El Condor Peru

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Colca Canyon

We booked this tour through the tour desk at Inca Roots (Colonial tours, $23 US pp). Pick-up was half an hour early so we missed our breakfast. Two Swiss, two Serbs, four Peruvians and us two Kiwis.

One of the Peruvians was an off duty tour guide taking his two younger sisters (11 and 13) and an old school friend for the trip. We sat next to the two boys so got a lot of extra info as the trip proceeded. we could not recommend this tour Company more highly. The guide had an excellent understanding of all facets of the trip and his English was superb.

The first day alone seemed well worth the cost, traversing areas of Vicunas, Alpacas and Llamas along with some high altitude lakes with aquatic waterfowl. Much of the morning we travelled through spectacular volcanic landscapes. The exposures are enough to make any good geologist swoon and the trip would take twice the time if you stopped to photograph every new example. The highest point was 4,910 metres ASL and at this point there was a great view of the Andes. In this area the Inca had built stone piles as offerings to the Gods and the tradition continues to this day. Just before reaching the summit were some superb examples of balancing rocks caused by wind erosion (rainfall is almost nil in this area).

We had purchased some coca sweets earlier and also had coca tea at a rest stop as well as chewing coca leaves on the way up so we were not too affected by the altitude. Although it must be said that if you moved too fast then it felt like you had to wait a second or two before your brain caught up with your body.

We lunched at Chivay before heading off to a village where we hiked up to some Pre-Inca ruins after which we headed off for a swim in the hot pools. Dinner that night featured a local folk group but we just had a pizza between us and headed off early to bed.

Up at 0530 for an early breakfast and then we headed off for Colca Canyon to see the condors. There was plenty of time for sightseeing along the way as the updrafts would not be strong enough until around 0830. Again there were spectacular volcanic exposures all through the canyon with many contact exposures. The mountains showed a number of ash bands and also exposed were thick sheets of loess.

We arrived at Condor Point with about ten minutes to spare and found good positions at the lower level. We were soon rewarded with the appearance of three Condors but they soon settled down again as the still wasn´t sufficient uplift.

It was initially very difficult to get good shots of the birds due to the time lag in digital cameras but we soon had ten birds circling us and everyone got good photos and video. In all we saw 27 Condors and fortunately for the late arrivals the last two birds put on the best show with low slow circles over the crowd.

We had time for a quick check of the local market at Chivay (where I managed to get a small club hammer there´s nothing like looking at freshly broken rock) before heading back off to Arequipa.

We stayed overnight again at the Inca Roots Hostel where they still had Jill´s sunglasses and sleepsheet that she had left behind in the hurry to catch the bus. We met four people as we were leaving and had no hesitation in recommending Inca Roots to them.

We caught the overnight bus (Sur De Sol again) to Cusco where the count down to Machu Pichu would begin.

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Photos

At top of pass heading to Chivay
4,910m!!!!! and still standing