Third Time Lucky: Colca Canyon

Walking along the rim of Colca Canyon was gorgeous, looking down into the depths of the canyon and up to the mountain tops.

From the veiwpoint near the town

There were a multitude of birds for Ben to try and photograph. We saw condors many times, plus two different kinds of large eagles, smaller hawks, smaller still kestrels, hummingbirds feeding on cactus flowers, whirry birds (no idea of their proper name but they would take off very startlingly with a loud 'whirrrr!'), and a multitude of others. The landscape looks so stark but if you take the time to look around it's amazing what there is to see. There were lots of lizards in the rocks, ranging from the size of my little finger to almost as long as my forearm, but they were all too quick for photos!

The red rock cliffs towered over the path, full of birds

Andean parakeet hiding in a cactus

There were a couple of trip planning errors going to Colca Canyon; firstly, I assured Ben that he wouldn't need his down jacket as it didn't get that cold. Actually Cabanaconde is 1000m higher than Arequipa and is a lot colder at night. Secondly, I told him that he wouldn't need a rain coat as we were going in the dry season and it never rains the. Wrong again - on our last afternoon there was lightening and thunder and a solid amount of rain. Luckily neither mattered very much; the hostal had the fireplace in the evenings and we'd finished our walk by the time it rained. The precipitation did leave a lot more snow up above 4000m – very beautiful. Anyway, as I do the bulk of the trip planning he can't complain too much ;-)

Admiring more veiws

The local cemetary

Waiting for delicious pizza with mama cat enjoying a cuddle

Even more stunning with snow

Small child vs bull; guess who just kept eating

From Cabanaconde we caught the returning tourist bus back to Arequipa. It had the benefit of stopping at viewpoints, but the drawback of stopping at touristy places for ages. Ah, well, nothing's perfect.