Colca canyon

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After visiting Machu Picchu, we flew to Arequipa, the second biggest city in Peru (after Lima). We arrived at night, so couldn't really look around, but it had a big city feel straight away, with massive shopping malls and fast food chains.

Early the next day, we took a bus into the Colca Canyon. It was a bumpy ride, but we were rewarded with a beautiful hotel with an excellent buffet dinner, and could relax at hot pools in the next town.

The morning after, we got up at 5am so we could make it nice and early to the Condor Cross, the place along the Canyon where we were most likely to see condors. We sat there for about two hours, and the only condors we saw were in the distance. It was hard to believe that the birds have a 3m wingspan and a height of 90cm.

It was rather disappointing, but at least I got to try cactus fruit by the roadside (looks like kiwifruit inside, but with seeds everywhere, and it was really sour), and the scenery was beautiful. Tourist watching is definitely more interesting than bird watching and I admire the patience of any bird watchers out there.

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