Adding to a very unrestful night's sleep was this morning's call time of 6am. I decided that it was probably a combination of altitude sickness, which JS says often hits harder around bedtime, and maybe the milk from the hot chocolate. I must admit to not being sure what kind of animal it came from, and I'm sure I'll get some grief from the family about that. But authentic street market! Worth it.
Despite the lack of sleep, it was a fine day for viewing the Colca Canyon, which was our main destination for today. From Chivay, it was a bumpy few hours' ride, half of the way on an unpaved road. We stopped every now and then to choke on the dust and to take in the panorama that surrounded us.
Part of the amazing view has to do with these, which are called stepped terraces. They're basically rock walls built up so crops could grow on these steep Andes Mountains. The most fascinating thing about them in my book is that they were originally made in pre-Incan times, making them over eight centuries old. And the farmers still use them today! The most impressive part can't even be seen from this one photo--these rock walls continue on across the entire valley. They had to take forever to make.
At every stop we made, there were women dressed in the traditional Pervian garb of skirts with embroidery and the special hats they wear, selling the same scarves and hats and gloves. I bet they made a killing in the freezing cold morning. And people still bought things in the afternoon. I did enjoy our first stop, where we got to try some tuna, which is not fish but a fruit that grows on the cactus in Peru. It looks like a kiwi on the inside, but is very sour. They use it to make Colca Sours, which is similar to Pisco Sours but using the tuna instead of tart limes. Both will make you pucker!
Our guide talked a bit along the way about the history of the region and the terraces, and the other really interesting thing he mentioned in association with the women and their hats. There were a couple little tribes living in the mountains in the Inca time, and each one had a specific mountain that they considered holy. To honor this, they shaped the skulls of their children into the outline of these two mountains, one of which was kind of a flat topped mountain and the other which was very peaked. It made me a bit squirmy to think about this, so I won't go into any more detail, but when the Spanish came around they forbid this practice and instead allowed the natives to create flat and peaked hats to worship their mountains with. Which are the same sort of hats you see them wearing today! When in traditional garb, that is.
Something else that strikes me as kind of funny is how often we walk around and see a local wearing what I would consider tourist garb. A lot of people have jackets that say Peru on them, and they also wear the cute beanie hats that say where they are from and have little alpacas on them. I'm not sure if it's advertising, national pride, or just that the tourist stuff isn't too pricy to buy.
We finally arrived at the Canyon itself, and it was all right. Yes, it's two times as deep as the Grand Canyon, but the colors are definitely monotone in comparison. The cooler part was definitely seeing the condors that made the canyon their home. You could really tell how deep the canyon was when they would come wheeling over your head and then soar down to the bottom, becoming nearly invisible in their tininess. Our guide kept talking about the Flight of the Condors and JS and I were having trouble not referring to it as the Flight of the Concords.
But the condors were cool. There weren't any flying around at first, so we were worried it was going to be a dud, but they came out after a bit and kindly flew over our heads for pictures. They have a huge wingspan and look so smooth gliding in the sky, but when they get in close and you can see their turkey heads, they really aren't that pretty. But boy can they fly!
It was a long drive all the way back to Arequipa. I might have slept. But I was happy to be back in a lower elevation city with a few hours to wander around the shops. Wish me luck for tomorrow with the even higher elevation Puno!
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