During the Salkantay trek I'd met a fellow brit called Steve who was heading the same way as me after Cusco. A new travelling buddy!! We headed from Cusco to Arequipa together on a night bus. Arequipa is the base for trips to the Colca Canyon. At 4160m the canyon is more than twice as deep as the grand canyon in the USA (although its walls arent as vertical). We went on a 2 day trekking tour of the canyon which basically was a long trek down to the bottom of the canyon and then the following day a long trek back up again. On the drive there we got the opportunity to stop and watch condors soaring on the thermals above the canyon - they were HUGE!! It took a few hours to trek down to the bottom of the canyon where we stayed at 'The Oasis' - a very small settlement that has half-a-dozen hostels, each with their own spa pool. With no electricity we ate dinner by candlelight and afterwards we were soon in bed as it got very cold after sunset. 
Next morning we started the hike up the wall of the canyon at 5:30am in the dark, before the suns heat would have made it a lot harder. It was another tough climb taking us 2.5hrs to ascend the 6K zig-zag path, rising 1100m in altitude.On the journey back we were chatting away when i heard a thump and one of the girls on the bus yelped. I looked out the back window and saw a horseman looking at his helpless dog (well i assume it was his dog) who was trying to stand but his back legs weren't working. Our minibus had just run over the dog. Our driver hadn't made any attempt to swerve to miss the dog, nor did he seem at all affected afterwards and just drove on. It made me feel sick but I guess people in this part of the world don't have the same affinity to dogs to what I am used to back home.
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