Third Time Lucky: Colca Condors

From Arequipa we caught a tourist bus at 3:30am (!) to travel the six hours to see the canyon. It seemed like a good idea at the time of booking, but less so at 3am.

The reason for catching the tourist bus was to see condors starting their morning flight at Cruz del Condor. Even though it's very touristy, with buses and minivans parked all up and down the road and hundreds of people, the sight of the condors gliding so close was amazing.

An eagle, just for a change

El Canyon Del Colca is the second deepest canyon in the world. No, it's not second after the Grand Canyon, it's second after Cotahuasi, which is in the same region. Both Cotahuasi and Colca are more than twice as deep as the Grand Canyon. Colca is 100km long, surrounded by snow covered peaks and has a drop of 3191m at it's deepest point.

A very vast vista

A short hop later we arrived in Cabanaconde, a little town on the edge of the canyon. Not being sure what to expect, we were pleasantly surprised by the town and our hostal. The town itself is pretty typical South American small town; a little dusty, a little dirty, loose dogs hanging about, not much happening, but it has stunning views of the mountains and the locals are friendly.

Pachamama Hostal was a great base. It's pretty simple, with basic rooms and a small courtyard, but has a fantastic bar and restaurant. We had amazing woodfired pizzas, expertly cooked by teenaged boys, delicious Alpaca Saltado (almost an alpaca stirfry) and fabulous breakfasts. Best of all it wasn't the normal overpriced gringo fare. We chatted to lots of other travellers who were headed out or coming back from the canyon.

The hostal also came with a box of cuteness

We elected not to walk down to the bottom of the canyon (about 1200m at Cabanaconde), instead we made up our own day walks which we decided were far better as we had fabulous views all the time and plenty of time for Ben to take photos. Of course it's impossible for photos to do justice to the immense landscape.