Well folks, I just updated my last article, so you might want to check out the latest things there as well – at least so much as to what happenend until and in Arequipa.
This feature will be about our short two-day trip to the Colca canyon (said to be the second deepest in the world) and the flight of the condor.
Happy reading and mucho diversion ! 🙂
Two-day trip to Colca Canyon
The following two days were dedicated to a trip into the „highlands“. Believe me my friends, the word „highlands“ describes it fully and takes the expression to another dimension than I had known so far.
Leaving Arequpia and travelling the planes
We left Arequipa in the morning, again being the only three people with a guide and a driver. I just can’t tell you how comfortable it is to travel this way ! This time it was a nice 7-seater Hyunday minivan, so we still had enough space for all of us.
Leaving Arequipa which more or less lies in a still desert environment, we climbed up the curvy roads around the Chanchani volcano to find ourselves again at the beginning highlands. Endless stretches of countryside with just very low vegetation (scarce grass), one long straight road and soon our first alpacas (small Llamas). And all this at an altitude of around 4.300 metres above sealevel. Can somebody please find out in the meantime, which of our mountains in the Alps are that high? It is just amazing to see there IS still vegetation and wildlife up here, and in the far you see mountains and (still other) volcanoes! Breathtaking!
And we realised that Peruvians are really entrepreneurs! In the midst of nowhere (no house, no hut, no bus stop, nothing) there is a bump in the road – and beside the bump a single guy selling the daily newspapers! I don’t fancy working as a newspaper salesperson in Vienna, but compared to this position here I have the feeling, our folks back home are really well off !!
Climbing the mountains
After some time on the highland, the street began again to climb up the mountains. But before we continued it was time to prepare for the altitude! So we had a short break at a truckstop and had some fresh tea. COCA TEA!!! Yes, the same stuff that can be used to produce other (not that nice) things as well. In fact, the tea tastes very well. I can’t say whether it really helps, at least our guide recommended it to us and you get (free) coca tea in nearly all the hotels here, at least in the highlands.
Thus prepared for what was to come we continued our trip, äh, journey on a curvy road taking us to the breathtaking peak with an amazing view. Take the word „breathtaking literally“! When we got out of the car to take our pictures, we were standing on grounds some 5.000 meters high! I couldn’t believe it really was kind of exhausting just to walk quickly! Ricardo, our guide warned us, not to run but to go slowly – now we knew why. Wow, what an experience! Knowingly I have never been that high before (no, not for the coca tea!) except in airplanes.
But the surprises still kept coming! When the part of the Andes we had travelled so far were still kind of desert-like, the landscape now began to change into more and more green. The ranges here really divide the country into different climate and vegetation zones!
Descending into Colca Valley
Our descent then took us into the Colca valley, part of which is the famous canyon. And I just can’t tell you, how green this valley is! You see terraced fields all over the place, sometimes interrupted by small groups of trees. Not a single place that looks dry or deserted! Rice fields, corn, other stuff. And keep in mind that Chivay, our destination for this excursion and main „pueblo“, at the grounds of the valley is still at some 4.300 metres high! As to my knowledge our farmers in Austria don’t farm for crops too much at that altitude.
They even have a thermal bath here! Initially we wanted to visit it, but Ricardo, our guide, warned us that there is a risk of taking home some fungus, especially now at the easter weekend when a lot of tourists AND Peruvians are travelling around. So we dedicated the afternoon after a short siesta in the hotel (being individual cabins with 2 rooms each!) to a short walk around the village (done in 45 minutes given our slow pace and the shopping) and drinking some coffee at a small spot at the ubiquitous „Plaza de Armas“ (taking us longer than the walk). The evening then was dedicated to playing Monopoly in the hotel . That was quite interesting,
- first because they had games at all (they probably knew there is not that much too see in the village)
- and second because it was a spanish version, so we kept on learning spanish while playing.
It took us three hours to play just one round until we came to an end where we were just moving money around for rents, tax payments and various other reasons. And since we were sitting at the bar, we could enjoy the music and dance performance included in the optional dinner (11.- USD!) next room in the restaurant for free 😉
Finally at 9 PM (!) we were so tired that we went to sleep. Since we had to get up very early the next day again, we liked the concept anyway.
The condor is flying!
Second day in the Colca valley was dedicated for the search of the condors! We left the hotel around 6.30 (checkout, breakfast, etc. was all before that), since it took about 2 hrs anyway to get to „Cruz de Condores“, a viewpoint about 4.700 metres high.
Other tourists were already waiting and since it was already bright day, I already feared we would miss the condors. But having arrived at the place and looking down the canyon (about 1.1 km deep at this spot and some 3.000 metres further down the river) Ricardo explained the following to us: The condors would only start to fly when the sun reaches the canyon grounds. Because only then the thermic upstreams set in which those giant birds need to fly. With wingspans of up to 4 metres quite understandable. So we kept waiting there, watching four eagles in the meantime that were already looking for prey and elegantly flying around.
And then, suddenly, the first black bird with white wings! An adult condor, just on the left side and a little bit below us. Soon a second one and then a third one, brown, a young fellow! That moment was magic! From there on they kept on flying their circles in the air or just „surfing“ along the cliff side, climbing higher and higher! And then, suddenly, one of them went down to sit on a rock just below the main viewpoint! Gosh, what a moment! It must have taken years to teach the birds to do that! We sat there for maybe an hour just watching the eagles and the condors before it was time to say goodbye again.
On the way back, we visited a few small villages before returning to Arequipa, but the flight of the condors was definitely the day’s highlight!
This is it for today. The next report will presumably cover one more night in Arequipa, Puno and Lake Titicaca and probably Cusco. So stay tuned…