Cañon Del Colca and Cruz Del Condor
November 21, 2020
After a short night snuggled under the alpaca blanket, we dressed warmly for the freezing temperatures and started the day with breakfast on the fourth floor terrace of the hostel. Whilst eating, we enjoyed dramatic views of the volcanos, where one was erupting as the sun rose.Our guide picked us up at 6:30 and we began our journey to the cañon and Cruz del Condor in the hope of seeing the Andean Condors, which are the second largest birds in the world after the Albatros, with a wing span of up to 3.8 meters.
Our first stop brought us to a little village where children were performing folkloric dances on the square, whilst market stalls sold Peruvian artisan products to tourists. Altough slightly too touristy, it was still a lovely experience.
We then continued the journey along the cañon to find the condor. It did not take long before a family of condors were spotted flying across the sky. Seeing these birds in their natural habitat, flying magnetically over the deepest cañon in the world, was absolutely exhilarating and moving. They seemed to know we were there purely to admire them and appeared to be performing for our benefit, swooping backwards and forwards and getting so close at times that we could feel the breeze created from their enormous wings as they flew past. We could almost touch them. It was an experience we shall never forget.
