4 DAYS HORSEBACK RIDING TOUR (Arequipa & Colca Valley)
Overview
Arequipa is a beautiful city founded in 1540 on a place specially chosen for their natural beauty and warm weather, this beautiful city is located at 2350m at the foot of Misti, a gigantic conical volcano with 5825m. Arequipa is known as the white City, full of fine colonial buildings and has stunning natural landscapes, its countryside is a spectacle of green color: which falls in love with its natural light, its traditional towns, and terraces of bright colors, which contrast perfectly with the beautiful mountains.
On the other hand The Colca Valley offers a dazzling nature, a living culture and delicious cuisine, it is a magical place where we can enjoy both experiential tourism and adventure sports. This valley has a great diversity of flora and fauna, where the Andean Condor stands out, its terraces represent one of the most impressive cultural landscapes on the continent, and It has an enormous natural and cultural heritage, clearly highlighting the survival of two fundamental Ethnic groups: Collaguas and Cabanas.
7:30am or 11:30 am according your request, we pick-up from your Hotel then we transfer you to the ranch situated at “Campiña Arequipeña” (2500meters/ 8250 feet) the area for riding is located on southeast of Arequipa City, this place offer great preserved terraces for agriculture activities of local people, there we will meet the horses and the Chalan, he will give us a safety briefing about ride instructions and explanation about how to get confidence with our horses, the path to ride will have some flat sections also uphill and downhill between pre-Inca terraces and few local houses, this riding tour also includes nice volcanic landscape scenery, small rivers, and friendly people working their fields, for people having experience can gallop on the flat areas but under permission of the Chalan only, otherwise will be not possible even if you are an experienced rider or horse breeder, the timing for riding will depends on your reservation after we enjoy this exiting ride we return to the hotel in the city – end of service.
7:00am We pick you up from your hotel, bus station or airport and then we begin our journey to the Colca Valley following the road that goes to the traditional Yura village, we also pass near to Quiscos valley and after 2:00hrs of travel we enter to Salinas and Aguada Blanca National Reserve, here we stop to enjoy the beautiful landscape, take pictures and know the life and behavior of the South American camels in this part of the Andes over 4000m (13.200feet) (llamas, alpacas vicuñas and guanacos) also to enjoy a delicious Inca mate, which is going to help you mitigate the symptoms of altitude sickness, and of course to buy some souvenirs made with alpaca wool then we continue to the wetlands where we can observe other wildlife species such as birds, rabbits and maybe Andean foxes later we get to PATAPAMPA at 4910m a natural viewpoint, the highest place of the entire route and where we can observe, beautiful the Mismi volcano origin of the Amazon River also the amazing Ampato volcano for having preserved the mummified body of the Inca Princess Juanita sacrificed more than 5 centuries ago as well as the second most active volcano of Peru Sabancaya giving a nice show for the visitors. after a long journey we will arrive to Chivay town (3651m) considered as the largest and most important of all Colca Canyon here we have time to enjoy the lunch with a wide variety of typical food then transfer to the village where your hotel is then we go to the ranch to meet and learn all about our horses that we will be riding. We will learn how to communicate with our mounts horsemanship techniques similar to those used by the famous horse whisperer and you will practice with the horses. This day we have a short ride in the afternoon and after it if the time permits we visit the hot spring then we enjoy a traditional dinner and we talk about the activity to the next day with our tour guide.
Patapampa Highest point: 4910 meters /16.203 feet
Yanque height: 3550 meters – 11715 feet
Accommodation: Hotel – Yanque village
Meals: Lunch, Dinner snacks
Riding length: 18 km / 11.25 miles
Riding Time: 3 – 3.5 hours
7:00 am we have breakfast at the hotel then we go to the ranch to start this exiting ride, today we go on a long ride through the Colca valley on our friendly horses as well as with the Chalan and the Tour Guide we enjoy the scenery of the valley of fire its spectacular Chila Volcanic Range and its beautiful Mountais, pre-Inca terraces, colonial churches, pre Incas ruins, the Atun mayu, (colca river) villages (Ichupampa and Lari ) among others, all this on the right bank of the valley, the trail is mostly even with some uphill and downhill sections.
At around 12:00 pm after 4 hours of riding we arrive to Lari, where we will have an stop to rest and to get our snacks – box lunch later on we continue riding between the terraces, going down to the bottom of the Colca River to crossing it through a bridge and get the left side of the valley, then we ride uphill up to Pinchollo village (3400meters) where will stay in a basic accommodation, but in a nice green area surrounded by Dinner will be served around 7:00pm
Paso Lari : 3800 meters /12.540 feet
Pinchollo height: 3550 meters – 11715 feet
Accommodation: Home stay family Pinchollo village
Meals: breakfast, box lunch, dinner snacks
Riding length: 39 km / 24.37 miles
Riding Time: 5-6 hours
7:00am breakfast is served and after that we do the last part of this beautiful ride, we pick the horses up, then we go for 2 hours to the principal lookout point named Condor Cross (3600m), at this place we appreciate and observe the fly of king of the Andes, the Condor which sometimes is seating on the big rocks on the cliffs, we will be here for more than an hour looking the biggest flying bird in the world, also it is possible to see many villages at the deep part of the Colca canyon.
At this place it is time to say Thanks and good Bye to the Chalan and horses, they will go back home, then we have to return to Chivay, doing some tourist stops along the way, to visit a handicraft market, a local church, thermal baths to relax the muscles etc. later on, we have a delicious lunch in Chivay town, and after that we take our way back to Arequipa 3 hours later we will arrive to your hotel. End the service.
Condor cross: 3785 meters /12.490 feet
Meals: breakfast, buffet lunch, snacks
Riding length: 11 km / 6.87miles
Riding Time: 2 hours
thermal bath: Yanque Village
To drink coca tea during the day: Helps reduce the effect of altitude (avoid drinking it before going to sleep, as it could be a stimulant and you may not sleep well).
If you consider that you are not in good physical shape and want to be better acclimatized: You can ask for a tour that involves physical activity at high altitudes (trekking, mountain biking, camping, among others). Ask for more information and check our programs.
Wear appropriate clothing for trekking.
Inform us if you have setbacks or delays when arriving in Arequipa City.
Leave your heavy suitcase in Arequipa City, unless you are going to Puno City from the Colca Valley: (Ask for information about transfer to Puno City from the Colca Valley).
Inform us if you need equipment: (walking sticks, bag, boots, headlamp, among others).
Inform us if you have any health conditions.
Inform us if you have any dietary restrictions.
THE SUPERIOR SERVICE is Private and the tour will be exclusive.
THE STANDARD SERVICE shares a group with other participants.
The times quoted in this itinerary are approximate.
You will receive a basic course to ride Paso horses in the safety of our corral (beginners).
We strongly recommend taking the private VIP service and you will receive the support of the vehicle in case you don’t want to ride anymore.
Private VIP service is recommended because the program on the second and last day will be more flexible according to your request.
STANDARD SERVICE – BACKPACKER SERVICE joins a group of tourists; you will have limits to stop or to follow your request.
To participate in this tour we suggest having experience on long rides (5-6 hours).
The horses are great and well cared for, they are very quiet, peaceful, and friendly animals.
The price of the excursion does not include the cost for transfer through PAYPAL.
WEIGHT LIMITATION FOR RIDING
According the weight of our Peruvian Criollo horses the maximum weight they can carry is between 25% and 28% of their weight (400/540 kilogram or 882/992 Lbs) – So, the limit of weight will be 95 kilograms (210 pounds) as maximum weight for each participant – We recommend avoid to bring additional weight as big backpacks or other heavy things on this trip.
offers 3 types of services.
(shared service)
The entire tour will be shared by 10 or more people, the members of the group will be made up for people from different nationalities, languages, beliefs, ages, and gender, among others.
(semi private service
This service is consider semi private because we only shared the tourist van to get to the canyon, then the rest of the service is private exactly for those who do not wish to hike in big groups with people from other nationalities, so the hiking expedition will be exclusive only for your group so that you can fully enjoy this adventure
If you like to be out of the ordinary and regular excursions, let us know to send you our secrets trips.
Our group of experts is prepared to develop the trip on the way that you prefer, if there is any special activity that you want to do, contact us that we will kindly answer you.
We are experts in Mountaineering, Rafting, Mountain biking trekking in the deepest canyons in the world Colca and Cotahuasi, we also develop horseback riding, hiking, rock climbing, bird watching, and visits to the largest petroglyph deposit in the world, cave paintings or any other excursion that we can combine to create the best experience that you deserve.
We operate in Lima, Pisco, Paracas, Arequipa, Puno, Cusco Puerto Maldonado among others to obtain an immediate response from our travel agent, contact us at whatsapp number +51939394105 or write to our corporate emails:
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