Cañón del Colca
At its deepest point, Cañón del Colca drops more than twice the depth of the Grand Canyon — a number that lands differently once you're standing at the rim watching an Andean condor, wingspan wider than you are tall, rise on a thermal without a single wingbeat. The canyon sits about 160 km northwest of Arequipa, carved over 150 million years and shaped, on its terraced walls, by human hands going back at least 5,000 years.
The Collagua and Cabana peoples still farm the pre-Inca stepped terraces — andenes — that climb both sides of the valley. This is not a preserved ruin but a working landscape, which changes what it means to look at it.
💛 What travellers fall for
People who come back tend to stay in Cabanaconde rather than Chivay — it puts you closer to the deeper sections and the descent to Sangalle Oasis. The condor thermals at Cruz del Cóndor peak between 8 and 10 in the morning; arriving before the tour buses from Arequipa makes a real difference.
The story behind Cañón del Colca
The canyon's human story begins well before the Inca. The Collagua, Aymara-speakers from the Lake Titicaca region, and the Quechua-speaking Cabana — likely descended from the Wari culture — shaped the valley's terraces and built citadels like Uyo Uyo and the mountaintop Chimpa Fortress centuries before the Inca arrived around 1320 AD, absorbing the valley through marriage rather than conquest.
The Spanish came in 1540 under Gonzalo Pizarro. By the 1570s, Viceroy Francisco de Toledo had forcibly relocated the population into centralized settlements; Franciscan missionaries had already begun building churches, including what would become the baroque Lari Church. No road connected Arequipa to Chivay until the 1940s, when mining interests finally pushed one through. In May 1981, Polish expedition leader Andrzej Pietowski led the first river descent below Cabanaconde. The Guinness Book of Records confirmed the canyon's depth record in 1984, and in 2019 UNESCO designated the area a Global Geopark.
Good to know
Get your entrance ticket at the control point in Chivay (open 5 AM–6 PM daily; S/ 70 for non-Latin American visitors, passport required). Colectivos from Arequipa reach Chivay in about 3 hours for roughly S/ 15. Two days is a workable minimum; the main hiking loop from Cabanaconde runs 3 days and 2 nights. Dry season — April through October — is the reliable window.
April through October brings dry, sunny days and cold nights — the conditions most people are after. November through March sees heavy rainfall that can make trails slippery and some routes impassable; the canyon greens up considerably, but logistics get harder.
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What travellers say about Cañón del Colca
Great walkabout. 3 day gives you time to enjoy the Canyon (plus a little more hiking).
We weren't sure if it would fit in our schedule for Peru at first, but I'm very glad we made a detour and planned some extra time for this. Absolutely stunning views and very varied flora and fauna. A few notes: the local authority Autocolca doesn't do their bookkeeping very well and I don't recommend getting E-tickets. Get your tickets in the early morning from their office in Chivay (plaza des armas) as you have the best chance of spotting the mighty condor in the morning, and they don't do much work there in the afternoon. Also I do not recommend going over the S109 (south south west) unless you have plenty of time (travel time with google maps is spot-on though) a sturdy car and good driving skills, because the road is undergoing about 100kms of heavy construction with poor driving conditions.
It's a Must Do. See the magnificent Andean Condor soar over the very deep Colca Canyon. You will have to be patient but the rewards are worth the wait.
Off the scale scenery, great hiking and friendly locals. Generally safe to hike alone provided you are physically fit, can navigate and apply a bit of common sense. Finding accommodation was straightforward and the food was good
Most beautiful canyon ever seen. A lot of green, waterfalls, condors, snowy tops of mountains. Just magic place!
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