Cruzal Condor

South America Day 8

Colca Valley

The beds in the hotel at Coporaque were aweful! I don't think they even had a mattress. Enough said on that but the new day bought nice clear weather & a cool crisp morning. I was all excited because we were going to see condors

The hotel was too cheap to pay someone to mow the front lawn, so they have an alternate method. Llamowers are very popular in Peru.

To get to Cruzal Condor we headed out along the road that runs to the other side of Colca Canyon to where we stayed the night before. It's a mainly dirt road that has steep cliffs above on one side & steep cliffs below on the other. You can see the road to the right of picture following the canyon. Chivay that we'd just come from is far in the distance to the right.
There are also 3 little lakes to the left of shot that the guide made a big deal about. Can't really see what the big fuss was about myself. What is interesting, & not so apparent, is the aqueducts that criss cross through the valley. They were built by the local inhabitants centuries ago before Europeans came to South America. The Romans are always revered for their water transport systems, but it would seem that they weren't unique.

High in the cliffs above the road were more tombs. These ones were much harder to get to. I'm not completely sure how they did get to them....

Cruzal Condor

Cruzal Condor is the second deepest section of Colca Canyon. It's twice as deep as the Grand Canyon & is supposedly the second deepest canyon in the world behind near by, Cotahuasi Canyon. The walls aren't as steep as the Grand canyon, by the opposite side is much closer. The Grand Canyon is much more scenic, but it doesn't have condors!

Cruzal Condor was the next designated group shot. Everyone was in there this time.
Back Row L->R Melissa, Richard, Hina, Mike (messing up the photo again!) Kerri, me, Vincent, Vixy.
Front Row L->R Smita, Gemma, Emma, Special K, Polly, Nora, Nic.

These houses where across the canyon & far below where we were standing waiting for Condors. Considering the locals typically have fairly basic transport, living perched on a cliff is a pretty tough way to exist.
We spent a lot of time just sitting & waiting for a glimpse of a condor, so we checked out everything else of interest in the canyon.

There were plenty of birds to keep me interested & make sure the camera was good to go when a condor did arrive.
The Giant Humming Bird in the photo above was one of a number that were hanging around us. They are the largest humming birds on the planet & possibly the most brazen. They came up very close to us but just out of reach.

Right when we were about to give up on seeing a condor, Melissa & Richard spotted it first soaring high above us. The white collar gave it away as a condor, not a vulture (although they are closely related). It was so nice to see one free to soar rather then cooped up in a zoo like the only other condors I've seen.

Maca

Eventually we had to leave Cruzal Condor. It was a little disappointing that we only got to see the one condor & from so far away, but that's wildlife spotting for you. Wild animals never really perform on request.
On the way back to Chivay we made a stop at a village called Maca. It has this fancy white church (pictured). Apparently it's nothing that special inside. I was too scared to go in for fear of being hit by a lightning bolt. Not true. The huge number of tourists invading the locals' still active church put me off. I equivalate it to a hoard or people coming into your back yard to take pictures while you're having a 21st birthday party. It's just kind of rude.

This put me off Maca as well. This magnificent Andean Eagle was chained to a tee perch & used to extract money from tourists. I really cringe when I see raptors in captivity. Unfortunately one or two from our tour (you know who you are ) fed into it & had their photo taken with the bird. It's unfortunate the things people are allowed to do in less developed nations.

Altiplano

We stopped for lunch in Chivay on the way back to Arequipa, but at a different place this time. The food wasn't right & my bad food radar was spot on. Later that day I started to feel ill & was the start of 2 weeks of trouble & I wasn't alone. It's just one of those risks in South America. particularly in Peru & Bolivia.
We travelled back along the same route that we'd taken the day before. I made the driver stop a couple of times for Vicunas. This one was good because I managed to get my Animal + Scenery all in one, shot by catching the Vicuna in front of El Misti.

One more Vicuña for good luck.
The gang on the bus were getting shitty at me by this point with my asking the driver to pull over so I could take photos. But you know what? Too bad. It's probably the last time I'll ever go there & we weren't in any hurry. They'll get over it. I got my shot so I'm happy. They've probably forgotten about it by now. (Lucky I just reminded them.) As it was, some of my photos became quite popular later on in the trip, particularly the ones I took with the long lens.

Just before we started to descend the valley back into Arequipa, Ampato appeared out of the Altiplano. It was obscured by cloud on the out lap but the blue skies on the return trip gave us a great look at this white giant. Remember Ampato is the inactive volcano Juanita & the other child mummies were found. You can see why the ancient people of the area used to think this mountain holds special powers.
That's the last I have from the Arequipa area. For more photos from Arequipa & Colca Canyon, click on the following links. Arequipa, Colca Canyon. I've also added to the Andes Animals & Andes Birds albums.

We arrived back in Arequipa just before dark, dumped our gear in our rooms & set about finding a meal. We went to bed early because we had a very early start the next morning.
You can see the trip to this point on the map as a blue line. Notice the spur out to Colca Canyon. The next leg would be by air instead of lengthy stints on the bus. The only snag was the early start. A small price to pay.