From Cusco, we took a nightbut to Arequipa and continue on the same morning to see Colca Canyon. After all the hiking, we decided not to do the 3 day hike through the canyon, but rather an easy tour bus. We later wished we had hiked but the nature and beauty was not lost.
Colca Canyon's name to fame is that it is the deepest canyon in the world, deeper than the Grand Canyon. The Colca Valley is a very wide, beautiful valley full of small towns and tons of farmlands. There are some terraces that predate the Incas that are still used for farming. Since before the Inca time, it has been an important place for producing crops.
You can see the terraces leading down to the river
We stayed in a the Lovely Chivay (pronouced Chee--bae)...a very small town at the start of the Colca Canyon. They had hot springs here that were just the thing after all our hiking and lack of sleep. We didnt bring the camera, so no pictures, but they were much nicer than the hot springs in Aguas Calientes, for which the town is named!
Chivay from far away and the start of the Colca Canyon
Church in town...
Local women in town with their traditional garb...very colorful!
This hawk just swooped in and landed on my shoulder and we were lucky enough to snap a quick photo before he took off...
The llama was all decked out so I had to take a picture with it!
The Colca Canyon...
It was very difficult to get a good picture showing the depth...it's a very narrow can
The Condor, as we have mentioned, has always been an important symbol for all the Andean cultures throughout all of South America. We have heard several reasons why it was important, it represents the heavens, it assists the souls to the afterlife, etc. One particular area of Colca Canyon is a safe spot for the Condors to lay their eggs and therefore there are always several Condors sweeping around. The zoom on my camera broke and Scott's zoom wasn't great so our pictures of these awesome creatures are pretty ho-hum, but these birds are just massive. They soar instead of fly and it is easy to see why the ancient cultures reveared them so.
The giant condor soaring overhead...
Colca Canyon in the background
On one of our stops back into town, we saw this girl feeding a baby llama...too cute!
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