Excursion: Cañón de Colca

In an earlier posting it came out that once the Ñañas get their minds set on something, that something will be done. Well it turned out that in early March that something was an excursion before Lexi left on the 5th, and the excursion would be to Colca Canyon (the deepest canyon in the world which lies about four hours northwest of Arequipa), and the samples -- which up until this point seemed a far-off dream -- would be completed on the 3rd so that we would be libres como el viento (free as the wind) on the 4th... and so it came to be.

As it turned out, the bus tickets we purchased for the four-hour ride to Chivay were for 4:00 in the morning, so Lexi and I fell into a taxi at 3:30 AM to meet the ladies at the terminal. Miraculously, everyone made it on time and we set out merrily but groggily in the dark, passing Mt. Misti and winding around mountain roads as other passengers boarded and we faded in and out of sleep.

Our first glimpse of the valley was unlike anything I'd seen before in Colca. As we came around the bend, the whole valley was hidden under low clouds, evidence of the late rainy season. It felt like we were in Brigadoon.

I had been to Colca before, but it was a whole different experience going with the ladies, especially since several of them -- Teresa, Amelia, Victoria and Meri -- are from the valley. As it got lighter, they started pointing out things along the way, calling out names of towns, telling stories and getting progressively more excited the closer we got. Victoria was positively giddy, and by the time the bus arrived we were singing and laughing, having taken over most of the bus.

Not the best shot from the bus window, but you can sort of make out the andenes, pre-Incan terraces that cover the mountainsides in Colca Valley. The terraces are farmed vertically to take advantage of the different climates at different altitudes, so each family grows a wide variety of crops on their strip of land. Pretty awesome system, and an incredibly picturesque landscape to boot.

Finally we arrived at the Cruz del Condor and and everyone got out to take in the view. Above: Fresh off the bus, Frida and I pose for a photo. Below: Lexi ponders the depths of the canyon (deeper than the Grand Canyon when measured from the tops of the mountains to the bottom of the gorge) and her even deeper love of Peru and the Ñañas.

Fog obscured the view a little, but we were still able to see down to the river below.

Besides its record depth, Colca Canyon is famous for the condors which circle up on warm air currents from their nests below. Remember Simon & Garfunkel's El Condor Pasa? It's based on an Andean song about this very thing. You have to arrive early, though, and hope for sunshine or you'll return home disappointed.

Neither the time of our arrival nor the weather were working in our favor, but Frida, Betty, Teresa, and Frida's nephew Gabriel gathered around the lookout point just the same to see if they could catch a glimpse...then moved farther down to see if there was better luck near Andrea and Kati, Victoria's daughter.

Teresa still wasn't ready to give up hope,

and Rosita, Amelia's daughter, continued in high spirits,

but Lexi and I eventually gave up as the fog closed in and decided to take a break for an official Chiri team photo.

Everyone decided to throw in the towel when it started to rain and took a break from condor hunting to eat lunch. Hot tea from carefully packed thermoses, potatoes, cheese, hard-boiled eggs (waipa runtu in Quechua), traditional Arequipeñan three points bread bought at the bus terminal, a little fruit, and we were set.

After lunch, Victoria brought out two traditional Colca outfits she had somehow managed to fit into her bag, and it was time for another round of "Dress up the gringas." Lexi was soon happily twirling around the lookout in the beautifully embroidered skirt, vest and hat that are still worn by women in the towns of Colca...

But it took a little more work, a few wardrobe malfunctions, and about four Ñañas pinning, tucking and tying before I was up and running.Here we dance our version of the wititi while Meri and Giuseppe look on in the background.

The group: Jose, Victoria, Uldárica, Lexi, me, Andrea, Teresa, Amelia, Rosita, Meri, Frida, and Betty.

Since it appeared that no condors would be showing their unlovely faces on this particular day and buses seemed to have stopped coming, the ladies took advantage of the time to do a little harvesting of medicinal herbs. Here Uldárica and Betty hunt between rocks and cairns...

and Andrea plucks handfuls of chirichiri, an herb which takes its name from the same Quechua word that we use in our name, chiri, or "cold," which is -- not surprisingly -- used to fight off cold, along with aches and pains.

Meanwhile, I got my hair braided by Kati, while Rosita supervised.

Still no bus...

... so we wandered off to look at the view and hunt for more herbs and came across these burrows presumably doing the same thing.

Feeling confident that I could handle the altitude (about 4,000 meters above sea level), I decided to give Rosita a donkey ride back to our waiting spot but was nearly passed out in the road by the time we got there. Not as acclimated as I thought.

Around the time that we were making plans to round up the donkeys for a ride home, a bus came and took us back into Chivay for a quick lunch, then we piled into a taxi for a surprise visit to the thermal baths just outside of town.

Since no one had shared this plan with us beforehand, Lexi and I were not prepared and ended up having to purchase "one-size-fits-all" suits -- apparently such a thing exists -- at a stall located in front of the entrance. “They stretch,” the woman making the sale assured us when she saw our dismay at the lack of sizing options, and demonstrated on the suit in front of her. We did manage to squeeze into them after some maneuvering and hunching, but it was more than a little scandalous and I made sure to leave my camera outside, so no photos. Sorry.

After we finished our relaxing, if mildly embarrassing, visit to the baths, we all crammed into a taxi and made it back to the bus station just in time to catch our ride home. Tired, but very happy, we made our way back to Arequipa. Another mission accomplished.