Monday, 1 September 2014
At 8 am the bus came for me, and off I went towards the Colca valley, following the Chanchano volcano skirts. Colca Canyon is a canyon of the Colca River in Southern Peru. On the way, we stopped at Canahuasi Pampas, a natural reserve which protects the most valuable of all South American cameloids, the vicuña, which produces the finest and most sought after wool in the international market. There are 4 types of cameloids here, vicuñas and guanacos which are wild animals, and alpacas and llamas which are domesticated. In terms of wool quality, first are the vicuñas, then guanacos, followed by alpacas and lastly llamas. Vicuñas were endangereda at some point, but thanks to conservation efforts at the natural reserve, their numbers have increased from 7,000 to about 15,000 now.
From Arequipa which is about 3,200m above sea level, we travelled uphill up to 4,200m above sea level. Here I drank a mixed tea containing coca and other herbs. It was very cold, but then we continued to the highest point, Togra's Pampas which has a viewpoint of the various volcano mountains, namely the El Misti, Pichu Pichu and Chachani. At 4,900m above sea level, I was feeling light headed, a bit woozy and out of breath, even with the coca tea! Despite this, I saw snow falling, I thought for a minute the altitude made me imagine things but our guide confirmed this. The temperature was 6 degrees Celcius! This is the coldest place I'd ever been to, and it reinforces my plan in not going to see the glaciers in Chile and Argentina. I can still die peacefully without seeing ice and snow and glaciers, thank you very much.
At 8 am the bus came for me, and off I went towards the Colca valley, following the Chanchano volcano skirts. Colca Canyon is a canyon of the Colca River in Southern Peru. On the way, we stopped at Canahuasi Pampas, a natural reserve which protects the most valuable of all South American cameloids, the vicuña, which produces the finest and most sought after wool in the international market. There are 4 types of cameloids here, vicuñas and guanacos which are wild animals, and alpacas and llamas which are domesticated. In terms of wool quality, first are the vicuñas, then guanacos, followed by alpacas and lastly llamas. Vicuñas were endangereda at some point, but thanks to conservation efforts at the natural reserve, their numbers have increased from 7,000 to about 15,000 now.
From Arequipa which is about 3,200m above sea level, we travelled uphill up to 4,200m above sea level. Here I drank a mixed tea containing coca and other herbs. It was very cold, but then we continued to the highest point, Togra's Pampas which has a viewpoint of the various volcano mountains, namely the El Misti, Pichu Pichu and Chachani. At 4,900m above sea level, I was feeling light headed, a bit woozy and out of breath, even with the coca tea! Despite this, I saw snow falling, I thought for a minute the altitude made me imagine things but our guide confirmed this. The temperature was 6 degrees Celcius! This is the coldest place I'd ever been to, and it reinforces my plan in not going to see the glaciers in Chile and Argentina. I can still die peacefully without seeing ice and snow and glaciers, thank you very much.
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