Off we went Saturday morning in a van with 10 other tourists (half of which Peruvians), gaining slowly in altitude to reach again the Andean highlands. The road passed through a large nature reserve, protecting the timid Vicuna, cousin of the Alpaca. The Vicuna produces a finer wool than the Alpaca (and finer than cashmere), but at much lower quantities. After being nearly extinct from hunting, the vicuna was put under strict protection and kept non-domesticated, roaming freely the nature reserves. Considering the high worth of a vicuna, one kg of raw wool costs a few hundred $ and just a scarf will put you back around $2’000, the recovery of the population is the more remarkable. Nowadays the population has grown back from less than 10’000 to more than 150’000, roaming Peru and northern Chile and we got to see a few families on our way.
We arrived in Chivay, the main village of the Colca region and relaxed the afternoon in an outdoor thermal bath, set scenically in the slope of a canyon. At an altitude of 3’600m and with winter approaching, the air was very chilly and standing 10 sec outside replaced the cold water basins you usually use after a hot bath.
No group tour excursion would be complete without a folkloric dance performance during dinner and we played good tourists and joined the local dances and photo session
After a warm night thanks to a precious electric heater, the alarm went off at 5:30 in order to catch the condors during their morning flight.
Along the way we stopped at a few villages, more or less interesting, of which the first one was by far Yang Ke’s favorite. Not because of the pretty church made of white sillar (which poor locals had to carry all the way from Arequipa), but because of its beautiful name
We caught a few young condors on the way, but the main target was the “Cruz del Condor”, where thermal conditions are optimal and in winter nearly every day condors are enjoying the warm updrifts in the morning. And we got not disappointed. Initially there were mostly brown = young condors, later joined by the older, black condors with their typical white neck, all in all a dozen flying at the same time.
How many can you spot here?
After an efficient return trip, we arrived in Arequipa 1.5 hours earlier than planned, just in time for the starting Peru match of the Copa America cup. Pure coincidence I am sure…
[Peru lost 2-1 against Brazil but gave a good performance and Brazil only managed to win in the 90th minute]
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