Saturday, October 11, 2008

23rd September - Colca Canyon Day One

The bus for this trip left, as usual, from the Plaza de Armas at around 8:15am. The bus was just about full of contained a range of different nationalities including 5 Dutch females, a German couple, a French couple, a French-Canadian couple from Montreal, a Peruvian family of six and a guy from North Wales. We then made our way through the district of Yanahuara before stopping briefly in Cerro Colorado district in order to see the nice view of both the Chachani and El Misti volcanos with the farm land of Arequipa laid out before them. We also stopped at a small shop in order to buy provisions for the trip and to use the toilet as the next toilet would not be for another one and a half hours.

We then passed the airport and the NW district of Cono Norte which is built directly beneath Chachani volcano. The last part of the district before leaving the city of Arequipa is named Ciudad de Dios (City of God) and is a very poor shanty-like town which lacks many basic services and is home to around 4000 people. There are many charities and religious organizations trying to help out in this area.

Once we had left the city the bus took the main road which runs NW from Arequipa to the small town of Yura about 28kms away. Yura is home to a large cement factory and the town supplies many of its workers. There are also some hot springs nearby which we hope to visit later.
The road then turned NE and wound its way up the side of Chachani until it reached the Pampa Cañahuas on the northern side of the volcano. The road traffic comprised mainly of large trucks and buses with hardly any private cars to be seen. Some of these trucks and buses were in quite a bad state of repair and found it quite difficult to make their way up the steep road and we had to overtake on numerous occasions which is always slightly nerve-wrecking on the tight bends with sheer drops on one side.

The railway, which once carried passengers from Arequipa to Puno but now only carries freight, ran alongside the road for much of the way but the only train we saw on it was a very small railcar which carried workers who were busy cleaning the track. This area of land is called Pampa Cañahuas and is home to many thousands of vicuñas as well as other camelids such as llamas and alpacas. There were also spectacular views of the many volcanos of the region, the familiar El Misti (5822m high), Chachani (6075m) and Pichu Pichu (5650m) but also in the distance Ampato (6310m) and Ubinas (5670m, which last erupted as recently as 2006)
Shortly after we passed the tiny village of Cañahuas and the junction between the road to Chivay and the road which ran to Puno and then on to Cusco we had to pass through a control point where a road toll had to be paid according to how many wheels a vehicle has from 7.80 sols for a 2-wheeled vehicle up to 27.10 sols for a 7-wheeled one. Military vehicles only have to pay 3.90 sols. Once we had passed through this control point we reached our first stop at Patahuasi village famous for its rock formations which are known as the Stone Forest. Just outside the village were a few small buildings containing toilets, a cafe and a market which was full of local women selling their woollen wares. A number of sheep and alpacas of various sizes and colours were also wandering around.

The rock formations, on the side of the mountain which rose above to the north were in various shapes such as cones, pyramids and even a large frog! After a short rest of around 20 minutes during which Luz bought a scarf and we had a very hurried cup of coca tea and a egg, cheese and ham sandwich we continued north along the now un-tarmaced road which meant the journey became very bumpy from then on.

We were now driving through the northern part of the Reserva Nacional de Salinas y Aguada Blanca which contained many small lakes, salt flats and many thousands of camelids. We stopped twice here in order to see alpacas and llamas grazing in the wetland just off the road. Our very informative and charming guide (whose name I didn´t catch) told us all about the the various camelids, how they lived, what they ate and how to tell the difference between them. To cut a long explanation short the basic differences are that the llama is the tallest species at up to 6 feet with long legs and ears, alpacas (which come in up to 52 different colours) are a maximum of 5 feet with shorter legs and ears whereas the vicuñas and guanaco (which don´t live in this part of Peru) reach a height of 4 feet and have much shorter hair than the other two. Vicuña fur is by far the most valuable though, producing a very fine silk-like cloth which can cost very high amounts of money to buy (a full coat made of out vicuña fur can cost as much as $20000!). Next in quality is the guanaco, followed by the alpaca (especially the baby alpaca) and lastly the llama whose wool is actually quite course.

OK, enough with the lecture, back to the trip. After leaving the various camelids behind we started to climb higher and higher up a winding, and very bumpy, mountain road passing large lumps of ice and unusual rock formations. Eventually we reached the highest point of the trip between Arequipa and Chivay at Patapampa which is around 4800m above sea-level. This point is also known as the Mirador de los Volcanes (Viewpoint of the volcanos) due to it´s great views of Ampato (6310m high), Sabancaya (5976m) and Hualca-Hualca (6025m). At various points along the road I had spotted small cairns of rocks which had been placed on top of each other. Here at Patapampa there were many of them. They are made to give honour to the mountain gods or Apus which were once worshiped by the Incas and still are venerated today by the members of the Quechua speaking group of Peru. They also represent the sins of the faithful travellers who have passed this way.

After we had left Patapampa we travelled only a short distance before reaching the edge of the Cordillera de Ampato mountain range through which we had just passed. Far below us the green Colca Valley opened out and in the middle of it was the small town of Chivay to which we were heading. But first we had to make our way down the side of the mountain along a very steep and winding road with many tight bends and alarming drops of many hundreds of feet which were very close to the wheels of the bus at some points.

After a hair-raising 15 minutes or so we finally reached the valley bottom and not long afterwards the town of Chivay at around 1:30pm, capital of the Caylloma province and our resting place for the night. But first we had to buy a boleto turistico (tourist ticket) which helps to pay for the administration and upkeep of many of the tourist destinations in the Colca Valley and Canyon (although we were only visiting a few of them). The cost was 35 sols for me as a foreigner but Luz, at a Peruvian national, got hers for half-price.

Our first stop in Chivay was at the Urinsaya restaurant where an all you can eat type buffet of various types of local food were available. Neither Luz nor myself fancied this as we weren´t that hungry and were already quite familar (Luz especially so) with Peruvian food so we ended up having a hamburger instead.

We were then taken to our hotel for the night, in our case La Estancia del Colca, about 1o minutes walk from the main Plaza de Armas. It was nothing special but had a double bed and a small bathroom with a shower so it was perfectly adequate. However, we were located right on the main foyer and directly underneath the stairs so it could probably get quite noisy.

Our group had arranged to meet at 3pm in the main square, with the Nuestra Senora De La Asuncion church on its eastern side which frames a cross carved into the mountain side above, to begin the one hour walk to the La Calera hot springs. The Peruvian family opted out of his excursion and it was just about the last we saw of them for the rest of the trip. But not the last we heard of them.

The walk to La Calera took us north from Chivay through the very pretty valley of the Rio Colca with terraces up on the mountainside above us and small farmhouses alongside the road. In the cliffs on the opposite side of the river small caves could be seen which may have acted as tombs for some of the pre-Inca tribes that lived in the valley many hundreds of years ago. Just before we reached the hot springs we saw a series of young cacti growing next to the river. In order to protect them from being eaten by animals they were surrounded by a small wall made from rocks and covered with fully grown cacti with hardened spikes that would prevent any animals from removing them.

Not long afterwards we reached the La Calera complex which contained 6 pools of various sizes and temperatures. The source water, which contains high amounts of calcium, zinc and iron as well as several salts, enters the complex at a temperature of around 85°C but it is cooled down to around 38°C before being used in the pools. This was the temperature of the pool we used, number 5, and once we had changed into our swimming costumes and entered the pool we found that it was very hot and quite unbearable at first. But after a few minutes we had become more accustomed to the temperature and the pool was very soothing to our aching joints and muscles. It was also possible to order refreshing drinks and snacks from the small cafe next to the pool and all-in-all it was very relaxing and enjoyable. The 85°C water source which we had seen when we first entered the complex smelt strongly of sulphur (or rotten eggs if you prefer) but the water in the pool had no noticable smell at all although, according to Luz who managed to swallow a large mouthful, it didn´t taste particularly nice.

We spent around one and a half hours in the pool and then a further 15 minutes or so sat near the small cafe where we talked to a few of our fellow group members. By that time it was around 6pm and we took the short bus trip back to Chivay in the dark.

After a quick rest and wash in our hotel we made our way back to the main square to meet up with those of us who were to eat at the El Nido restaurant where local music and dancing would also be performed. The Dutch members of the group had decided to visit a different restaurant instead and the Peruvian family were still missing so there were only about 10 of us from our group in the restaurant but the presence of a few other tour groups meant that the small restaurant was just about full. Both of us choose the alpaca steak which was very tender and very tasty and we washed it down with a few bottles of Cusqueña Negra beer which tastes quite like a sweeter, maltier version of Guinness. This was followed by a slice of chocolate and vanilla cake.

Now came the time for the entertainment. A local band appeared on the stage to play a selection of Peruvian songs, including the ubiquitous El Condor Pasa. Then a young couple dressed in local costume appeared to dance the Wititi dance which originates from the Colca region. It is a dance of love with much swaying and swinging of skirts. A few other dances from the region were also shown ending with one which told a story where the guy accidently eats a poisoned apple and faints (with much comic twitching for effects) whereupon the girl starts to whip him with her belt and then sats on his chest and wafts her skirt in his face to wake him up again. It´s then the girl´s turn to eat the apple, faint and be woken up by the guy whipping her (a bit gentler than what she did to him) with his belt.

This dance was then repeated a few times with audience participation when various males and females plucked from the onlookers to take part. The girl was gradually making her way over towards our table so the guy from North Wales disappeared to the toilet so as not to be chosen. I was not so lucky and was asked to join her for the dance. It wasn´t too difficult though, just a couple of twirls (one from me, one from her) and than I had to lie on the floor, be whipped a few times and then have her sit on my chest and waft her skirt in my face. Easy!

Once we left the restaurant it was around 9:30pm and as we had to get up at 5am the next morning for our trip to the Colca Canyon we decided to just head back to our hotel for an early night.