Down, down into the canyon
Trip Start
Dec 30, 2007
1
35
50
Trip End
Jun 22, 2008
Arequipa,
Peru
Monday, April 28, 2008
Arequipa is famous for its proximity to the second deepest canyon in the world the canyon del Colca, where condors may be seen, It is also one of those stately colonial towns with huge churches. It was home to a very disorderly order of wealthy nuns for some time and the five hectare grounds in the middle of town are now prime tourist attractions. Unfortunately, as is the case with everything in Peru, Arequipa expects you to pay for absolutely everything you do.
The traffic here is extraordinary. The rule seems to be: make someone else give way. There are hardly any traffic lights, and strictly no signaling and traffic is dense. Almost all of it consists of taxis (mostly empty) and the colectivo, or minivan, packed with an extraordinary number of passengers. I think the record that we participated in was about 20 passengers in one vehicle, plus the driver and the conductor
Condor, catching some rays
. But the count cannot be exact because there were too many people in the way. Our most interesting encounter was with a shoelace salesman. He was smothered in shoelaces, so that he was almost reduced to a ball of string, he was that round. He claimed that they weighed 50kgs, and I am inclined to believe him.
The canyon
The main point of interest here was the canyon, and in the end we took a tour, but I don't think this was necessary. Once again the diversity of paths was emphasised, and our experience on Isla del Sol discouraged us from being too independent.The tracks were pretty clear however. But the tour was a great success from my point of view because the other tourists were such an interesting bunch of people, and our guide actually provided some insight. It was depressing though, the number of people who spoke three languages.
It is about six hours by bus to Cabanaconde where the trek begins, and on the first afternoon we descended 1200m in the bowels of the canyon, having started on the lower of the two sides. On the far side, mountains climbed 3000m above us
Condor, Cruz del Condor
. It is very pretty and we were treated to a condor on our first afternoon. The canyon is not the sheer drop from flat plains that one sees in the grand canyon. Rather it is a very steep v-shaped valley, with mountains to the north and a much lower plateau to the south (from which we descended). This is another area where plenty of traditional villages flourish because the canyon does get some water. These villages must make a pretty good living putting up tourists, to judge by the large numbers at the place we stayed the first night. Ironically, here we had hot water (solar), while back in the big smoke of Arequipa we had had to make do with a shower that was incapable of producing warm water. The stars were gorgeous, and it is nights like this that one can get an inkling of what the night may have looked like before electricity. The wall of the canyon blocked out half the sky, but above it rose the southern cross, and the great swath of stars forming the milky way.
The second day we traversed along near the floor of the canyon for some time, cooled off in a pool for a while and then trudged back up those 1200m. Along the way we tried some local produce including a cactus fruit called san callo. Its flesh looks rather like kiwi fruit (green, tiny black seeds), and it has the same consistency, but it is very sour
The canyon
. It forms the base of the local variation of the pisco sour, called the colca sour. Apparently it is good. Day three saw us heading home, but we stopped for an hour at Cruz del Condor, a lookout over the canyon above a condor nesting site. We waited quite a long time before the condors started doing laps along the side of the canyon wall, which they kept up for perhaps 15 mins. Then they stopped and I thought the show was over, so I didn't mind having to get the bus. But as we boarded, the really big condors emerged and started circling overhead. I had time for some rushed photos, but was disappointed that we could not stay a little longer. Although once again, the moment seemed to have passed. This was a pretty walk (it ain't 'trekking') and the condors were a nice note to finish on.
On the way back there was an optional detour to hot springs, close by the town of Chivay. I was the only one to pass up the hot spring option, and instead wandered around town, got a hair cut, and read a paper in the sunny central plaza. It felt like a normal sunday, except for the beautifully dressed girls wandering around the square leading baby llamas on pieces of string. It is a 'pay for a photo' scheme of course, but too cute for words. (The women here dress very differently from in Bolivia. Skirts and blouses are intricately embroidered, the skirts are not the hooped masses of Bolivia, and the hats are like conventional sun hats in two styles: either with floral embroidery and turned up at the back; or plainer but with a fabric flower on the sides and turned down at the front.)
