't so bad, but then we started the downward descent. That didn't go so well. Liz was just feeling awful, and had to stop and rest frequently. It didn't help that she opted against bringing her hiking boots on the trip to save room in her suitcase. Bad decision. She lost her footing several times, but didn't completely fall over (Hans lent her his walking sticks, which helped). Along the way, we got passed by a mule driver, who was bringing supplies to the resort we were staying at.
The scenery itself was nice, it really is an impressive canyon (though definitely not as majestic as the Grand Canyon) It was pretty obvious what our destination was, the resort was the only patch of green visible the whole trip down. It's called Sangalle. Liz's feet could barely carry her at this point. We had lunch as soon as we got there, which was a pretty gross and tasteless meal but adventurous since it contained alpaca meat, and it took a little too long for our drinks to get to us. After lunch, we settled into our cabin. It was rustic, having a light that barely worked (and only after dark) and windows that didn't close all the way. Still, it provided privacy, a bed, and a roof over our heads, which was really all we needed. Liz hit the bed right away, and stayed asleep until dinner. I read my book and took a dip in the pool. We weren't particularly social for the rest of the day. Poor Hans wanted to play volleyball and do all sorts of fun activities with us. I chatted with Hans every now and then but otherwise kept to my own devices. Liz woke up for dinner and then went back to sleep. I followed suit before too long. We had an early day ahead of us.
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