The worst one day tour to Colca Canyon

by Lisa Cooper

Finland

COLONIAL TOURS AREQUIPA

The other day I had the opportunity of taking a one-day tour with Colonial Tours wich is much recommended by Trip Advisor . We were picked up at 03:00 am in the morning for a one day tour to the Colca Canyon. The van was OK and the driver too. But the tour guide is the reason of this article.

The tour guide we had was a complete disaster and the English he spoke was really bad and we didn´t understand anything of the things he said.

How can be Colonial Tours be recommended by Trip Advisor? Colonial Tours service is terrible. The guide was not a professional guide because a professional guide introduces himself at the beginning of the tour. After that he should give a briefing of the tour and that never happened.
Hopefully we didn´t took the two day tour to the Colca Canyon. Two days with the same guide would have been terrible.

When we arrive to Chivay we were taken to a restaurant to have breakfast and then we continued with the tour.

He started to talk about the terraces in Colca Valley and he said that terraces “were carved” on the walls of the Colca Valley! Carved? Oh my God! Where did he study to be a tour guide? Then he continue talking about the wonderful terraces in Cusco area and how they were built. I don´t know if he realized that we were in Colca Valley and we wanted to know more about the place. His way of speaking English made me thought in some moments that he was drunk!

Then he stopped explaining and he started saying that he was a shaman and that he was not married. Those were the most dumb comments we ever heard during the tour.Another tour guide playing the inca game to call attention of the gringos.

We met other tour guides who were explaining their groups about the people, about their culture and traditions,etc and the one we had just spoke about the terraces of Cusco area and lots of nonsense about the condors. Does a condor live 80 years?

I don´t plan to recommend Colonial Tours in Arequipa because the service given was very low quality. I came to Peru because my main interest was to know more about the inca and preinca Peruvian cultures. Colca Valley and Colca Canyon are very interesting, but because of that terrible tour guide I feel that my holidays in Colca Canyon were just a waste of time.

I would like to thank the Colca Specialist for the wonderful free information published about Colca Valley and Colca Canyon and the next time if I come back to Colca Canyon I am planning to print the information in order to have a good cultural background of Colca Canyon.

Lisa Cooper
Finland.