Tuesday, 2 September 2014
We started at 6 am this morning, in the blistering cold, to go to the canyons. The Colca Canyon is more than twice as deep as the Grand Canyon! But the walls are not as vertical as the Grand Canyon. It is more than 100 km long. Here I saw the Andean Condors soaring gracefully, this is where they live. They are one of the largest flying birds in the world, with wingspans of 3.5m. A male weighs up to 15 kg and a female 12 kg. the incubation period is 2 months, from January to March, and both the males and the females take turns to incubate the eggs. Finally a hardworking male! A young condor is brown, and becomes black and white at about the age of 8. They can live up to 50 years old. They are such immense and heavy creatures that they cannot lift off the ground, they have to take flight from cliff perches. The people living around this area used to hunt the condors mercilessly, because they believed the condors were stealing their baby livestock such as sheep and alpaca. But they were wrong, because condors only eat carrion. At one point, there were only 15 Andean condors, but international efforts to save it brought the numbers up to 70 now.
On the way to the Colca Canyons, we passed the first village past Chivay which is Yanque, which has a baroque 18th century church. We also passed the village of Maca, a village destroyed by a 1979 earthquake, there is a church called Santa Ana, which is a restored white church. Here I bought gloves as I couldn't stand the cold any longer. I was already wearing 3 layers and still cold! I can't wait for warmer weather! Then we went back to Chivay for lunch, and I was dropped off to take the bus to Puno, while the rest returned to Arequipa.
During the journey yesterday and today, I met many people, a German couple, an Italian couple, an Australian couple, and many Peruvians. Peruvians are really a jolly lot, they are warm people by nature and make friends easily. Among the tourists, some are really nice, but some are arrogant for no apparent reason. So I guess there's really all kinds of people in the world. But what I find shocking is that most people are nice. I always thought the reverse was true. I am changing my mind about that, slowly but surely. I thought I would come home a changed person, and it just might be true yet! I was sad that I didn't get to say a proper goodbye to the people on the bus, but sometimes that's just the way it is, you meet people and then say goodbye.
After this I took the bus to Puno. Here I was reacquainted with 2 Italian girls who I met in Ica and Nasca. They are doing what I was supposed to be doing, which is booking things along the way. It was good bumping into them again, Immaculata (Imma) and Rafaela. It made the 6 hour bus trip to Puno manageable. On the way, it was snowing! At last I have seen snow although I never wanted to. At one stop we made, we saw flamingoes and black ibises. The temperature here was 4 degrees Celcius! Madness! When we arrived in Puno it was raining and I am suffering in the cold again. Puno is approximately 3,827 m above sea level. Apparently Lake Titcaca where I go to tomorrow is even colder than Puno! God have mercy on me!
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