Friday, October 10, 2008

24th September - Colca Canyon Day Two

When I left you we had just had an early night due to our early start this morning in order to visit the Colca Canyon. You may remember the Peruvian family who were part of our group which had travelled from Arequipa but had gone missing in action once we arrived in Chivay.

Well, they turned up at 3:30 this morning after we heard them arriving from one of the local discotheques. I have no idea where the two children that were with them during this time though.

We had both slept pretty well up to this point and the night-time temperature was luckily not as low as had been predicted (up to minus 15) but it was still pretty cold and we had to sleep in our clothes and with the very heavy, very thick woollen blankets which the bed came with.

After our rude awakening it was only another 2 hours or so until we had to be up but we managed to grab a few more hours of sleep before finally getting up. We then had a small breakfast of toast with jam, coffee and fruit juice before piling back onto the tour bus to began our drive through the Colca Valley and Colca Canyon.

We climbed slowly up the cliffs that run alongside the valley and soon it could be seen spreading out below us with its patchwork-like landscape covered in terracing. Some of this terracing dates from before the time of the Incas when tribes such as the Wari and later the Quechua speaking Cabanas and the Aymara speaking Collaguas who still make their home in the valley to this day.

Moving along the side of the valley we passed through the tiny villages of Yanque and Achoma whilst down in the valley other villages such as Coporaque, said to be where Mama Yacchi - wife of the Inca Emperor Mayta Capac (who gave the name to Arequipa you may remember) came from, and Lari (home to the largest church in the valley) could be seen. We also stopped briefly at a nearby mirador (viewpoint) to see the landscape better. Here were also a number of local women selling their wares as well as a few young girls in local costume with their baby alpacas.
We gave them a few coins so that we could take their photos and when we asked what they would spend the money on they replied that they would buy sweets and give the rest to their mother.

By now the road was becoming very rough and wound its way along the edge of the valley which produced some breath-taking (but pretty nerve-wracking) views. Twice we had to pass through tunnels that had been hewn out of the mountain-side and the first one was particularly impressive, being almost half a kilometre in length. The inside of the tunnel was full of dust that had been thrown up by the vehicles passing through it and it was pretty difficult to see anything, even with the buses headlights on full beam.

We also stopped briefly in the village of Maca, roughly halfway between Chivay and the Cruz del Condor. Maca suffered a devastating earthquake in 1991 (as a result of the eruption of the nearby Sabancaya volcano) which killed around 20 people and flattened almost all of the buildings in the village, including most of the Santa Ana church. The church has now been fully restored, as has the rest of the village this time using building techniques thought to be more resistant to earthquakes.

The final village we passed through before reaching the Cruz del Condor was Pinchollo, with its San Sebastian church and eventually, after a drive of around 2 hours, we finally reached our destination, the Cruz del Condor. This spot, which is around 3300m above sea-level, gives stunning views of the Colca Canyon (the floor of which is 1200m below at this point) and its largest inhabitants, the Andean Condor. There is some dispute over exactly which canyon is the worlds deepest, this one or the nearby Cotahuasi Canyon. The deepest part of the Colca Canyon is thought to be around 3400m whilst for the Cotahuasi Canyon it is around 3500m but both of these figures are open to interpretation due to arguments over the exact measuring points that must be used.

What is certainly not in dispute is the sheer beauty of the views (2) (3) or the giant birds that inhabit the canyon. The Andean Condor is a huge bird (with wingspans up to 10ft) and to see one in full flight (2), soaring on the warm thermals that rise up from the canyon floor far below, is one of the most impressive sights you will ever see.

One also perched (2) (3) up on a rock just below the cross which gives the Cruz del Condor its
name. We were located at the lower viewing point and so I had to run back up to the higher one before it flew away. I managed it but needed about 10 minutes to recover from the run at this altitude! By now there were about 3 of them flying about and they often passed very close (2) to where we were standing. However, after an hour or so the condors disappeared and so we then went on a walk of a couple of kilometers along the edge of the canyon which gave more impressive views (2) (3) whilst listening to our very knowledgeable guide give us lots of information about the canyon and the condors.

Afterwards it was time to return to Chivay for lunch but we stopped a couple of times on the way back for more views of the Colca Valley (2) (3) (4) (it was easier to see down into the valley now as the sun had fully risen, unlike our outward journey when the low sun and heavy shadows meant that it was quite difficult to get good views) and to buy fruit or souvenirs from the local women who were still sat patiently at various viewpoints along the valley.

The rest of the journey to Chivay passed without further incident and we arrived back there at around 1:30pm for lunch. We actually missed this due to a misunderstanding and instead had a look around the town. But we once again stopped at the small cafe at Patahuasi where we were able to buy some sandwiches. So thankfully we weren´t too hungry when we arrived back in Arequipa at around 5:30pm.