The second deepest canyon of the world at over 4200 depth, the Colca Canyon is a unique natural marvel. Its name Colca means storehouse in Quechua and is probably due to the large number of qolqas the Collacaga people built in this very fertile valley.
The Collacaga was a pre-inca culture that developed in the Colca valley area and lived there from the 13th century to the 15th century. As the Inca, the made extensive use of terraces for farming and built an extensive network of qolqas. They believed in the Pachamama (Mother Earth) and idiolized a nearby mountain called Collagata. The cultural clash with the Spanish conquistadors could not be greater: different religious beliefs (Pachamama vs Christian God) and different languages (Spanish vs Quechua, which is closer to Asian languages)
Our bus picked us at 3:30 a.m. from the Airbnb and drove four hours through the Andes mountains to reach the volcanoes lookout at 4900 meters of altitude. From there we could see the active volcano Sabancaya, the Amparo (where the frozen mummy of Juanita was found) and the Chauchani. There are about 400 volcanoes in Peru and 190 of them can be found in this area
We descended down towards the Colca river valley to go to small town Yanque, where we had breakfast, known for its Human Cultural Heritage dance Wititi. Wititi is a courtship dance where men dressed as women try to court single women.
After breakfast we ascended back to the canyon and stopped on the way to Cruz del Condor for magnificent views of the canyon and the villages o the valley.
Cruz del Condor, at 38000 altitude and a drop of 1200 meters of the canyon, was the highlight of the day. It is a condor sanctuary, the biggest bird (a type of culture) of the Andes that had a special religious meaning for many cultures. We stayed at the sanctuary for one hour approximately before going down for lunch.
On the way back to Chivay, a small town at the entry of the Colca Canyon, we stopped at another lookout to see the terraces closer and taste sancayo juice, a refreshing drink from a local cacti.
On Chivay, before lunch, we had three optional activities: zipline across the Colca river and back, kayak in the river or thermal baths. We chose the kayak.
The tour was almost over after lunch, with some stops on the National Park Salinas y Aguas Blancas to see vicuñas (wild alpacas), alpacas, llamas and flamingos.
We arrived at Arequipa after five in the evening. Because this was our last night in the city, we tried some local delicacies: rototo relleno (stuffed red pepper with a cheesy white sauce on top and potato pie) and chicharron de cuy (fried guinea pig with potatoes and rice).
