Blogs from Colca Canyon, Arequipa, Peru, South America

http://www.heygo.com Coporaque Village The tiny village of Coporaque is a great way to take in the stunning region & enjoy glorious views of the distant volcanoes, including the active Sabancaya which spews ash into the sky, gorgeous terrace views, flowering cacti, and crumbling stone ruins. We walked through pastures, visited the church which was badly damaged in the 2016 earthquake. This is a small town located on the right side of the Colca River, in the Western part of Chivay (Capital of the Colca Canyon), it has 900 inhabitants, it is located at 3583 meters above sea level, most of the inhabitants they are still cultivating their land following the knowledge of their ancestors and they are still wearing their typical costums. The temple of Santiago Apóstol de Coporaque, is a Catholic construction, which is located ... read more

After the days spent in the dusty desert we were excited to arrive in the mountains. A long bus journey obviously but the scenery was amazing, seeing the nature changing from desert to mountains, passing through a wetland desert, llama and alpaca everywhere, water coming from the mountain give us the welcome to a new kind of strength of nature, small kind of pointy hairy bushes were everywhere, looking like the hair of puppets, are just desert bushes shaped by the wind. I was happy to see green grass and snowy peaks behind the hills. We were already at more than 3000 meters. Daria was already scared of the cold that was awaiting us outside the bus. When we arrived in Yanke at circa 3300 meters it was 6 o’clock and raining. We had a hotel ... read more

The Colca Canyon Trek is a trek that be done in 3 days and 2 night. -Arequipa to Cabanaconde: Take the bus (Bus Reina) from Arequipa to Cabanaconde. Spend the night in one Cabanaconde and then head out the next morning. I didn't do much in Cabanaconde. It was a perfect little town without much to entertained. I ate at a local eatery, that served simple everyday meals. Cabanaconde -Cabanaconde to Oasis: Head out the next morning to Oasis. You can stay one night in Oasis and then head back to Cabanaconde if you are short of time. The hike from Oasis to Cabanaconde... read more

Breakfast 630 depart 7. Basic breakfast bread butter a bit of ham and some plastic cheese. We drove a little over an hour to get to the condor viewing spot. On the way we drove through a village which and a few lookouts but were told we would stop on the way back. Before arriving at the view point we stopped on side of road for some pictures as a condor was eating a cow. Condors live off dead animals - they don't attack like eagles. The condors work with the foxes. Condors signal where the food is by flying in circles and the foxes come in to kill. The fox eats first and the condor scavenges off the left overs. However livestock in the area also fall over the edge of the mountains sometimes and ... read more

It was a bit of a struggle to get down to the hot springs, but I took my time and it was worth it. After larking about in the pools and switching back and forth between the hot and cold pools we got down to some good old fashioned home schooling in a hot spring pool. First up was maths: we did some times tables, addition, subtraction and we almost succeeded in explaining percentages to Hat. Then we did geography and geology, the canyon was perfect for showing things like erosion and how stalactites and stalactites form, finally we did some literacy in the form of 'what does this word me'. I'm not kidding when I say that the kids were all in and very enthusiastic. When asked, they said it was because it was an ... read more