Colca Canyon

Well, after a short night sleep, I ahd a quick breakfast and then he4aded out drom Casa de Melgar, a very nice hotel in an ancient patrician house with courtyards.. it is almost like a little village with little alleys and bridges.. Have a look: http://www.lacasademelgar.com/

My guide, Alfonso, welcomed me and off we went, together with a Dutch and a German couple, two Russian couples living in Dallas/Texas.. (!!!) with the daughter of one of them and her best friend.. a small and rather nice group... (and not a lonely experience as my excursions in Laos and Cambodia.....

The Colca Canyon is the second deepest canyon of the world (3.191m !!!) - that is what they say and "Lonely Planet" confirms, although my German guidebook had some other theories.. anyway... On our way there, we went through a spectacular Andean landscape, which is a natural reserve, and over a pass of 4.800 m... But before climbin up so high - and in order to avoid altitude sickness - we stopped at a teahouse, where they served "Mate de Coca" tea with coca leaves in it.. this is supposed to help.. but just to be sure, I also took my pills... (and was afterwrds quite glad about it..). In this reserve, we stopped several times to enjoy the stunning views and all kind of animals: Alpacas (really funny looking and soooo soft...) and Lamas, which are both domesticated animals, but also the wild Vicuñas, which is - zoologists might forgive me - some kind of wild Lama species... We also saw Vizcachas, little cuddly bunnies hiding in the rocks everywhere.. and as they are grey as the rocks you hardly see them...

Then we arrived in the Colca valley and got to our beautiful lodge - on the margins of a little village called Coerporaque. Have a look: http://www.lacasademamayacchi.com/ you can also see some nice pictures of the landscape.. we had a great buffet-lunch there (including super good Ceviche - raw fish marinated in lemon), rested a bit in the nice hammocks in their garden with a beautiful view on the valley and then went for a 1 hour walk up the hill to the ruins of the old town (which was destroyed after the Spaniards had forced everybody in the valley to move in one of the 24 new villages they created with a nice catholic church in each... - the rest you can imagine.. now they are all catholic, but with quite some influence still of their former religious traditions as often is the case in South America..) Then we went to Chivay to the thermal baths.. really nice !! the different pools have different kind of water and are all between 36 and 40 Celsius- which is quite nice as once the sun is down and there is wid, the temperature immediately goes below 10. We relaxed for around two hours.. and I met again the French family I felw with over the Nazca lines.. funny..

After dinner, we immediately went to bed as the next day we had to get up already at 5h00 (!!) in order to have breakfast at 05h30 and leave at 06h00 for our tour through the canyon: The canyon is 100km long and is set among 2 high volcanoes (with 6.300 and 6.600 m respectively) -really impressive... In the canyon, there is a particular spot, where there are several Condor families.. Many people come to see the Condors here and - after a bit of waiting - we saw them sailing in the air.. it was just amazing.. one was sitting on a rock really close andd when he srated off, he sailed right over our heads and actually stood in the air as the wind was really strong.. (see the pictures below).

We then visited some of the 14 of these "missionary-villages" which still exist and also went into the churches - which were quite beautiful, I have to admit... and finally, before going back to Arequipe and after another very rich lunch..., we went to see the market of Chivay. As you know from my previous trips, I love markets.. but the one here was less spectacular and I therefore did not take as much pictures... (in case you worried... ;-) )

Now I am back to Arequipe, where I will soon have my first "Pisco Sour" (peruvian national cocktail (Pisco - the peruvian national liquor (a grape brandy) - with lime juice, ice, sugar, Angostura bitter and eggwhite) together with Sabine and Manfred, the German couple from Berlin. Gin Gin !!!