Condors and hotsprings in the Colca Canyon
Trip Start
Feb 01, 2003
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17
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Trip End
May 02, 2003
Chuvai, Peru
Saturday, March 29, 2003
We booked a two-day trip which included stayinng over in a village at the beginning of the canyon. At 8.00h in the morning we were picked up from our hotel by a mini-bus. By 9.00h everybody had been picked up, 10 in total, and we were on our way to Chivai, the village at the beginning of the canyon. According to our guide the drive would last five hours and the road we had to travel on was '60% good and 40% bad' (asphalted roads are still somewhat of a luxury in Peru).
The van was in a slighty battered state, but then again most vehicles can be described like that
A condor
. The first part of the trip was easy as the road was still asphalted. After 1,5 hour this changed into a unpaved road. This was still part of the 60% good road as we discovered later on, because the final hours of the trip was over a rock-strewn unpaved road, which certainly could be qualified as bad road. On these stretches we were probably not driving faster than 50km per hour and even then the van shook violently in all directions possible. Halfway trough we reached the highest point in our trip and of our life really, 4,800m above sea level. Finally after 5 1/2 hours we arrived in Chuvai. This little town was located in a valley surrounded by high peaks. The town had been a Inca settlement until the spaniards destroyed it. The terraces on the surrounding mountains still existed however and were still used by the local people.After lunch we were shown to our rooms in a 'hospedaje', which were quite reasonable, except that they were freezing and lacked any heating or hot water. As Chuvai lay on 3,850m above sea level it was very cold compared to were we came from, about 14 degrees during the day. Now that may not sound cold to you people in cold Europe, but if you're used to 20+ degrees, 14 degrees is freezing!
Help was at hand however, as on the program was a visit to the hotsprings which were next to the village
Betty with the canyon in the background
. The water was heated by a nearby volcano. The complex consisted of a outside and inside bath. We opted for the outside bath. First we had to take a cold shower, which was horrible, but this was completely forgotten as we walked into the bath. The water was 35-40 degrees! You cannot examine the absolute bliss we experienced as we submerged our battered, stinky and cold body into this heat. For the next hour we imagined ourselves in heaven, as we sat in the bath and took in the scenery of the surrounding hills and, as it became dark, the stars in the sky. Unfortunately it had to end, but when we left the bath we felt revived as if we had just visited the fountain of youth.In the evening the tour company had arranged a 'folklore evening', were local people would dance to local music. We thought that this sounded more like a tourist-trap than real local culture, so we, with two other persons from our group, decided to make our own folklore evening. First we ate in a local eatery for about 60 euro cents, which included soup, main course and a chocolate drink. We than explored the backstreets of the village and came upon a disco. We were lured in by the prospect of a free drink. We spent the evening drinking the local beer and enjoying modern Peruvian music, which was at the very least interesting and at times even enjoyable. Thruth was that we had an excellent time and only the reminder of 6.30h breakfast forced us back to our rooms
Cruz del Condor
.The next morning we awoke feeling rather shit, and dragged ourselves to breakfast, where hot coffee undid some of the damage of the night before. We set off again in the minivan for a two hour trip to Cruz del Condor. The Colca Valley was amazing, a river running through it became bigger as we avanced into the canyon and now and then little villages could be seen in what seemed inaccessible places. As we progressed the canyong became deeper and the views more dramatic. Finally we arrived at Cruz del Condor. A whole pack of tourist were already eagerly awaiting the condors. At this point the canyon is 1,200m deep, and from the cliff we were standing you looked right down, so naturally we were a bit more careful with walking around then normally. After 20 minutes waiting we finally spotted the first condor circling up. Condors are huge birds, measuring 3,20m across. Over the next 30 minutes we watched as more and more of these birds started circling up out of the canyon. A few times a condor passed maybe two meters above our heads, and it was amazing and beautiful to see these giant birds from so close up.
After one hour we walked for about 30 minutes near Cruz del Condor to have some more amazing views of the canyon with the river running through it, and then it was time to begin the seven-hour trip back to Arequipa. And here we have to mention our guide, Hubert. Hubert was bi-lingual but his english wasn't exactly perfect. Whenever he explained something it was first in spanish and then in english. When he started in english he would start to look deeply troubled, and start rubbing his forehead as if he was trying to rub the english words from his brain. More than once his english explanation was more humorous than it was informative. On the way back we saw him sitting in the front seat of the van attempting to do a language-course. Interestingly enough it wasn't english he was trying to improve on, but german! Well, at least we couldn't blame him for not being ambitious!
