Trip with Walter to the Colca Canyon

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After getting back to Arequipa, Laurence and myself chilled out for a couple of days before heading off to the Colca Canyon with Ysabel’s father Walter. Unfortunately during this “chill out” period Laurence become a little bit ill and by the time we reached the Colca was looking rather pale indeed. It was ok though as I reassured Walter that Laurence was not going to die and everything would be fine. It was a really fascinating trip where we saw Walter’s family’s land and searched out the hidden treasures of the Colca. Unfortunately Laurence didn’t see any of this and saw most of the Colca through the hood of his sleeping bag (it was handy though as he could always guard the car). Walter is a really lovely man and I think he quite enjoyed looking at some of the sights that he had never seen before and some that he had quite a few years ago but had been recently excavated. I had been to the Colca just after I arrived in Peru at the end of the rainy season and the canyon was quite lush and green but now most of the area is quite a lot dryer and hotter at midday but this didn’t detracted from its beauty. After seeing the impressive ruins around Cusco such as Pisac it was nice to be somewhere where there was not one big ruin attraction, instead it was the shear mass of terraces that is incredibly impressive. The whole canyon more or less is terraced. Its fantastic. Its funny though as in Arequipa I’ve met a couple of people who were slightly let down by the Colca, for one strange reason really. They said they were expecting it to be like the Grand Canyon, which is extremely dramatic. I think the main reason for this is that on the back of every guidebook it always says “Colca Canyon, Twice as deep as the grand Canyon” and people think it is going to be the same but bigger, which of course is not at all what it is like. It is more like a giant valley with canyon sections. One of the best things we saw was the festival “cleaning the irrigation channels” where a town gets together, splits into work groups of ten, arms themselves with good quality spades, sun hats and some flaming torches and sets about cleaning the irrigation channels in the fields. Each group was made up of mostly young men and boys and an elder to direct and tell them when to move on. It looked hard work but not too bad. We also witness a regular meeting in the communities called an “Asamblea” where everyone in a village meets in the square and discusses village matters. It was not heated or anything but looked quite intense.

Laurence left on the plane this morning, the only other occasion (apart from when he arrived) when I have seen him don his suave hat and brown jacket. He looked a picture of Britishness as he waved good by and fumbled his way through security. I think he is most certainly destined for a long happy life in Canada with his canoe. We exchanged a couple of books before he left. I gave him a copy of “In Kayak through Peru” published in 1970 and he gave me his unused “Learn Spanish in three months”.

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Photos

A clearly domesticated Llama
This was part of a series of carvings that are thought to be 7000 years old.

"one for me and one for the girl".
When passing through a small village we stopped in the local shop. Walter told the guy behind the counter "one for me and one for the girl".The man delved into a sack and two large rounds of cheese were placed on the counter. Its quite good cheese and i am working my way through it.

Laurence looking pale.
"Don´t worry I don´t think he will die"

Model irrigation.
A plan for inca irrigation system. Walter is on the right. The man on the left was our guide and owned the land. The model system appears to correspond to the hill opposite.

Frosty morning
View in the morning from Walter's house.

Comments

[Michelle]

Been there, done that ...
Hey Cat! Isn´t the Colca Canyon an amazing place? I loved it and when I look at my pics now, I definitely wanna go back one day. But I´m still stuck in Argentina (who the h*** had the idea to study Spanish for 18 weeks???), but get used to it day by day. Wishing you all the best for your ongoing trip and if you ever make your way to Buenos Aires ... I will be there Jan.-Mar 2007! Take care! Michelle