September 30, 2024 - Colca Canyon, Peru

We thought we were getting a 5:45am wake up call, but the phone rang at 5:30. I was already awake, but it was still not something I was looking forward to. Fortunately, I felt so much better today! After breakfast, we were down five people from our group for the morning's adventure. (Three of them joined us at lunch) So, at 7:00 am we were shuttled from our hotel to the town in little vans because the road is too small for the bus to navigate, then transferred to the bus and we were off to see condors.

On the way we went through an area that has lots of terraced farming. Many of the terraces date back to 2400BC!! There are over 36,000 acres of terraces in this area. Jose explained to us the rituals around farming and harvests. Most families own about 7 acres of land and family farming represents more than 60% of the agriculture in Peru! The top three crops are potatoes, corn, and quinoa. Many people are starting to sell their farms and move to cities because there are problems with erosion, tremors from the volcanos, and the soil not being as productive. Most of the farming is done by hand with shovels and picks, but some do have oxen to help pull their plows.
About an hour later we arrived at the Mirador Cruz de Condor. The best time to see the flight of the condors is between 8am and 10am and sunny days. We lucked out on both accounts!

The Andean condor is the second largest flying bird on the planet (second only to the albatross). Its main habitat is the Andes Mountains. This viewpoint in the Colca Canyon offered incredible views of the area as well as seeing the condors fly. The elevation is about 12,500 feet here but we were both fine today. There were hundreds of tourists, but we were not disappointed. These two juvenile condors were sitting on a rock not far from the walkway. Our guide said they were about 3-4 years old.

You can see how close people were able to get to them to snap pictures!
They took off in flight, and there were several others circling in and around the canyon.

Condors lay one egg every 2-3 years and both parents incubate the egg - about 2 month. The "couple" stay together and raise the baby condor until it is about 1-1/2 to 2 years old. The babies start to fly around six months of age. Total life expectancy in the wild is about 35 years. The condors are more brownish as a juvenile and are black and have the white ring as an adult.

We hiked down to a second lookout and saw more condors taking to the sky.



There are a couple miles of hiking trails that go through the valley, but we only had about 1-1/2 hours, so that was out of the question this trip!
At the lower lookout point we also saw a couple of falcons flying in the valley.

Of course, there were lots of opportunities for souvenirs or you could pay 1Sol (about 25 cents) to have your picture taken with a "real live condor"!


We headed off to the town of Maka where we were able to visit the Saint Ann Church and see the town square. The church was built in the 1800s and you can see it has suffered damage from volcanic tremors.

In 2006, some restoration was done. The inside was beautiful.

Along the town square we could have our picture taken with a local woman and her baby alpaca for 1Sol (about 25cents).

This one was decked out with a hat AND sunglasses.

Another local let you hold the baby.

Jose told us the history of this statue. During a celebration, men went and were dressed as soldiers, and there was a fair amount of alcohol consumed. The wife then went and carried him home! There was a bit more to the story, but my memory isn't too good today!

From here we headed to our lunch stop at the Alpaca Chef Restaurant. Mama Juanita is the owner and she came out and greeted us and told us about all the choices on the buffet. We had the corn soup which is very traditional in Peru, as well as alpaca in a sauce with french fries. The sweet potatoes were amazing, too. Our guide took group pictures of us with Mama Juanita, but I will need to wait until he shares them with us!

After lunch we drove a little further to visit a family that now runs a "museum" business. There are six families and today Tomas, Tomasa, David, and Bridgett were there to show us weaving, how they spin the alpaca fibers, and told us about their clothing.

Tomasa said that she usually spends six hours a day for seven days to weave a small blanket - about 24" x 36".

Jose then explained about different rituals performed by the people. All of the rituals include coca leaves, animal fat, sea shells (to ask for rain), the fetus of an alpaca or llama, and blood. (from an animal). It was interesting to hear.

After that, all of the women had the opportunity to dress in traditional clothing. Normally, the women wear two skirts and they are very heavy!

Do I look like a Pervian woman?? This was most of our women and Jose next to me.

We then went out on the street and danced with Jose and Bridgett.

We again had a chance to do a little shopping and I got a new hat for 35Sol (less than $10USD). I will wear it in future pictures!

From here we headed back to our hotel. We stopped a couple times for pictures. I love the terraced farms.

Our last stop where we switched from our bus to vans was in the village of Coporaque.

Tomorrow we will take vans again (at 6:30 in the morning!) back and start our journey to Puno. It will be a 5:00 am wake up call so goodnight!