Cruz del Condor/ Colca Canyon

This picture at Cruz del Condor is of Grant and Emily, from Holland. Emily was with our tour. She grew up in Holland, but lives in Switzerland. She was traveling around Peru for 5 months by herself. She was nearing the end of her travel.














Here Grant is studying the depth of Colca Canyon. In the distance you can see a town in the valley. Living in little towns in the valley hasn't changed much over the years. The towns are very isolated due to the difficulty getting in and out. Electricity has only recently been added. The residents are pretty much self sufficient.













Here I am posing for a picture with a little girl and an alpaca. The alpaca was very friendly and decided to give me a kiss.










Grant is pictured here with Brodie and Todd, from Seattle. They, too, were with our group. They were on a 6 week trip to South America. They have a friend in Seattle who grew up in Joplin, and we shared some of the observations about the midwest, the election, and travel.







This eagle is native to the Colca Valley. We are not sure of the kind of eagle it is.
The town is Maca, a little colonial village near Chivay. The Spaniards build little churches in all the little villages and most of them had arched entrances.

Cruz del Condor

This picture was taken on the road from Chivay to Cruz del Condor. The holes in the side of the mountain were used by the pre-Inca people of the valley for various uses, including food storage and burial. The more important the person, the higher up the mountain they were buried. The bodies were taken up the cliffs by ropes. Most all of the bones have been stolen by grave robbers so the holes are now empty.

Here is Grant at Cruz del Condor, Colca Canyon. We arrived here about 8 o'clock in the morning in hopes of seeing the condors. Unfortunately, we did not see any condors. The best time for viewing is June through September and we were there in December. I was disappointed because the condors supposedly fly right over your head and you can get great pictures. But, the view of the canyon itself was wonderful enough. Colca Canyon is the second deepest canyon in the world. The deepest canyon is Cotahusi Canyon, which is also in Peru, not far from Colca Canyon, but more difficult to reach. Colca Canyon at its deepest is 11,150 feet, more than twice as deep as the Grand Canyon. The canyon is formed by volcanoes, so it does not have the steep drop offs like the Grand Canyon.

Grant and I are at the canyon. We are standing on a rock, but it wasn't nearly as dangerous as it looks. Beyond the rock is a more gradual decline. But, beyond that, the mountain falls pretty steeply to the floor of the canyon.

This picture shows the view across the canyon. I zoomed in as closely as my camera would allow and if you look closely, you can see paths zig zagging up the side of the mountain. Close to the top you can see some buildings. I couldn't tell if they were homes or not, but I think they were probably animal enclosures. You can see a path leading horizontally across the mountain. These roads are just donkey paths, therefore making travel through the canyon slow, to say the least. Even on our side of the canyon the roads were dirt and bumpy. Cruz del Condor was only 31 miles from Chivay, but it took us 2 hours to make the trip.

Along the way back from Cruz del Condor, we stopped several times to take pictures of the views. This little girl was posed with her llama at one of the stops, but she was not pleased with his behavior. Llamas can be quite obstinate and this one is trying to eat her hat.