... at the Colca ... Colca del Cañon

We left for our Cañon del Colca tour on a crappy old bus chock-full of people from Peru, Chile, the US, Canada, Belgium and of course Australia. After numerous hours driving and a few stops, we crossed over a head pounding 4800m mountain pass into the Canyon. Along the way we stopped to have a look at herds of Llamas, Alpacas and Vicuñas, had some cups of mate de coca (coca tea - good for altitude aclimatisation apparently), looked at some very impressive geological features of the landscape and pass by the ever present roadside roadside market selling what we can now see as the standard market fare.

Cath drinking Mate de Coca (coca tea)

We descended to 3600m in less than an hour with some spectacular scenery to Chivay where we would spend the night. After checking into our hotel we were back on the bus and out to the thermal pools for a nice warm dip and we gave eachother´s feet a well needed massage. Dinner was served in a local restaurant with traditional music and dancing - including the tourists! It took no time at all to be out of breath at this altitude.

Andy with folk dancing girl - Canyon Del Colca

The next day was a 5am start to get out to the Condor viewing area at a high vantage point in the Cañon. The half hour wait in the freezing cold wasn´t fun but we did get to see the town waking up and some spectacular views as the sun came into the valley around us. The cañon is 3191m deep and is second in the world only to another one close by. It was impossible to get any sort of perception of scale, we couldn´t figure out if things were a couple of hundred metres away, or kilometres. Unfortunately, you can´t capture that in photos either. In the picture of Cath with the cañon behind her there is a single lane bridge at the bottom of the cañon which is just tiny. The Condors took a while to show up and we only saw 10 in total but these birds are huge! They have a wingspan greater than 3m and a body to suit, but tiny little heads. At one stage everyone was watching one glide around out in the middle of the cañon when one did a fly-by close to the viewing area too quick for anyone to take a photo. All we could hear was people gasping and saying ¨cor blimey, look at that!¨ well, whatever that translates to in Spanish anyway.

Condor - Canyon Del Colca

Cath next to Canyon Del Colca - look for bridge in picture to see how big this place is!

Back on the bus and a few more roadside stops on the way home before arriving back in Arequipa. A day off today to soak in more around town and then a flight to Cuzco tomorrow morning.

Mountain Market Lady - Canyon Del Colca

Love to you all,
Andy & Cath.

... at the Colca ... Colca del Cañon

Chivay, Peru