Thursday, 3:30am … We are awake and waiting for a van to pick us up and take us to the deepest (or second deepest?) canyon in the world – Colca Canyon.

Noah is in an extremely good mood, despite the time, and we are about to visit the place we have most been looking forward to in this part of Peru.

But why is visiting Colca Canyon worth every cent?

As we mentioned in the first paragraph, the Cañón de Colca (as it is called in Spanish) is said to be the deepest canyon in the world, depending on how you measure it, with a depth of more than 3km from cliff edge to riverbed. When measured in other ways it is second to another very deep canyon, the Cotahuasi. In any case, both are twice as deep as the Grand Canyon in the US so we knew that we were about to see an impressive sight.

The time of our visit was unusual; we should’ve left by 3am under normal circumstances, just like the many other visitors who go to Colca Canyon. The reason we hadn’t is that at one of the main points in the canyon (Cruz del Condor) we would be able to see several condors flying over this natural beauty.

This is a great activity for families, and if you get lucky with the weather it is totally worth spending the whole day out. Visitors can also go trekking over 2-3 days, but as Noah is too young for that we decided on a 1-day trip.

The beginning of our journey to Colca Canyon

Colca Canyon is about 4 hours away from Arequipa, so we had time to catch up on sleep in the van.

Our tour guide Patricia explained briefly to us what the trip would be like and advised us to try to get some sleep during the journey, as we would reach almost 5000m altitude at one point and then go down to about 3400m again so some people might feel a bit sick due to the sudden change of altitude (Arequipa is located about 2300m above sea level).

Ruth, Noah and I slept for a good part of the journey to Colca Canyon, and we barely felt anything when we reached that highest point.

The first stop, at about 6:30am, was at a small village where we were able to have a simple but delicious breakfast: some tea (coca is the best one to overcome the effect of the altitude, although I tried the manzanilla) and amazing local bread. Unfortunately we were still too sleepy to ask our guide about the ingredients in the bread.

The condors at Cruz del Cura and Cruz del Condor put on a unique flying show for us

After few more stops to enjoy the views and some local markets we reached the Cruz del Cura viewpoint (Mirador Cruz del Cura) at Colca Canyon. Normally this part of the journey is mostly so that visitors can take some amazing pics of the canyon, but luckily we were able to see the first condors. In fact there were 7 of them flying very close to us – they had caught a poor animal and this was where the condors were having their meal.

Patricia told us we didn’t have much time, but we sure enjoyed the views and having those imposing animals just few meters away from us. The 15 minutes became more than 20 – plenty long enough to take some great shots.

Back in the van the driver took us just 1-2 km further along Colca Canyon to reach the Cruz del Condor (Condor cross), the most famous spot in the canyon, where you can admire the magnificent views from several points.

Only a few condors were flying over Cruz del Condor initially, as most of them were having their “breakfast” at Cruz del Cura.

We had much more time to appreciate the views there and Noah had a great time walking back and forth between the different parts of the viewpoint as well as watching all those majestic birds.

After the condors at Colca Canyon it is time to explore the magnificent region a bit more

Back in the van again we still had some more stops before coming back to Arequipa, including the baños termales de Chacapi (over 36°C!!!), Patapampa (the highest point on our trip at 4910m above sea level) and Reserva Nacional Las Salinas y Aguada Blanca (where unfortunately Noah could not appreciate the llamas, alpacas and vicunas as he was sleeping):

Maca

Chacapi hot springs, in Chivay

Patapampa, for a view of the volcanoes

Las Salinas and Aguada Blanca National Reserve

After a long and pleasant journey we got back to Arequipa at around 4pm, so we had some time to walk around the city a bit and choose a place to have dinner before our trip to Cusco. We had some sandwiches at the La Lucha Sangucheria Criolla. It was a nice place with good food, but to be honest for the amount we paid I’d have chosen somewhere else.

Now we are back on the bus for another trip, this time to Cusco where we should arrive at 6am and get ready for our journey to the Sacred Valley and Machu Picchu.

Next stop, Cusco and the Sacred Valley!