Colca Canyon 5&6 Feb

Fri 5th February Leaving Tristan to have a teenage style lie-in, Celso and I set off to send a package to the UK with our latest purchases and to find a place to buy the Peruvian car insurance. We spent over an hour sealing up the package and filling out the various forms at the post office. The most crazy thing is that you have to attach a copy of your passport to the outside of the package in order for it to get through customs.... talk about easy identity theft! Not too far from the post office we found a place to buy our car insurance, it is called SOAT and covers anybody in the car's medical expenses in case of an accident. We had to buy a years worth of cover as they don't sell it by the month but it was only about £40 so it wasn't too much of a hardship. By 11am we were packed up and, after our hotel owner had wiped down our car - he insisted, we were on our way to Chivay at the start of the Colca Canyon. The drive involved going up and up over the mountains inbetween at least 5 different volcanoes, up to over 4000m, it must have been as we went down and down the other side into Chivay and that is at 3400m. The drive took us through the Salinas-Aguada Blanca National park where we saw Vicunas (a wild relative of the llama that is a little smaller and skinnier than the llama and doesn't appear to have as thick wool). Apparently flamingoes flock there at this time of the year too but we didn't see any of those. The park has loads of streams and wetlands that are such a contrast to the desert we have been driving through; and it was cold - very cold, it was great! Dotted through the park there are small thatched homesteads with stone walling and adobe, there are herds of llamas and alpacas some with coloured strings tied through their ears that denote ownership. At the highest point the volcanoes can be seen in every direction and people have built piles of stones (in the same way as the American Indians do) as offerings to the gods. I left the car in the bitter wind to take photos and found two women sitting amongst the stones happily spinning, they wear layers and layers of long skirts and alpaca knitted jumpers, their cheeks are rosy with the cold so that they always look merry! There was about 20miles of unpaved and really horrific road on the way, it was being worked on but it was amazing if we got above 40km/h. The whole journey was only 140km but it took us over 4 hours what with the frequent stopping for photos, the winding up and down the mountains and then the horrific bit of unpaved road. We arrived in Chivay and found a hostel and by 3.30pm we were wandering around the streets. This is the first place we have been where there are loads of people in traditional dress. Some of them take advantage of the fact and wander around with llamas or alpacas and allow tourists to take their photos for a small sum. This area has two main incomes, firstly tourism and then the crops that they are able to grow due to the presence of water; however, they are becoming more and more dependent on tourism as big industry starts up more and more irrigated crops in the desert and are able to reduce their prices due to the quantities that they can produce. As it got dark it got really, really cold. Our beds had 3 blankets on and we all had hot showers and got into our thermal pyjamas and bed socks (that we had bought in the states when it got really cold), but the blankets were so heavy that neither Celso nor I could sleep and we had to remove one so that I kept waking with cold feet. Sat 6th Up at 6:30am we got in the car to drive out along the Colca Canyon to the Cross of the Condors, the most likely place to see the Condors flying on the wind currents along the Canyon. The road was unpaved but not too awful (like the one yesterday) and all along the route the locals were out to take advantage of the passing tourists. Thye were selling all sorts of local wares such as knitwear; gloves, socks, hats, and jumpers in Alpaca wool; jewellery; silver and gold work, jewellery with beads and shells or local stones; woven articles; belts, hat bands, bracelets, purses and small bags; and all other types of work such as musical instruments, woven dolls and paintings. Some were also out in their traditional dress with their alpacas and llamas, and some with a pair of Andean Eagles. Apparently around 8:30am is the best time to see the Condors but it wasn't very windy and only one female made a brief appearance flying twice up and back down the canyon before landing somewhere beneath us. By 9:30 most of the, about, 150 tourists had given up and gone, but we hung in there and by 10am there were at least 4 birds flying at the same time and giving the few people that stayed an amazing show. We spent over 2 hours driving back to Chivay stopping to see all the views and the goods along the way. After a lunch of Quineoa soup and Alpaca steak (which is really tender and tasty) we planned to go for a walk out to some thermal springs about 3km out of town but our plans were ruined by the rain. The unpaved roads turned into quagmires and instead we only managed to walk around the town a bit between downpours. Many of the old buildings are built with adobe and there are covered canals along the streets for the water. The main river that has carved out the Colca Canyon runs just past the town and rushes off into the distance, apparently some people do white water rafting down it but it didn't look full enough for that and this is supposed to be the wet season; it seems that all the rain is falling on Macchu Picchu ... still.