Hiking south of Colca Canyon

Making plans

There I was in Cabanaconde. My original plan to climb Cerro Bombaya was out the window because there was far too much snow up there. Quite unusual for the time of year. Perhaps it would still have been possible with crampons and ice axe, but I didn't bring those.

Nevertheless, working on my acclimatization, I still wanted to get to higher ground. I studied my map, looking for alternatives. In the end I decided on a trip on the south side of Colca Canyon, along the lower slopes of Nevado Hualca Hualca.

Where is that river?

I asked around to learn that nobody goes there, but hey, my map showed a few trails and a couple of dashed blue lines. So, I took the bus east, got out a bit before Pinchollo and started hiking up Quebrada Huayuray.

Water was no problem. There was a small stream as well as an open irrigation channel. Finding a clean flat spot was a bit harder, as there were quite a few cows around and I didn't fancy camping on cow dung. Eventually, I found a small but clean spot on a ridge, close to the irrigation channel.

The second day I hiked up towards the high ground east of Nevado Hualca Hualca, only to discover that all the dotted blue lines on my map corresponded only with dry river beds! Instead of camping high on the plane, I kept going until well after nightfall and ended up near Maca, way north of where I had planned to be.

Next morning I was treated to beautiful views - I hadn't seen those yesterday, descending in the dark!

Images

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