Colca Canyon

We made a whistle stop tour of the Colca Canyon, as time was running out in South America. The main reason for the visit was to see the condors. Unfortunately, in wet season, it was unlikely that we would get up close to them, but we wanted to try anyway. Whilst it was nice to see the towns along the way, it would have been better to get straight to the canyon and to spend longer there. Our tour didn't include any trekking in the bottom of the canyon, which perhaps was a mistake. We were fortunate however to see the floor of the canyon from the viewpoints up above (something tour groups a couple of days earlier didn't manage due to the fog). On the second day, we saw what we came for (albeit for a very brief moment and quite far away) - the condors made an appearance! The highlight however, was the buzzard eagle that darted past our heads in search of a catch. The lowlight was the incessant voice (amplified by a microphone in an 18 capacity van) of the guide. We got told invaluable snippets of information, such as how the Gloria milk company had recently acquired the concrete factory - how we giggled at concrete flavoured milk.....

The Colca Canyon. You can just make out the Rio Colca, if you look hard enough.

The Colca Valley.

This rodent is related to the Chinchilla, but we forget the name. The locals are known to feed them banana skins which immobilise the poor little things due to indigeston, they are then easier to pick up for the pot!

This plant called the Yareta grows only 1mm a year and, because of it's compactedness, is rock hard to touch. We reckon due to the size of this one it could be at least a few hundred years old.

Agriculture in the Colca Valley. Mainly potato's, the Peruivans grow around 3000 different types!

The Condor.