So off to bed early as we are being picked up at 0700 for our tour to the Colca Canyon. Now those of you who have followed my previous trip reports will know that we rarely take organised tours, preferring to drive or catch a train, travel at our own pace and have the flexibility to do what we want, when we want.
However, on this occasion I decided to go with Carlitos Tours, 2 days, 1 night. I didn’t fancy taking the risk of succumbing to Altitude Sickness while behind the wheel of a car but I also didn’t fancy sitting on a bus tour for two days being herded on and off, etc,
So we arranged a private tour; +1 & I, a driver who spoke a little English, and a guide who spoke excellent English. The tour included pick-up from the airport (and return to the airport after the tour), a “short tour of the city” (which was basically the pick-up driver pointing out a couple of things as he took us to our hotel), one night’s accommodation in the Colca Canyon, all meals (2 x lunch, 1 x dinner, 1 x breakfast), tourist ticket for the canyon, snacks & water, and entry to the hot spring near Chivay. We had to pay for our own alcoholic drinks and souvenirs. All inclusive price of $US285 per person.
Mr Carlitos came to our hotel shortly after our arrival to brief us on the tour, collect his money, and arrange the pick-up time and confirm the hotel option. As it happened, Carlitos said that the price was now $290 per person because he wanted to include some short treks; after a little discussion we agreed; more on this later.
Next morning around 7-15 the driver arrived and off we went...