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It’s been a little while since our last entry to which we apologise. However, it has been rather hectic.

The story so far…

From Aplao we headed up into the mountains to a tiny pueblo called Uñon. Situated at 2700m the only access to the town is via a tiny track you either walk or take a mule.
We’d arranged for a guide with a donkey to take us up to Uñon. He was supposed to meet us the night before and have provisions with him to deal with the day ahead. He didn’t turn up. This posed a slight problem as the only food we had for the day ahead was a pack of spaghetti and a sachet of jam.

So, after a nutritious and delicious breakfast of jam and spaghetti we headed up. The walk up was beautiful with several ancient Inca settlements scattered around us. We’d left early to try and avoid the midday sun and were met at about 9am by the guide with a donkey coming down to meet us. An hour later we were starving and asked for some of the food we’d arranged for. To our genuine surprise he pulled out a very recently killed and plucked chicken and two bags of pasta. We all stood, wide-eyed and blinking at what was meant to be our “simple snack”. We didn’t expect this. Too hungry to care Oswaldo and I set about chopping it up into friable pieces and before long we had filled our stomachs.

Uñon received us very well. We were met by two representatives of their council who showed us around and later took us to some Inca ruins nearby. Albeit they have no road access as yet they do have good mobile reception and internet access. The Govenor, Senior Elard Percy Amésquita Silva was very welcoming and helpful in our short stay there and our onward journey. A massive thank you to Uñon’s kind hospitality. (see also the education input coming up on Uñon).

Our next leg was a two day walk over the mountain tops and down to Ayo. This meant leaving Uñon, at 2700m, and climbing to 4500m where we’d camp for the night. Our guide, Hector, had a donkey with him which we had spare water and food in. Our packs still remained 35kg though. As we got higher and the less oxygen there was the more we slowed down. I struggled the most and from the start I set the slowest pace, with my heart wanting to leap from my chest every step I took. But as Ed and I kept saying, “poco a poco” and eventually after twelve hours of walking we reached our camp site over looking the canyon. What’s more, Nevado Mismi presented itself on the far distant horizon.

After an extremely cold night we watched the sun rise and set off for the long trek down to Ayo, situated in the valley bellow us. In our crocs we’d either stop to pick out Cactus thorns that would penetrate through to our feet or end up on our backs balancing precariously on the edge of a drop laughing hysterically. Hector, our guide, would just shake his head and keep his distance, as if we were contagious.

Late in the afternoon we walked into Ayo, which seemed deserted at first. We were put up in the Municipalidad, which is like the town hall and we took a day off to work out the next stage.

This is to get from Ayo to Huambo, which is a small pueblo situated on the south side of the canyon. We found out our only way over the Colca River is via a small hamlet called Canco. What’s more interesting is that we found out we can’t take the river route as we hoped (the water is way too high) but have to climb 600m over a mountain ridge. The route doesn’t look very nice, fun or safe, but it’s the only way…

Luke