Blogs from Colca Canyon, Arequipa, Peru, South America - page 37

A 2 day journey across some of Peru's wildest terrain led to the Colca Canyon. Climbing to a height of 4900m, many alpaca's, llama's and their wild cousins, the vicunas were spotted grazing alongside the road. The Vicunas is protected and is the national animal. Much of the road was not sealed, making for a slow, bumpy ride. Day 1 saw us drop into Chivay for the night. It is the capital of the Colca Canyon region, and it just so happened that the 20th/21st is the day the region has it's annual celebration. The Peruvian's really know how to throw a party! The town plaza was closed to transport, a stage was set up with non-stop music and dancing, they dance in the streets dressed in costumes, food everywhere, bonfires lit on the street, and ... read more

Well it was yet another early morning when we were picked up by the mini-bus to take us to Colca Canyon. Somehow we managed to get placed into a French tour group (there seems to be a misconception amoungst Peruvians that all Canadians speak French) but the guide was very nice and gave us our own English translation on the side. Plus it was entertaining to practice our French. It was a long, bumpy 5 hour ride into the Canyon but fortunately we had a number of stops along the way to break it up. Our first stop was the Vicuna Sancuary. Vicunas are the smallest of the Camelidaes (which include Llamas and Alpacas) and are extremely cute! We were lucky enough to come across a small group of them fairly close to the highway although ... read more

Bus: Chivay to Arequipa Hotel: Sonesta Posada del Inca Arequipa (Arequipa, Peru) $41 An early rise this morning at 5 am for the 2 hr drive to the Cruz del Condor overlook. The scenery was just incredible that morning, the light was perfect on the villages and terraced slopes that we passed by. Along the way, our guide described many of the local plants the Incas used for food and medicine. Traditionally there were two tribes that lived in the Colca area; in pre-colonial times they used to bind their skulls differently so they could be easily identified. One tribe would bind their skulls into a cone shape, the others would shape theirs with a flat top like Frankenstein. The Spanish put a stop to this, so now the tribes have taken to wearing white or ... read more

The Trial of Colca began at 6am with a gruelling 6-hour bus journey with our guide to the town of Cabanaconde at the edge of the canyon. The journey went across the Altiplano (high plains) and peaked at about 4800m - the landscape is amazing, with hills and mountains and almost no vegetation higher than your knees. We had lunch and then began the descent of 1300m into the canyon itself. I was feeling a bit ill from something-or-other all the journey there and all the way down the canyon so didn't enjoy it as much as I could have done. At the bottom when I had to exert myself going uphill a bit the dodgyness of the tummy became a bit too much and I was sick a bit. Feeling rough, I went to bed ... read more