Colca Canyon Tour - May 28

The small town of Chivay, the main one in the Colca Canyon is built similar to small towns in Mexico. The roads are not paved, the buildings are roughly put together, yet the town is 'alive' with people. The people living in the canyon continue to follow the ancient traditional ways of life. Land is beautifully terraced, in a sophisticated manner, using every little bit available. One part up to one part back. We figure the density of the population must have been great to support all this agriculture. I loved the artistic and gorgeous patterns. Yesterday, driving into town, we saw several women and men, threshing and gathering wheat and quinoa, on their small plots of land. Potatoes are planted in the fields also and harvested, all by hand.

We had to be up at 5 a.m. as the tour bus was picking us up t 6 a.m. But, it arrived at 6.45 a.m. picking everyone else up first, so Bruce and I could not sit together. Bruce was quite ill with altitude sickness, but he survived the day.

Colca Canyon is a site to see. It's 100 kms long, and has a depth of 11, 155 ft. The canyon is home to the Cabana and Collagua peoples, who have lived here for 2000 years. We discovered that they devised their system of terracing on the mountainsides, trapping runoff water from the volcanoes. The terracing also prevents erosion of their farm lands. We found them to be ingenious farmers, as the land surrounding them is the dry, arid desert.

The women are colourfully dressed, as we are now noticing in all the towns of Peru. It's so pretty to see...

We stopped to visit another small town in the valley - Yanque. Visited the Cathedral, and women, colourfully dressed, were outside waiting for their photos to be taken. They had hawks on their shoulders and llamas, all dressed up, by their sides. Children were dancing in the square.

Catholic Peruvians absolutely revere the Blessed Virgin Mary. I've never seen soon many churches named after her, or chapels that honour her, with statues elaborating her importance.
We believe it's because the Jesuits, in order to convert the Incas and other peoples in Peru, had to use the 'Mary', a mother, which the Andean peoples believed strongly in the 'mother earth'... so, the connection was made. I've never seen Mary so elaborately dressed - anywhere. Andean people still combine the two beliefs - Christianity and the Inca ways. Mother Earth is revered, as is the sun and the moon. Interesting, indeed.

Today's other highlight was visiting the Cruz del Condor, watching these huge, condors glide, soar and wheel around us before they chose to land on boulders on the mountain sides. We stayed at this sight for an hour, observing them in flight, catching the wind currents. Peruvians still consider them a sacred bird, taken from ancient beliefs.

The Andean moutain ranges and the volcanoes are awsome to see. An Aussie geologist , whom we met, believes they are the most interesting mountains to study and work with. He works in Argentina and Chili, and just loves his job.

Another site was the hanging tombs on the mountainside. Incas or pre-Incas buried their families here. The tombs have since been raided, but the forms are still there to be studied.

Oddity - This is the second time that we have had the comment regarding our age made to us. Younger tourists find it amazing that Bruce and I are willing to forgo the comforts of 5 star hotels, and take rough tours like this. They find it amazing that we are on a tour of our own in Peru - at our age. We find this so cute, and together we all have a good giggle.

The trip back to Arequipa was quite long, and everyone was tired, yet we were so happy to have seen it all. Arriving at the hotel, Bruce took his first altitude sickness pill, and felt much better. We both did. No more headaches, no more nausea. We will now pay more attention to our bodies as we move further up in altitude.

Hope our family and friends are all well. We think of you often, and let's face it, I'm praying for all of you in all the churches I visit!