Colca Canyon – Inca spirits that keep you awake at night

Colca canyon is deep… very deep… in fact over 3000m deep! Thats twice as deep as the not so grand 'grand canyon'! So with our daypacks and walking boots on we set off to trek into its depths. We headed off on a small track winding its way slowly down into the canyon, we were aiming for a small village on the other side of the canyon to spend the night with one of the local families who had stuck a bed in an old mud hut for trekkers. It took around 4 hours to finally reach the bottom of the canyon, looking back up at its imposing rock face and seeing condors circling above was amazing, the only problem was it looked like it was about to start raining and we knew from Arequipa that it might not be good! We had about 2 hours of trekking left when the heavens opened and it didnt let up all night. We trudged in the down pour up to the village, slipping on rocks, avoiding sliding down mud banks and at one point having to balance precaressly on a tree branch trying to cross a now fast flowing river and big ravine! We finally made it to our first night's digs just as it became dark, very wet, muddy and tired but very smiley as it had been great fun! Had dinner with our host family and got told stories in broken English and Spanish (Spanglish) of Inca spirits, think it was good that we couldnt understand all of it!! Once the fire had gone out and the candles burnt down we headed off to bed for a good nights sleep….well it was, until we were awoken around 3am by the sound of our door creaking open!! Ok ok no panicking, no one there… 10 mins later door creeks open again, bit more panick but still nothing to worry about… ok, 3rd time and we are now panicking! Bravely checked outside before promtly wedging the door shut with anything we could find, no more Inca spirits thereafter – think it was the smell of Nathans dirty, wet trekking socks that did the trick yay!