Oct 13, Thursday

Oct 13, Thursday

Wake up call at 6 am.  Small back-pack ready for my 2-day excursion.   Leisurely breakfast.  Bus was supposed to pick me up at 7:30 but it was almost 8 when it showed up.   I was one of the last people to be picked up.   We are 14 tourists on the mini-bus for this excursion.    I went to sleep with a sore throat last night and it is worse this morning.  Unfortunately it is too early for pharmacies to be open, so it looks like I won’t be able to purchase lozenges until this afternoon.   Our guide Rebeca told me that coca leaves would help both my throat and the high altitude.   We are climbing up to 4,900 meters today (when we reach Patapampa) before descending to Chivay, the town where we are spending the night.

The roads are good. The scenery is very arid again, and very rocky. We circled around Chachani volcano and made our way to la Reserva de Aguada Blanca. This reserve has many vicuña and we were very lucky to see a few family groups (one male with a number of females and their offspring). Our guide confirmed that vicuña could not be domesticated; so how do they get the wool? Once every year (or maybe that was twice a year ?) the locals form a human chain and herd the vicuña into corals. They then proceed to shear them. You were able to see from yesterday’s pictures and these, that they have very short hair. The result is that they only get about 200 to 300 grams of wool from each vicuña; now I understand why it is so expensive ! Got some great film of them running as well.

Also wondered why we weren’t seeing any guanaco.  Found out that they are actually found in southern Peru and northern Chile.   They can’t be domesticated either.

Only the llamas and alpacas are docile enough and we saw plenty of those along the road where they are allowed to graze freely.   Wild or domesticated ?   Hard to tell.   I'm assuming that the large herds are domesticated, and the llamas with the ear adornments; but the others ?

Llamas

Llamas with ear decorations

Alpacas

Alpacas

Just before arriving to Chivay, we reached the highest point of our trip (Patapampa 4,900 meters) and made a stop at the Mirador de los Volcanes from where we could see three more volcanoes, one of which is where they found the mummy of “la niña”.  

From the Mirador we had a 50 minute drive down into La Valle del Colca.    We had lunch in Chivay and then they dropped us off at each of our hotels (mine is the Pozo del Cielo).   By then I was running a fever, completely congested and still had the sore throat.   Our schedule for the afternoon was to go to a thermal water pool in the town of La Calera, but I decided to skip that part, get some medication at a pharmacy, and try to rest before dinner.     Feverish and shivers with 3 woollen blankets on the bed.

I had a nice bowl of soup for dinner and as I was leaving the restaurant building to regain my room, I noticed that there was a teenager hanging around the courtyard.   A few minutes after I reached my room, there was a knock at the door.  It was the same young man, bringing me a hot water bottle for my bed !   How’s that for service.    I’m in an older part of the hotel, and it is quite charming.   The door to come into my attic room is only about 5 feet tall; you have to bend to come in !   There are rafters on the ceiling and wooden shutters on the inside of the room to block out the sun…. and the cold.   It is quite chilly tonight, so the hot water bottle was really appreciated.    Hélène, you would love this room.

Early start again tomorrow.  This time the wake-up call is at 5 am so that we are on the road by 6 am in the hope of seeing condors flying in the valley.

PS – Getting different information from the different guides !   I will have to do a bit of research on the internet when I get back to Arequipa, to ensure I have written down the correct information.