Oct 14, Friday &

Oct 15, Saturday

Spent the entire day in bed resting.   Leaving for Cuzco tomorrow afternoon.

Oct 14, Friday

Wake up knock at my door at 4:50 am.   Good thing I went to sleep early.   Had a nice breakfast; great selection and good coffee !    Mini-bus picked me up at 6:15 instead of 6 and it was really cold outside.  This is not helping my head cold.

The drive through La Valle del Colca was very nice.  Stopped quite a few times along the way to take pictures.   The entire valley is terraced with fields of all types of crops.

Can you spot the workers in the fields?

Got to La Cruz del Condor by 8 am and we had 1 ½ hours of free time to walk around and hope to see condors.   The valley plunges into a deep gorge and the condors ride the drafts up and down this point.   I had been told that there were times when no one saw any condors, so I had not put my hopes up too high.   I walked down from the parking lot to the first Mirador and took a few pictures.  No sign of any condors.  

This is to top Mirador, you can see the lower one in the distance.

The hike up to the second Mirador was a bit steep and the breathing was a bit difficult, but I had my walking sticks so I decided not to linger too long at the lower level and started walking up the path.    I was almost at the bottom of the higher Mirador when an adult condor flew overhead.   SH__T !   No time to drop my sticks, turn on my camera, and get a picture.   It had a beautiful huge black and white wing span.   Adults are black and white;  juveniles are brown with some black.    By now the staircase of the higher Mirador were crowded with people, but I managed to make my way half way up to a nice spot to take pictures.   I shouldn’t have worried about not seeing any condors.  I have 18 pictures that turned out fairly well, and some great film on my camcorder.

Could not have asked for a better day.   Just amazing to watch them glide by, in both directions, some were just overhead and some were on the other side of the gorge.

The drive back to Chivay was a bit faster, but we did stop again to take some pictures and to visit a small town.   Definitely a tourist trap, but it was worth it.  Two people had tethered eagles and you could pay to have one sit on a hat on your head.   I just took pictures, thank you very much;  those claws are huge !  How much protection can that felt hat provide ?

Back to Chivay for a nice buffet lunch, and then drive back to Arequipa without any stops.  

We were back in the city by 4 pm instead of 5 or 6.   I was glad to be back because my head cold was now full blown and I really needed to take medication and go to bed.   No dinner, just water, juice and fruit.