Hola Amigos,
Just to clarify. We are have a mixed time as per life. Sometimes the trip is excellent and sometimes it is terrible but most of the time it is good.
We weren`t surprised when we got on the truck at 3am and Drew the driver had the front open and was working away. Didn`t take too long to fix then the next problem. There was a kombie van in front of the truck making it almost impossible to get out of the residence grounds. Made it with mm to spare. Long and cold drive to Chivay passing over 4500m along the way. The windows were frozen and we all had sleeping bags on. I had a rapido stop with my stomach problem at the top of the pass. Brrr. All the water in the area was frozen so there were frozen waterfalls and lakes along the way. There were plenty of old ruins even above the 4000m line.
Colca Canyon is twice as deep as the grand canyon and if you believe the blab is 3000m deep but it isn`t really as on one side it is about 1400m deep. We picked up a guide and headed out there at about 7am. The drive should have taken 1.5hrs to get to the condors, which nest at the bottom of the canyon then catch the thermals once the air warms, but the truck broke down again about 30min drive from the site. It took about 1 hr to fix and we arrive at the canyon just in time for about 6 condors to rise above the lip and fly away about 10 second later. We waited around for late risers and saw two more and realised that the rise time was only 15 seconds anyway so it was lucky.
After the Condor watching we headed back to Chivay, height about 3500m, which also had a festival on called Virgen de la Asunta festival....and they had a bullfight on in the afternoon. Only problem was that it was a small ring and there were lots of people. No seats but we found a nice spot to watch standing up. Unfortunately the locals kept barging and it was a people crush. The little old peruvian ladies were the worst packing in like rugby front rowers then wedging themselves using babies as battering rams. They rudely pushed in front of us and soon after the start of the bullfight we left. Not before my had went missing. Might have just dropped it in the crush. From what we saw the bull looked like it was on sedatives and just wanted to go back to eating grass in the paddocks. Didn`t seem very sporting. The people crush and atmosphere was very exciting anyway. There was supposed to be a parade in the town square. There were some particularly weird decorations around the square covered with dolls and stuffed animals. These were held on poles that were drilled into the main street. Anyway the parade sort of happened but there probably was too much chicha involved for it to be too well coordinated.
Had a mate (pronounced martay) at tea time at the highest irish pub in the world. It was made with coca leaves and is supposed to be good for stomach and altitude related problems.
Headed off to Cuzco.
Adios,
David & Vanessa
