MOUNTAIN BIKE TOUR IN COTAHUASI CANYON $593 USD Per Person

Today we decide to depart at 6am from the your hotel of Arequipa – The first part of the trip includes 7 hours of travel by private transport – The journey goes from Arequipa down to the desert along the Pan American highway and then across the valley and canyon of Majes (600m) – We take another road from the valley of Majes up to the highlands passing small lunar valley, lot of contrast of colors of the mountain between the coast and the begin of the Andes. After 5 hours of driving we arrive to Chuquibamba (3300m) – Short stop to stretch the legs and have some snack or early lunch – Chuquibamba is a typical and farming inter Andean village located on the bottom of the Coropuna snow mountain (6377m) – From Chuquibamba begins the gravel road passing small forest of Andean trees as known as Queñuas, rock forest, lot of south American camelids as Llamas, Alapacas, Huanacos and Vicuñas. The gravel roads pass between the Coropuna and Solimana mountains giving us spectacular view of glaciers on the top of each mountain. Around 2pm arrive to point where we will start the bike trip as known as Visque grande (4670M) – Cheack the bike, safety talking about the mountain bikes, provider of mountain bike gear as helmets, gloves and bike pads (knee & Elbow). This first mountain bike tour includes to ride along the paved road, this will be 1990 meters of pure downhill seeing full view of mountains, local people, flora and fauna, passing water springs, deep cliffs, etc – This first part of bike trip includes some section of single trucks for bikers wants to feel more adrenaline. The downhill from Visque Grande to the town of Cotahuasi takes around 2 hours on the bike – Check in small hotel in Cotahuasi, the room includes private bath and hot shower. Around 7pm will be the dinner and rest.

Today we will serve country breakfast accompanied with some local fruits as avocado, passion fruits, cactus fruits or other season fruit and of course local cheese with some fry eggs and plenty of break and cereals. The trip will be begin around 8am going up in our private transport – The point to start the bike trip will be recognize as “Mirador de Cotahuasi (4030m)” this is located on the top of Cotahuasi and from there we take gravel road to make pure downhill to Toro Village (2970m) – The village of Toro is located between two mountain completely covered by pre and Inca terraces where the locals cultivate their crops – This road offer so many corners making more fun and challenge the mountain trip. After 2 hours arrive to Cotahuasi River and cycle (cross style) along the river to the waterfall of Sipia (2060m) – This waterfall is the highest in Arequipa and located in the deepest canyon in the world according some geographical investigations – Free time in around the waterfall, picnic and then we fit the bikes on the private transport and 2 hours of transfer to the upper part of the canyon – The road pass the towns Piro, Cotahuasi, Taurisma, Tomepampa, Alca and finally we arrive to Puica (3680m) and then we share a local restaurant to get lunch. Again we check our bike and begin the last part of bike tour (downhill) following the same road we used before to get to Puica – The biking trip goes through mountains, terraces, farming and lot of view of the upper part of the canyon – After 2 hours arrive to nice place as known as Luicho (2700m) where is located the hot spring (thermal baths), enjoy and relax for two hours and when is getting dark we return to the hotel in Cotahuasi to have dinner and rest.

Today we need to wake up at 5:30am to have breakfast and then begin the private transfer up to lagoon of Pallar Cocha (4750m) – This lagoon is located on the base of Coropuna Mountain and there we will begin the long way downhill from the Andes to the coast – This offer dirt road, some short section of uphill and the rest of the road will be pure downhill passing small village, cactus forest, canyons, deserts and seeing the big contrast of the landscape and change of the climate from cold to hot – This bike trip will take between 6 to 8 hours until Aplao (624m) where will be the late lunch and then 3 hours of private transfer to your hotel in Arequipa and end of the trip.