I arrived to Colca cannon and decided to hike for 3 days, on my own. I avoided booking a tour for this, as I preferred to do it at my own pace, finding out where to stay the night on my own, and being alone to fully experience the cannon.
And I loved it... I went up an old inca trail.. built with big stones. You can tell when a stone was carved by the incas.. they were really pros!... It's funny that in Machu Picchu people spent 300 dollars for the supertouristic 4-day inca trail.... and they go in groups of 20 or 30... with walking sticks which the tour provides... I saw these tours in Machu Picchu and they were all so noisy... doing "clic clic.. clic clic", all the time with the sticks... ohh god! not for me thanks!
But here, I just found out an Inca Trail on my own... not even the Colca tours go there, it's too much off the way for them... and I arrived to a lovely village, it seemed I was the only tourist to stay the night there, and I learned from the life in the village discussing with the hostel owner.
Next day... as I continued my way, I got out of the path and found a lovely little river, of beautiful orange waters... the color was created by the rocks next to it, and I could go down the river crossing side to side through numeros rocks and stones.... When the river met a bridge, I found the path again... I walked for a few minutes and said to myself... I'll just get back to the river and contemplate it for a while, and I did so... and no matter what words I use, I would not be able to describe how beautiful it felt there.
At the end of the day, I arrived to the Sangalle Oasis... it's a microclimate inside the cannon, really like an oasis, with palm trees, nice surroundings and good weather. In this place there were just 5 hostels, absolutely nothing else, and I stayed in one of them, called "paradise"... in a personal hut, with swimming pool, with beatuful flowers, rocks and trees surrounding it... and I played volleyball and foot-volley with 3 friendly ecuatorians and 2 guys of the hostel staff.... all of that for 6 euro the night, including breakfast... and including dinner, without electricity, just by the light of the candles...
