Located near Arequipa, Peru. ~3000m altitude. Woke up at 3am, a bus picked up a group of people. First we have 3 hour drive to see condors at ~5000m altitude. I got a fever and a little sick, not sure if its from the altitude or the perro that bit me the night before. A couple hours later we were at the destination to start our trek. Many people brought water, bananas, and some coca to deal with their altitude sickness.
The first hour of our trek I was with the group. Every now or then the guide stopped to describe some of the landscape and views. After a couple of stops i decided to go onward at a jogging pace. Reached the bottom of the valley in the next hour and waited for the group by a bridge, total distance would be less than 10km. This was only the half way point. Once the group caught up, we all started trekking towards our accommodations which would be another 5-8km. The terrain was mostly rocky with some of the trails being sandy. During this trek we also did a river crossing which was refreshing.
The place with our accommodations felt like a resort. It had multiple little cabins for people to sleep, also had multiple showers and toilets. There was a swimming pool built into the side of a natural boulder. We enjoyed our meals and got ready for the next morning trek.
Everyone woke up just before 5am and we started our trek with headlamps. The guides' best time to reach the top of the valley was under 1hour. I started off the trek with my 10kg backpack, and no walking sticks. I had a good pace even though I was really ill. A couple people surpassed me up the mountain. Most people either had walking sticks, or less/no baggage, and a few took donkeys up the mountain. The total elevation gain was 999m, and this took me just under 2 hours. It was a steady incline the entire way up, so little to no jogging was involved. Then we all met at the top, took a bus back which was a couple hours drive, and ended up back at the hostel around 7pm.
