Canyons and Condors

Well, you can´t  go wrong watching the world´s biggest birds in one of the world´s deepest canyons.

Another amazing spot.

Birds the size of small planes in a canyon twice as deep as the Grand Canyon.  Almost 2 miles from top to bottom.

Two thumbs up for Colca Canyon, about a 4 hour drive from Arequipa.

Vicuñas, the gazelle of the Altiplano.

They´re a protected species, but locals are allowed to capture them and shear their coats, since the wool is worth a lot.

More llamas at high altitude.

The skyline - the only range higher than this is the Himalayas.

Effective marketing.

Alpacas that haven´t had their coats cut in a long time.  They look... ridiculous.

Mop on 4 legs.

This dog got frisky with the llamas, and the llamas weren´t pleased.

Colca Lodge - a wonderfully peaceful retreat at the base of Colca Valley.  

Elegant architecture and thoughtful use of color.

Quinoa - it´s the local grain that thrives at high altitude.  It´s becoming popular in the US for Whole Foods types because it has a lot of protein and is gluten free.

Colca Canyon and Valley

Literally hundreds of stories of terracing.  Unbelievable.

Facing towards the sunrise.

Entering the Canyon.  You can see a jeep in the bottom right.

Bottomless Colca Canyon, at the Condor Cross.

First sighting - long distance.

Closer.  These birds have wingspans of up to 11 feet.

Buzzing the crowd.

These birds are amazing. They sort of float by like small planes.

It´s hard to capture the space... this canyon is over 10,000 feet deep.  You can sense some of it here.

20,000 foot peaks in the background.

Majestic from far away, ugly ugly up close.

Getting tea at a shop that could double as a petting zoo.  There were chickens, llamas, cats and sheep there.  And they would wander in and out of the kitchen and seating area as they pleased.  Imagine a Starbucks with llamas in the mountains.

Getting a little more rugged...

The public restrooms on the way back!

Pre-Industrial Industry

You don´t need to visit museums to see how people used to live.

You can come visit this salt production ¨facility¨ in Peru.

Salty spring water is fed through a series of channels to basis, where it evaporates.  People then shovel the salt into sacks, carry them off, and market the product to the wider world.

It is incredibly labor intensive, and cannot be lucrative once you realize that a pound of table salt costs less than a dollar.  The raw version must fetch much, much less.  At this point, the money generated by tourism probably beats the revenues from the actual salt (an entrance ticket costs a $1.75).

Other than the Europeans taking pictures, this system probably hasn´t changed in thousands of years.  Wow.

Welcome to a three dimensional maze of thousands of salt basins.

Salt water starts out in the canal by those tourists. Then, by using rocks to block a series of channels, it is directed into the pools.  It takes about a month for the water to evaporate, at which point the salt is extracted.

Each basin produces a few hundred pounds of salt per year.

Making the hard uphill trek.

Surreal.



Probably relatively more accessible when you walked everywhere.  It´s a precarious road to the mines.



The textures really come out in black and white.

Shadows on the salt.

A natural adjacency to salt.  So.  Much. Stuff.

Peru - the Sacred Valley

Anywhere else, the Sacred Valley would be its own attraction.

But with Machu Picchu next door, sometimes it gets overlooked.  Like Pippen to Jordan.  Or everyone else in the NBA next to Lebron James.

There are huge mountains, quiet villages and loads of Inca ruins.  It´s part of the same valley that reaches Machu Picchu, and the Incas built and built up and down the mountains.

We spent a couple of days visiting ruins, doing light hiking and relaxing after our 4am assault on Machu Picchu the day before.  We also got lost trying to find a way between two sites (it was in Frommer´s - how bad could it be?), with a river in the way and no way to cross it.  A stray taxi saved us, and we got some good pictures in the process.

Hello Pisac, citadel and farming town at the edge of the valley.  Like a castle out of Lord of the Rings.  It´s like Machu Picchu lite.

Looking down the valley at huge green ridges and fields. 

Couple of American tourists and their guide on the edge of the fortress.

Birds of prey everywhere - here´s one cruising high above the canyon.

Terracing halfway down the mountain - it must have taken a hefty amount of human labor to get the job done.

To add to the ambience, there´s even live music at the summit.

Caught Weiner trying to get a candid!



A birds eye view of the terracing and ruins.



Getting around in the taxi... folks are superstitious here, and a few religious charms can´t hurt.

Traffic jam!

Part Wyoming, part Utah and part wild west.

More clever terracing, more questions about what it was for.  Even today most Inca sites aren´t well understood and are shrouded in mystery.

Huge snowy peaks just behind that last ridge.  Most are well above 6,000m (20,000 ft.)  And this is at 14 degrees south of the equator!

Big mountains, bigger sky.

A different view of the terracing.

Taking the road less traveled, because it is the wrong road.

A great view of the topography - big canyons, big mountains, and winding paths. 

It turns out this scenic road would lead us about 20 miles from where we wanted to go.  Good thing we asked the local shepherd for directions.

Golden fields.

Local wildlife!

A different view of the Sacred Valley, towards Machu Picchu.

Special thanks to Weiner for this vanity shot.