Days 222 & 223 - Saturday 29th & Sunday 30th April 2006

After a few hours sleep I got up ready to go on the Colca Canyon trip with Aaron & Jon, but they were nowhere to be seen, having not returned from going out the previous evening. I was ready to go on my own and went to watch Man Utd Chelsea while waiting for my bus to pick me up. To my suprise Jon was already watching the game, having not bothered to go to bed he was also waiting for the bus.

Aaron on the other hand was AWOL. The football ended and our guide came to pick us up. When we told him Aaron wasn’t about he could not believe it and for a moment didn’t know what to do. We told him not to worry and then he was alright and we left. Thus we set off one man down. As we set out to base town, Chivay, about 4 hours away, the tiredness kicked in and I fell asleep. To be honest from what I saw the scenry was pretty bland so I didn’t feel guilty about missing it!

We arrived in Chivay where we would spend the night, were dropped off at our hotel and managed a bite to eat before we went to the local attraction, some hot pools. Our guide timed it just right and we arrived, bathed and were leaving just as the crowds arrived. By the time we arrived back in town it was dark and there was nothing much left to do but eat and get an early night.

Up at 6am it was again freezing and I began hankering for the beach! First of all thoughit was a trip to worlds deepest canyon, Colca Canyon. Actually it was recently discovered not to be the highest, that award goes to another canyon in the vicinity, but as there are no trips to that one I am going to call this the deepest.

As we made our way towards the canyon proper, we passed through the Colca Valley, an old Incan agricultural area with slopes cut into the entire valley. From rivers edge to way up the sides of the hills, the slopes have been carved into the hillsides. Still today crops are grown in this valley, although it is the Peruvian women who do the farming, as the men haved moved to the cities where pay is better, only returning at harvest time to lend a hand.

Once I reached the canyon at the Mirador Cruz del Condor the sheer scale of the crevace - twice as deep as the Grand Canyon - became apparent. Falling around 1200m, the river below looks merely a stream.

Floating around above our heads were the giant Condors, each with a wingspan of upto 2m, looking distinctly smaller due to the magnitude of the setting. We were apparently very lucky as we saw about 20 individual Condors that morning. We had spoken to people who had been on the trip and hadn’t seen any. Luck of the draw.

We walked along the top ridge of the canyon for a while and as we were doing so the sun broke through the clouds and haze and gave us some great photo opportunities. At one point a condor swooped down and flew directly over our heads. From such a close range the birds are absolutely huge. No wonder they cant fly on their own and rely on the thermals to take off and glide about. Graceful is definately the word I would use to describe them. After an hour or so I bought some food from the little market that was on the edge of the canyon.

From this point on it was a backtracking exercise to Arequipa, driving for about 5 hours, stopping only to look at another market. Not much more to report, we found Aaron sitting in front of the TV when we got back!