Trekking in Colca Canyon without a Tour Guide

At our trip to Peru February 2015, we decided to hike in Colca Canyon without a tour guide. We took a Public bus at Terminal Terrestre in Arequipa (Reyna looked better than Milagros). The price was only 17 soles per person departure at 11:00.

We arrived in Cabanaconde after 6 hours and stayed at a Lodge called Pachamama Hostel.
You will need to buy a ticket for entering Colca Canyon. It cost 70 soles per person. A man sold the tickets at the bus, when we stopped in Chivay.

We started the trek at 7:30 am the next day and wanted to go to Llahuar Lodge… it’s one of the longer tours in the area, but you will get the opportunity to do the walk without meeting tourist from all the arranged tours. The trail is pretty obvious to figure out. Just walk to Plaza del Amar and have one of the locals point out where too start from. It is a hard and sometimes very steep trail. And will take you around five hours with small breaks.

But it’s definitely worth it and Llahuar Lodge is a wonderful place owned by a nice family who will welcome you warmly. We slept in a small cosy Bamboo hut for 15 soles per person and ate the home cooked set dinner for 10 soles.

We were very sore the next morning and maybe a bit lazy so we paid Pablo 250 soles for a drive back in a 4x4 to Cabanaconde. There we took a bus back to Arequipa. There are several busses waiting at Plaza Del Amar and you can buy the tickets in the stores located around it. They leave at 9:00, 11:00 am and 14:00 pm. The bus was fully booked at 11:00 am so we waited and took the 14:00 pm bus.
If you want to stay in Colca Canyon for longer… I think that it will be a nice trip if you continue the next day to Sangalle Oasis. Then stay overnight and head back to Cabananconde. It is easy and cheap to do the tour without a tour guide. Just remember to carry 2 litres of water each and do not plan to walk after sunset (February=around 6:00 pm) some guys started a walk down in the valley at 12:00 am and thought they could return to Cabanaconde later. But if you go up hill after sunset it will be difficult to see the trails and signs even though you wear a headlight. The guys got lost and the locals went out searching for them. I haven’t heard what happened to them. But there will be no problems if you decide to stay the night at one of the many lodges at the Valley are in moderate good shape and do the walk at daytime. Have a nice trip. Lotte Norup

P.s. I hope you can use some of the information above. This video might be a bit boring with lots of pictures and portraits. It was mainly made for friends and family.