Oasis Paraiso Ecolodge — Hotel in Cabanaconde

Right - I have no idea what the benchmark is for the Oasis and as no-one does Colca more than once, neither does anyone else!||||We were mildly pleasantly surprised here. The pool was nice, the beds were firm, it wasn't too noisy. The Wifi is surprisingly good but there are no electric power points to recharge phones in the rooms - you have to go to the bar. The food? Well a lot of the stuff comes down by mule so you get what you get. Another thing - everywhere eats at one sitting at 19:30. This isn't great because you need to wake up the next day at dawn to do the up leg before it gets hot. We ate what we had in our rucksacks and went to sleep early. Lunch was OK - edible but nothing special.. Breakfast was basic. There is no hot water and the shower is essentially a pipe in the wall: this is backpacker territory but it's not bad.||||Virtually everyone apart from me seemed to be under 30 btw. This was particularly noticeable to this 57 year-old while doing the 1100m of ascent the next day...||||We had a look around the other places - there are 5 apparently - they looked pretty similar, but this was the only one we could work out how to book 😊||||A few words about Colca. It's warm at the bottom - don't be fooled by the temperature in Cabanaconde and don't take warm clothes like I did! We met some Australians who were attempting to do both legs of the trip in a day - unless you start very early and are super fit, I'd be wary of assuming you can do this, especially as the up leg will be in the heat of the day. Do go the extra 100m down to the canyon itself,...

We enjoyed our stay with Luis and Kendri. The rooms were comfortable with beautiful views of the mountains and stars. There is quick access to get down to the river, where we all agreed was one of the most beautiful places we’ve ever seen. The stars are so bright at night. The pool is cleaned everyday. The owners have farm animals, dogs, and cats which are all well taken care of and was so nice to be around. We were completely at peace there.

The food was incredible with huge portions, healthy vegetable soup to start each course, we had chicken with pasta and cheese for dinner both nights, but with different recipes. For lunch Luis made us these delicious and huge omelettes with vegetables and rice. For breakfast we were served coffee and the best banana pancakes ever. Every meal came with an assortment of tea. Water and snacks are expensive, but they have to hike them down the mountain which is very difficult. I completely understood the price (10 soles for a liter of water)

When my friend crashed his drone on the other side of the river, Luis and kendri helped us get it back, even getting into the water to help us retrieve it. I don’t know what these other reviews are talking about with the hospitality being poor, I thought these guys were incredibly kind, helpful, and live such a beautiful life. I wanted to stay longer, but we had no money haha.

The Wi-Fi is okay but why do you need it in such a beautiful place? There is...

For the level of isolation and volume of sand-fly like creatures, you’d think they would at least sell some sort of repellant or baby oil (apparently works well to stop sand flys biting). My wife’s legs look like she’s been mauled, luckily my blood is not to their taste.

We had planned to stay two nights and chill out by the admittedly nice fresh water pool, but had to leave because the little creatures wouldn’t leave you alone.

We had a private room, basic but I found the bed comfy expensive considering prices throughout Peru, cheap considering the isolation. Shower was cold and there were no power sockets to charge devices etc. You can charge in the main dining area but that means a level of trust in people that many wouldn’t be comfortable with. This place is remote, but some basic flaws that could be easily remedied given that there is no escape apart from a 3.5-4 hr climb up the hill.

Go prepared and you’ll love the scenery (the hike is challenging but immensely rewarding and beautiful), I assume the sand-flys are sessional as there are no other mentions of them here, we went between Christmas...