The Colca Valley22 May 2010
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| The last couple of days have been spent in the andes mountains, in the colca valley. We were staying in a beautiful lodge in the middle of nowhere with 360 views of the mountains, this was about 3800m altitude and luckily, no symptoms! Went hiking and found some tombs up in the mountain tops which were a bit grim, skulls and bones everywhere. They bury them up there so that they are closer to the gods (sun, moon, stars, mother earth) There was talk of making a sacrifice to ensure we saw condors the next day in the canyon, apparently I was the best option as I was the youngest on the hike... not sure I buy into the whole living with the gods stuff though. We were up at 5 the next morning to go to the colca canyon, which looks fantastic and you can see snowy mountain tops and frozen waterfalls. The purpose of getting up so early was to spot condors gliding in the canyon, as the morning warms up they use the thermal winds to glide (they don´t fly) so as we journied there and it started raining I think everyone wished they had sacrificed me! We stayed in the canyon hours, I managed to make my own fun, brough a condor finger puppet and created my own condor photos seen as they weren´t showing signs of coming out. Luckily, on the way back from the canyon we spotted some and everyone was happy. After chilling in a hammock for a bit we went to a thermal pool which was luurrrvely, 38 degrees and surrounded by mountians, pretty nice. Went to watch some dodgey traditional dancing that involved whipping, shaking on the floor and coca ceremonys... it was different I suppose. Got up again at 5 today to go on a 6 hour bus journey to Puno, which is at about 4100 I think, again not feeling any alititude sickness, havent been able to eat much good food recently so my highlight today has been eating a pizza! might have another one for dinner, am staying on an island at lake titicaca tommorow with a quechuan family, they don´t speak spanish so not sure how ´vegetariano´will go down. might take some cereal bars with me..! The rest of the group are in the pub watching champions league, am going to join them... think it might be happy hour! |
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