The reason we are in this part of Peru is to witness the sight of condors flying on thermal air currents high over the Colca Canyon. The sacred bird of the Incas, and most Andean civilisations. It represents divinity; a connection with the heavens.
It’s also an early riser so we are eating breakfast at 6am with Maribel and Oswaldo waiting outside to drive us to the Canyon. A quick stop in Yanque to witness local dancers is scheduled but we only wait there a few moments as the day is already bright and sunny meaning the condors have taken to the wing.
Condors on the wing
And what wings! Second only to the albatross, they have a 3 metre wingspan that enables them to surf thermal air currents and rise high up over the mountains and down to the Pacific in search of food.
We drive through the Colca valley, witnessing epic views below us, and above us jagged peaks rising up. The tops of the mountains are almost all completely free of snow, their glaciers all but gone. While they will be snow-capped again by January, twenty years ago they would still have been white at this time of year.
Maribel says that the reliability of the seasons here - essentially wet and dry, rather than summer and winter - has started to disappear due to climate change and they can now get rains in June and sunshine in February, causing big problems for crop production and irrigation.
Above the Colca Canyon
Soon we enter the Colca Canyon and shortly after rounding a bend Oswaldo pulls over and we jump out of the van. Above us condors are flying, three, four, five of them. It’s still pretty cold and we’re wrapped up warm, with hats and Peruvian sweaters, but the huge birds are soaring above us, catching the rising thermal currents as the sun heats the air.
It’s still pretty early and at first there’s not many tourists but soon coaches and minibuses start arriving and scores of people start crowding around. We move on to the next viewpoint but by now hundreds of people are jostling for a perfect shot, and there’s only so many pictures of circling birds that you can take so we move on, eager to be on our way as it’s a long drive to the grand city of Arequipa and the penultimate stop of our tour.
The journey there takes us back the way we’ve come. En route we stop at a jaw dropping viewpoint called Door of the Wind, or Wayra Punqu in the Quechua tongue, near a village where cranial deformation was practised for many years. That tradition was ended by the Spanish who viewed it as a work of the devil, but the little stalls sell decorative hats that now serve as the modern markers of local identity.
Before we reach Chivay we visit Maca, a cute little village which was rebuilt after it found itself at the epicentre of an earthquake in 1991. The local square has quirky colourful statues, similar to the ones in Chivay, with a metal sculpture of an Incan king defeating a Spaniard glinting by the side of the road.
Maca village
At the heart of the village is a pretty church dating back to the 1880s which was repaired after the earthquake. Inside are elaborate decorations and shrines mixing Catholicism with the folk style of the Quechua culture. It’s garish, wonderful and bizarre in equal measure.
We’re back in Chivay by 10.45 and Maribel gives us a tour of the food market, pointing out local fruit and vegetables, and places the locals eat. They all rise with dawn and sleep at sunset so it’s already lunchtime for them, as indeed it is for us too so we head to a different ‘touristic’ restaurant this time, cunningly called Colca, for another buffet.
We’re on our way to Arequipa again just after midday, a 180km drive, the first part still retracing our journey of yesterday. Considering we were both awake soon after 4am today it’s no surprise that with full bellies and the sun streaming through the windows we both snooze, waking briefly as we pass the 4900 metre mark with the view of volcanos.
Back at the striking rock formations we rejoin the main road from Puno to Arequipa and wind our way through the dusty, yellow and brown scenery descending down further as we go. The landscape really is barren and like an alien planet, with a very occasional splash of green, irrigated fields in the valley.
Corn in Chivay
Adding even further to the stark landscape is a distant lunar city, something that could have featured in a Star Wars movie. As we get closer it reveals itself to be an absolutely enormous cement factory, by the company Yura. We’ve been driving through volcanic rock which makes perfect cement and Yura are the biggest international company based in Arequipa, providing building material to countries across South America.
Arequipa sits at 2300 metres above sea level and is viewed as Peru’s second city with a whole host of industry and agriculture. While Trujillo has a bigger population, Arequipa, home to 1 million people, has a bigger economic punch and we enter via the northern side of the city, under the watchful eye of the Chachani and Misti volcanoes, driving through the dusty poor districts that house lots of the Yura cement workers.
As we get further into the city, its third towering volcano reveals itself, Pichu Picchu. Markets sit beside the railway tracks and Monday afternoon heavy traffic builds up before we hit the tree-lined dual carriageway that speeds us along through the monied Yanahuaura district with modern shopping centres malls and international brands proving a noticeable contrast to the shanty towns we entered through.
Our hotel is another Casa Andina Premium but leaps and bounds better than the rather dated and perfunctory one in Puno. Housed in a 17th century mansion house it’s grand and beautiful, made even better when we’re told we’ve been upgraded to a junior suite.
Checking into the Casa Andina in Arequipa
It looks lovely, but then we’re shown a superior suite that’s enormous and sumptuous, pretty much our entire wing of a castle with a vast bathroom, elegant living room and enormous bedroom with high stone ceilings and beautiful furniture. Ours for just an extra $50 for the night... we say yes on the spot.
We celebrate this unexpected luxury with a glass of Peruvian champagne in the central courtyard and then empty all our bags out on the ridiculously large bed and across the floor. Once we’ve repacked them for the long journey home with all the souvenirs, textiles, paintings, ceramics, ornaments and clothes we’ve accumulated on the trip, we indulge in a luxurious bath in the super-sizes bathroom.
It’s four hours after we check in that we leave the swanky environs of our temporary home and actually explore the centre of Arequipa. Our first stop is the highly-rated Dimas restaurant on Santa Catalina. A wonderful old white building, like so much of the centre we sit in arches with a great view of the street eating fabulous pasta, salad, soup and quinotto, drinking pisco sours and finishing with the local speciality of Queso Hueldo; a condensed milk ice cream with hot strawberries.
Plaza de Armas in Arequipa
But our meal and hotel have nothing on Arequipa’s Plaza de Armas. As we round the corner, both our jaws drop. Surrounded on three sides by grand colonnades, the fourth side is entirely taken up by one of the most beautiful churches in the world. The cathedral is just staggering and renders us speechless. We mutter “wow” repeatedly as we take photos, the night lighting making it even more magical.
We wander back to the hotel grinning about the day we’re going to have exploring tomorrow, doubly pleased because for the first time in days we don’t have a ridiculously early alarm call. Time to enjoy our super-duper emperor bed in style!
