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British Mensa Travel Special Interest Group |
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Colca
Canyon I was fortunate to visit Peru with my wife and a group of friends last year. Most people associate Peru with Machu Picchu, trekking the Andes, Lake Titicaca and the Nazca Lines. But how many people know that Peru boasts canyons twice as deep as the Grand Canyon in the USA? We decided that Colca Canyon was worth visiting, even though it would mean a special two day detour to our itinerary. Apparently a neighbouring canyon to Colca claims to be over 100 metres deeper. But as Cotahuasi Canyon is virtually inaccessible, most people are taken to Colca Canyon instead. At Colca there is the added bonus of being able to see the rare Andean condors close up. They are one of the world's largest birds with a 10 foot wingspan and are a national symbol of Peru as well as several other South American countries. Because of the elevations involved, we had been warned about high altitude sickness. Staying in the beautiful southern city of Arequipa, the second largest city in Peru, was not really a problem if you took things very slowly and didn't rush round or get out of breath. After all it is only some 2,350 metres above sea level (masl). To put it in context, that's about one and a half miles high. (Note: Ben Nevis is 1,344 masl.) To get to see Colca Canyon, we had to travel north from Arequipa staying overnight at Chivay, a village at one end of the canyon which is 3,700 masl. That's really high and we were not helped by the high pass we had to traverse at 4,900 masl to get to it. At over three miles high no wonder most of us had headaches, or worse. Luckily the symptoms don't last long and there is a very effective local medicine, Sorojchi, which did not appear to have any nasty side effects for any of us. You can't buy Sorojchi in the UK, only in Peru. What our GP did prescribe as standard before we went on holiday was Diamox. Unfortunately Diamox does have one particular nasty side effect - if you take it you have got to be sure of a loo being within easy reach! However, the locals don't buy medicines. They rely on the abundant coca leaf, either to chew it raw or brewed as a tea. I didn't exactly get "high" chewing the leaves, but they worked for me. Mind you, they make your mouth numb and taste awful. Our guide Victor Hugo (don't ask, that's another long story!) was amused at all us tourists who were affected by the altitude. However we did get our own back, when he meekly admitted that he got "low altitude sickness" whenever he visited the capital Lima on the coast (i.e. literally sea level). Most visitors stay at Chivay as a stop-over before going further into the Colca Canyon itself. There is little in Chivay beyond hotels and restaurants. However, La Calera, the hot natural springs, were great to relax in. Drinking pisco sour, the national cocktail, at the poolside was an added bonus. Pisco sour is made from the local brandy, lemon juice and egg whites and is gorgeous. We had to get up before dawn at Chivay to reach the viewing spot of Cruz del Condor by nine in the morning. The timing is important as the condors rise with the early morning thermal currents. On the way out of Chivay the coach stopped at a remote village, Yanque. It was still very early; the sun had only just risen. There was music blaring in the square with children dancing round the fountain in the middle dressed in traditional girls' costumes. They wore colourful layered skirts and hats with very deep fringes hiding their faces. When they came up to us with the collection tins for donations, many of the "girls" looked suspiciously like young boys. Our guide explained this by telling us the rather sad story that this dance was commemorating. When the Spanish Conquistadors came to this part of Peru in the 16th century they separated the local population, putting all the able-bodied men to work in the underground mines, forbidding them from seeing their wives, unless, I presume, they agreed to convert to Christianity. However many of the young men managed to escape the mines at nights dressed as women, so that the Spanish soldiers would be fooled and not stop them from visiting their wives and girlfriends. Then, at dawn, they would return to the mines and the Spanish authorities were none the wiser. All was well for a while, until the authorities noticed that many of the single women were pregnant. Being suspicious of these "immaculate conceptions", the Spanish checked out what was happening and came across a group of the miners dressed as women coming out at night. The Spanish showed no mercy and executed all of them on the spot. Back to the collection tins, we were told that the money raised from the tourists went to help pay for the kids' education. Most of us obviously made a generous donation, but my wife thought I was being mean not to. What do you think? Was this another contrived tourist scam? Another example of tourists corrupting the local environment? How come the adults weren't dancing? Or was it a poor community being enterprising and capitalising on their assets (i.e. the folklore)? One of the other stops was to see the ancient cliff tombs high up in the mountains. I remember at this stop, the canny locals won out again as we all cut short staring at the tombs through binoculars to buy the prickly pear fruit being sold at the side of the road. Very refreshing. Eating them brought back memories of my early childhood in Malta when, with my brother, we used to steal into the farm opposite where we lived to pick the prickly pears. Because of the scarcity of arable land in these steep Andean mountains, there is a lot of terracing dating back to pre-Incan times. This makes for a strange mishmash of patterns along the valleys. After a long ride through the stunning scenery we eventually got to Cruz del Condor. Would we see any condors? We were told that they did not always fly and that we might just have to admire the scenery for its own sake. We were lucky. There was excitement in the crowd of about 100 tourists already waiting when we arrived at about 9am. Yes, there was a family of eight condors languidly gliding by, way below us. Condors are massive, lazy birds. They just stretch out their wings with the feathers at the wing tips splayed out and ride the thermal currents, going round gracefully in majestic circles. We hardly ever saw them actually flap their wings. They are very curious creatures and were as interested in us as we were in them. The condor is a large black vulture with a featherless neck and head. They roost in inaccessible rock ledges at elevations of 3,000 to 5,000 masl and will fly more than 100 miles in a day searching for carrion. It is an endangered species despite being one of the world's longest-living birds, with a lifespan of up to 50 years. They figure prominently in Incan mythology, ruling over the heavens. Condors can take flight in one of two ways. The first is what we were seeing; that is by spreading their wings and letting the early morning thermal currents raise them into the air. The second way, if they are on the ground, is to take a run, flapping their wings for all they are worth. Because of their weight and size, this takes time and needs space, which can make them very vulnerable to larger prey when they are on the ground eating. They have thus devised an ingenious way to get over this problem with the help of the Andean fox. When condors spot a juicy carcass on the ground they circle over it. Foxes have learnt to realise that when condors are doing this, there is a free meal beneath them and head for it. The condors let the foxes tuck in for a while. If nothing disturbs them, then it must be safe for them to land. As soon as they do, the foxes give them a wide berth while the condors gorge. Our guide said that he saw this happening once when a young fox kept on trying to eat after the condors landed. Apparently, as one of the condors merely went by, it slowly then suddenly flicked out its wing, sending the young fox flying through the air. The fox survived, howling, but it no doubt learnt its lesson to leave as soon as the condors arrive. It is difficult to convey the sense of scale standing at the edge of Colca Canyon. The air is very clear, so you can see great distances without realising how far away things are. The other side of the canyon (valley?) didn't seem that far away. However, we soon realised how vast it was when our guide pointed out a village on the other side of the canyon which we couldn't see without binoculars. Because the sides of Colca are not as steep, it was difficult to fully appreciate the depth of this canyon compared to the Grand Canyon in Arizona. Nevertheless it was still one of the most memorable natural sights I have been lucky to see. After an hour or so, it was time to leave the peace and tranquility of watching the condors and embark on a guided tour of the nearby nature reserve on route to our waiting coach. Then it was back through the canyon to return to Arequipa and the rest of our holiday. The geography of Peru is very strange. Covering a large part of the West coast of South America, the country has three totally different environments, dictated by the Andes running North to South. Between the coast and the Andes is the desert, formed because the rain-bearing clouds from the Pacific are lifted up by the high mountains, hence no rainfall here. In this zone for instance are the enigmatic Nazca Lines scratched out on the desert floor. The Andes have their own high altitude climate. Nestled in the Andes are arguably the world's deepest canyons. Most of the rains fall to the lower land east of the Andes forming the cloud and rain forests bordering the Amazon jungle. Machu Picchu is in this zone, set stunningly high above the cloud forests. All this variety in climate and terrain makes for a fascinating country to visit. When we went to the capital Lima, on the coast, it had not seen any rain in years. It has the lowest rainfall of any large city in the world - a fraction of an inch per year on average - yet it is often surrounded by sea fog, so you don't realise how dry it is. If you are planning to go to Peru, I would strongly urge you to visit Colca Canyon. It was an inspiring experience for all of us. First published in VISA 80A (Aug 2008) |