I paid 50 soles (about $17) to for transportation with a tour group to and from the canyon. Other people on the tour included a nice, young couple from Lima, a Peruvian family, a Canadian couple (from Montreal), and two Americans from Arizona (more about them later).
We left at 9am for the 4 hour drive through the high plains of the Andes Mountains to the town of Chivay in Colca Canyon. Along the drive we saw vicuñas, llamas, and alpaca in their natural habitats.
We stopped at a rest stop for about 20 minutes for mate (tea). Here´s a picture of the restrooms. Roughing it. Haha.
I took this time to take advantage of a few photo ops I noticed.
Of course, as with all tourist stops along the trip, there were locals selling arts and crafts (which all look the same). Luckily, I came across this woman spinning alpaca fiber into yarn. I watched her for a while, especially with my interest in the textile industry due to my internship, and then I asked her if I could take her picture... and she didn´t mind, as long as I gave her some money, of course! I think this picture was well worth the $0.30 I gave her.
After the rest stop, we drove for a bit more and reached the highest point on the drive: about 15,000 feet!
Then we began our descent into Chivay - the entry city to the Colca Canyon.
We stopped for some photo ops of the view, and I also snagged a few pictures of these children in the local dress (embroidery is big here).
We had lunch at a restaurant in Chivay before heading to our respective hotels. Luckily, the company I am working for owns the nicest hotel in the area, Colca Lodge, so I was able to get a significant discount.
A 25 minute drive out of town on a gravel road, this place was spectacular.
It had a spa and its own private hot springs with bar service.
After arriving to the hotel around 3pm on Saturday, I bought a $15 bathing suit at the hotel shop and proceeded straight to the hot springs. Here´s a picture of the view from the hot springs.
Here at the hot springs I ran into the two Americans, Chuck and Stephen, who were also on the tourist minibus from Arequipa. Chuck is an infectious disease professor at the University of Arizona advising Stephen on his disertation project for his PhD in epidimiology. Stephen is living in Arequipa for a year studying chagas disease.
Of course we had a conversation about diseases, and it was actually facinating, although I think if I learned anymore I wouldn´t be able to relax (I´d be worried about all the micro organisims in the world around me harboring disease). At one point, Chuck was telling me about some organism that lives in water and when you submers your head under water, it enters through your nose and makes a "b-line" straight to your brain. Dead in 6 days without treatment. Needless to say, I did not submerge my head in the hot springs. ;) Chuck also told me about some really funky diseases in other countries (luckily we don´t have them in the US). He said Haiti is the worst place for disease, so I´ve decided that I will most likely not travel to Haiti.
I also met some other guests in the hot springs. There was a young couple from England (the woman was a pediatrician) and a couple from Virginia (the woman was an Episcopal priest).
After an hour and a half in the hot springs, I headed to the spa for a massage and pedicure. After the spa, I met Chuck and Stephen for dinner in the hotel´s restaurant (trout and a lovely Chilean red).
The next morning we departed at 6am for the drive into the canyon to the Condor Cross viewing point to see the endangered Andean Condors fly. They were very graceful and reminded me of hangliers. Their wingspan can reach up to 10 feet.
After watching the condors, we went on a 45 minute hike along the top of the canyon.
Then we headed back to Chivay for lunch before our drive back to Arequipa. I slept most of the drive back to Arequipa. Weekend trips are tiring, but I´m glad I got out of the city to see some of Perú´s lovely countryside.
My next weekend trip (in 2 weeks): Lake Titicaca.
No comments:
Post a Comment