Colca Canyon

On Sunday, April 10th, we were up by 5 am and at breakfast in the lodge by 5:45. The air was cool but not quite cool enough for frost. In the lodge restaurant a good buffet breakfast, included in our tour package price, was laid out and we ate while gazing over a beautiful view across the valley on a sunny, clear morning. Our bus arrived at 6:30 and our first stop was the village square of Yanque where the local women were selling their wares and local teens in traditional costume performed a simple dance. It seemed a bit touristy.
Next we drove toward "El Cruz de Condor" or the Condor Cross. We stopped at various viewpoints along the way, including one where we saw our first condor. We had visited a rescue centre for injured condors last year in Otavalo, Ecuador so we had seen condors before but it was a new experience for many of our group.
As we approached the Cruz de Condor, we stopped about a kilometre away and walked along a trail to get there. There were lots of photo ops of the Colca Canyon and of condors soaring on the morning air currents. The Colca Canyon is twice as deep as the Grand Canyon and about 100 kilometres long. It is only slightly shallower than the neighbouring Cotahuasi Canyon, which is the deepest canyon on the Earth. The Colca River is shallow and rocky, so it seems an unlikely prospect for raft trips. Over the next mountain range that we could see to the east is the confirmed source of the Amazon.
When we left the Cruz de Condor about 9:20 am, we made several more photo op stops before we got to another small village where there were colourful statues around the square. These statues, representing different figures from folklore, are very popular in the little towns of the Colca Valley. One depicted a woman carrying a man wearing a mask on her back. We heard 2 different versions of the story behind it. In version one, the woman is carrying her drunk husband home from a wedding and he is wearing a mask to avoid embarrassment. In version two, the women are all dancing at some festival and the man is a joker whose job is to keep the crowd back. Sometimes he jumps on the ladies' backs as a joke. We could relate more to version one.
Around noon, we arrived back in the town of Chivay. The bus stopped at a buffet restaurant but we had ham sandwiches from the breakfast buffet, bananas bought from a vendor and water that we had brought so we ate lunch on a bench in the town square. Afterward, we met up with our group at the market near the square.
Even on Sunday, the market was fairly busy although some booths were closed. At every market we visit, there are lots of fruits, vegetables and grains that we don't recognize. Also at the time, we didn't know it was Election Day in Peru so more businesses than usual were closed.
That was our last tour event except for a washroom stop on the way back to Arequipa. It was a long, hair-raising ride. We were in the 2nd seat behind the driver. We never take the first seat because you see too many close calls. We also never sit in restaurants where you can see into the kitchen. Traveler survival tactics.
Finally, we got back to our hotel in Arequipa about 4 pm. It had been a great tour but we were tired. After a hot (thankfully) shower, we had lasagna, pizza and wine at the Inkara restaurant behind the cathedral and were in bed watching Netflix by 7:30 pm. Although we knew our knees wouldn't have liked a trek down into the Colca Canyon one day and back up the next, we still enjoyed a couple of short walks in the area and appreciating the scenery.