Colca Valley & Colca Canyon

Our tour group left on Saturday morning for a weekend at the Colca Valley. It was an interesting journey, circling the 3 volcanoes around Arequipa - Misti, Chachani & Picchu Picchu. There are a lot of people living in 1 room houses on the outskirts of Arequipa, who moved here one year recently when the rains did not come, there was no food growing, animals died, so people moved from the country to Arequipa. There is a big irrigation project outside Arequipa, bringing water from the snow covered mountains down into the desert, & into lots of irrigated fields outside Arequipa. Being volcanic, the soil is very fertile. The last major eruption was in the 17th century. We crossed over the highest mountain pass in Peru, at 4910 metres above sea level! There is a large reserve on the altiplano where small herds of vicunas graze, as well as llamas & alpacas, watched by their shepherds. Although the altiplano is very dry at this time of the year, there is a lot of water in some places from snow melt from the tops of the volcanoes, so there are lots of animals around the water. I saw some vicunas dust bathing, which looked pretty familiar! Despite their protected status as an endangered species, there has recently been some vicuna poaching with around 5000 slaughtered just for their skins. We also saw other endangered species of the altiplano: a rodent, like a rabbit, that lives in the rocks, a very slow growing plant in the celery family, & condors. On thensttep road into the Colca Valley, we stopped at some roadside stalls, & bought some small things, & took photos of an alpaca cria & a baby lamb being hand fed by very cute kids! It was also surprising to see lots of eucalypt trees: as windbreaks on the banks ofnthe terraced fields, in the village squares, the side of the road etc! We enjoyed a delicious buffet lunch (more vegetable dishes, very good, allmdifferent to home, than I have seen so far in Peru) in the small town of Chivay, & then went to a shop where we saw hand spinning & weaving of baby alpaca, & some beautiful garments, & then onto the local markets, which have everything from food, fertiliser, clothing etc etc. some houses have corrugated iron roofs (held down by lots of rocks), which is a sign of prosperity here - other homes have thatched roofs. There was a bit of burning off in the scrub on the sides of some of the terraced farms. I saw lots of lucerne (sometimes with Freisians/Holsteins grazing in them), broad beans, & potatoes growing in the terraced hillside farms. We also saw a couple of Inca "plans" for the water flow on the terraces: a very large vertical sloped rock, carved into terraces, & showing how the snow melt would run through each of the fields, & you can pour water in at the top & watch it flow down the rock through all of the carved "fields": very ingenious. The hotel where we stayed was down inside the edge of the Colca Canyon, built into the steep sides of the canyon, with beautiful gardens (complete with grazing suri alpaca x llamas tied to a stake so they can keep the grass down), overlooking the Colca River, where I took a walk to watch people fishing. We enjoyed the thermal springs, ate some delicious meals, & had a bit of a break from our routine, which was nice & necessary with another altitude adjustment. On Monday, we left the hotel at 6.30am to the lookout over the Colca Canyon, deeper than the Grand Canyon, but caused by a geological fault rather than water erosion. The dirt road was very bumpy & winding through very steep slopes including some tunnels, & we arrived at the Condor Lookout around 8.30am. There wer 4 condors flying the thermals over the canyon, & they are spectacular & huge. One overflew the tourists on the lookout not that far over our heads, hoping for a free meal, & that was pretty scary when you coukd hear then above your head! They are endangered because the female only lays 1 egg every 2 years, so their capacity to expand their population is somewhat limited. On the way down, we stopped at various village churches, where there are some lavish & spectacular decorated altars, including to lady Mary, Mother of God, Pachamamma! The statues in the church are taken out at particular festivals, where after a costume refurbishment & careful ritual washing, they take pride of place at the front of the parade. We visited a museum which included in its exhibits models of every church in the Colca Region (every village, no matter how small, has a large church), ancient textiles & ceramics, details of "Juanita" the sacrificial virgin found in the snow on one of the volcanoes on the altiplano nearby, local traditional clothing styles, & displays of the foodstuffs & other materials for offerings to Pachamamma. After lunch, we visited a private home where we saw the men of the family hand spinning (using an upright spinning wheel constructed of bicycle parts) & weaving, & had a demonstration of how the natural dyes are used (we saw a brown onion & an alfalfa dye bath, with a salt mordant). They also use eucalyptus leaves to dye their yarn. We also saw the family's guinea pig run, where they had the biggest guinea pig male I have ever seen, along with his harem of 4 females, & about 10 juveniles. In the country, guinea pigs are only eaten at special festivals, where everyone has some to eat (in the cities, various cuy dishes are on the menus). There was also a big store of dried cow dung, which is used as fuel for their outdoor kitchen fire, as their are so few trees that grow so high, & firewood is very scarce. It was a very interesting visit, & we were so fortunate to have been invited into the home of a rural family to see a little of how they live. Ater a scenic 4 hour drive, we arrived back in Arequipa about 6pm, so it was a great long weekend!