213 days since selling up. Paul Twocock recording.
We left the shores of Lake Titicaca on our first public South American bus, however, this was no chicken bus! The Cruz del Sur service to Arequipa, Peru's second city, was a big, modern double-decker, and to ensure we had maximum comfort for the six hour journey we paid an extra fiver each for VIP seats. This was a tip from my friend Louisa - thanks Lou - the seats really were like flying first class: wide, padded, reclining with a foot rest. The six hours sped by. Have a look in the album for a pic of the bus.
Anyway we arrived in Arequipa at 8:30pm, picked up by the manager of our hotel in the first comfortable, non-clapped out car we've been in in Peru. He told us about all the sights of Arequipa, which we had no chance of seeing, as owing to bus and train timetables, we only had a night in Arequipa. So that meant a thirty minute stroll around the Plaza de Armas by night, which was really pretty, and a well earned sleep before an early pick-up for our 2 day Colca Canyon tour in the morning.
The whole point of the tour was to see the Andean Condor - the largest flying bird in the world. There was no guarantee we'd see one - only 80 remain in Peru, and our guide told us that at this time of the year many fly down to the coast because its the season where Sea Lions give birth and the Condors are partial to their placentas; nice! Anyhoo we set off in a not so comfy minibus to climb into the Andes again.
You go through a national park on the way up, where we got to see the very rare, cute and curious looking Vicunas - looks like an elegant deer, but is a distant relative of the camel. See the album for a pic. And we saw tons of Alpacas and Llamas, some Flamingoes and Andean Geese. We also reached our highest point of the whole round the world tour - 4,900m or 16,000 feet. Thanks to our altitude training in Cusco it was a breeze!
We finally arrived at our Colca Valley lodge in a place called Yanque at about 3pm. We passed on the three hour trek the lodge offered, but managed our own mini trek to see the fabulous scenery and cross a scary suspension bridge in high winds - see the pic of David holding on for dear life, the anxiety is real.
The Colca Canyon proper was another hour and a half's scenic drive: 6am start! The early worms catch the bird. Our guide tried to dampen our expectations on the way so we were resigned to gazing at a canyon for an hour and half and seeing nothing more than passing clouds. In fact for the first twenty minutes, that's exactly what we saw. Then suddenly the two Peruvian boys standing next to us whispered "Condor" excitedy and pointed to a far off point low in the canyon.
We felt lucky to see it swooping around far away in the canyon, riding the thermals. But nothing prepared us for the moment when it started heading towards us. There was a excited intake of breath all around as it approached, and then whoops as it flew right past us, and then came back again for another pass. As the French said, "C'est trés enorme!". It was awe-inspiring. We'd been lucky, in fact we were luckier than we thought. On the way back our guide told us that the reason the condors come so close is so they can frighten stupid animals who are standing close to the edge of the canyon; when they fall off and die, the condors have dinner for weeks. No wonder he looked right into our eyes! Such fun!
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