22 February 2017 – Colca Canyon, Colca Valley and Maca Village (Peru)

Leaving the hotel at 0530 hours it was the intention of the guide to have us in the canyon as the day warmed up and the thermal air at it's best for the condors to fly before they moved further afield looking for food. Driving up the valley we were told that the terraces were pre-Inca with the upper ones being 2,000 years old and the lower ones 1,000 years old. At an altitude of 4780 metres I was able to look down into the canyon, which had a depth of 4160 metres, but not see the bottom due to the clouds filling the bottom of the canyon. Waiting to see the condors, this being an area where they are found and nest, three flew around then one appeared out of the lower clouds only metres away from myself. It appeared too suddenly for me to take a photo and when there were five condors flying around I kept missing them when trying to take photos. I was able to see four condors in the distance dining at the carcase of a cow. It was really something seeing so many fly at one time.

Views of Colca Valley

Views of Colca Canyon

Me on top of the truck! 

At one of the lookouts a number of local ladies dressed in traditional clothing were selling local crafts. I was not particularly interested in the crafts but in the style of dress worn by the ladies. The guide had mentioned that the ladies dresses in the valley had been copied from the dresses worn by the Spanish ladies who came here after their husbands during colonial times. While alone in the country the men consorted with the local women who then wore the dress of the time. When the Spanish wives turned up, with letters from solicitors in Spain instructing the husbands to desist and return to their wives, it was then that the local women copied and improved their dresses in an effort to keep the men. With them being being catholic I assume that the men then returned to their wives.

Local women at the lookout

On the way back out of the valley we stopped at Maca Village for a short time, crafts and the local church being the draw again.

Views of the church

Although this was a simple village church on the outside it was very elaborate on the inside. We were told that the people in the valley were self sufficient but were considered to be poor with the result that electricity and water were supplied free of charge.































From Maka Village we travelled to Arequipa arriving at the Lacasa De Mi Abuela Hotel just before six o’clock in the evening.