06.07 El Cañon del Colca
The Colca Canyon
The bus picked us up at 2am. At 5.45 am, we were having breakfast in the capital of the Colca region – Chivay. It can best be described as a very small tiny town… more like a village. There, I saw the sun rising over a mountain. Splendid!
After breakfast we went to two small villages that have been repeatedly destroyed by volcano eruptions and then reconstructed. The last eruption was in 1991. There, the locals, dressed in their traditional dress, awaited us, the tourists, to sell a few souvenirs and do a small Peruvian dance in the village square.
And on we went to the canyon. Our guide told us it was the deepest canyon in the world. The Lonely Planet states that it is the second deepest, falling short by 160 meters to a neighboring canyon. The things that impressed me most were the terraces on the mountains, which are supposed to be a pre-Inca creation.
Once we reached our highest point of the canyon, we all awaited the flight of the Condor. When it spreads its wings, the condor can measure up to 3 meters. As I looked at some of them from afar, I told myself these look like any other bird. But we were later surprised by a Condor who flew right above us, and yes, this bird is pretty huge!
The Colca Canyon deserves more than a day’s guided trip. It deserves a trek and an overnight stay. To be surrounded by mountains and take in what they have to offer. But I was short on time and money, and so, this had to do for me. Absolutely worth it! Beautiful, large and calm….
The bus picked us up at 2am. At 5.45 am, we were having breakfast in the capital of the Colca region – Chivay. It can best be described as a very small tiny town… more like a village. There, I saw the sun rising over a mountain. Splendid!
After breakfast we went to two small villages that have been repeatedly destroyed by volcano eruptions and then reconstructed. The last eruption was in 1991. There, the locals, dressed in their traditional dress, awaited us, the tourists, to sell a few souvenirs and do a small Peruvian dance in the village square.
And on we went to the canyon. Our guide told us it was the deepest canyon in the world. The Lonely Planet states that it is the second deepest, falling short by 160 meters to a neighboring canyon. The things that impressed me most were the terraces on the mountains, which are supposed to be a pre-Inca creation.
Once we reached our highest point of the canyon, we all awaited the flight of the Condor. When it spreads its wings, the condor can measure up to 3 meters. As I looked at some of them from afar, I told myself these look like any other bird. But we were later surprised by a Condor who flew right above us, and yes, this bird is pretty huge!
The Colca Canyon deserves more than a day’s guided trip. It deserves a trek and an overnight stay. To be surrounded by mountains and take in what they have to offer. But I was short on time and money, and so, this had to do for me. Absolutely worth it! Beautiful, large and calm….
posted by manu at 9:19 AM
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