Day 5: Long day on the water, and in the van

Up at 4:30 and piled in a van for a three and a half hour ride.... that’s how we started a very long day.

Two of the main activities to do in and around Arequipa are white water rafting and trekking/touring in the Colca Canyon (the deepest gorge/canyon in the world by far).   When I was going over the itinerary, it felt like a bit much to do Colca because unless you stayed there, it was basically a leave at “4am return at 11pm deal”... that’s a long day and a long time in a van for the kids.

Rafting was a better option, but it needed up being longer than we’d expected.  

The road out of town was winding out of the Arequipa valley where we hit sunrise on a moonscape, flat plateau with almost no vegetation.  Before we got over to the valley our river was in, we wound down then up out of another beautiful valley that opened up as an oasis in the middle of two moons capes.  This valley area was where the towns were, surrounded by hectares of tiered farms.  All over the road, you could see the election sign equivalents in Peru... painted on stones and houses, and just about anything permanent.

Eventually, we began the descent into the Majes valley - a massive canyon that is essentially the end of Colca canyon regions, but much closer to the sea, and thus shallower than Colca.  Our destination was near a town called Andamayo where the Majes Valley meets another smaller river.

We were served a very basic breakfast while our guides and our very young, coowner of the rafting company set up the rafts.
  


Claire, originally from Alaska but transplanted in Arequipa after meeting a local guy, was too young, inexperienced and out of her league to run the operation.   Overall, we had a great time on the river, the guides were great and nice, but the whole organization of the event.... lacked.

The rapids were advertised as 3+ to 4 (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitewater), and Beth and I both had bad thoughts from a pretty hairy incident we’d had in Nepal in 1997, but when I saw the river while driving in, I was right in my assumption that they’d probably oversold the severity of the rapids (or understandably referred to the highest the rapids could get in the rainy season).   They looked more like 1s and 2s, which set Beth at ease.  It’s one thing to take risks with your health when you don’t have kids in tow.

There was no water at “breakfast”, no water in the vehicles and no water (or food) provided at the halfway “snack” stop.   Claire seems like she was just a passenger, more deferring or chatting with the guides than anything.   The guides from both of our boats, one Chilean, one Venezuelan were great, as was the little 19 year old expert kayaker who sped up down the river essentially giving the guides the correct line down the fairly narrow, rocky river.

The landscapes were breathtaking and being in the deep canyon which gradually widened was great to take in during calmer moments on the water.   

At the “snack” break I told Claire that Alex wasn’t looking to good - he was chilly and looked a little white, and I’ve never seen Alex drop even 1% lower than his usually high energy.  I recommend to Claire we get Alex some water and keep him in the middle of the boat to minimize water splashes (we’d gotten through most of the heavier rapids by then) and eliminate him from paddling.  She just looked at me with wide eyes and said “really? Ok... we don’t really have any water but....ok”.   Jesus Christ....

When finished and pulled up to the edge of the river, we had to scramble up through some brush and up to the main, 2 lane road where we proceeded to change into our dry clothes basically in the middle of the road.

Lunch was tasty, but we weren’t really done lunch until around 3:30 (promised return of 5pm, 3.5 hours to driver, get it together Claire!).   The kids were great, chatting amongst themselves and playing cards - in general just having fun.  I think if it was just the 4 adults Claire would have received “words”.  

As we began our climb out of the high valley, the sun started setting.  By the time we got up to the moonscape, the sky was dark and most of us were asleep.  We ended up getting back to the hotel at 8:30.   Pour Alex - today was a long day in the best of times, but that dude is a super trooper for coping pretty well through it all.

We tipped the guides as we appreciated their service.  Claire barely got out of the van and waved goodbye.   Good luck in this business adventure Alaska - hopefully you’ll get better before word gets out that the customer is number 2....

The seven of us ended up having fantastic homemade hamburgers at a little local sandwich shop that we’d walked by a dozen times but never stopped at.  Within 10 minutes of taking our last bite, we were tucked into our rooms and getting some well earned sleep in our comfy beds.   Last night in Arequipa - our adventure moves to a new location tomorrow.