Canyons, Mountains & Vineyards

[Jacques Vert]

Fab-o scenery! What's your altitude there?

Top of the canyon RooFlyer is about 3500m. But the road there from Arequipa tops out close 4000m. It's quite spectacular. It's a good 3.5 to 4 hour drive
Arequipa is about 2200m.

I'm coming to that; those photos are on the road towards the turnoff for the Canyon, varying from 2,325m leaving Arequipa to about 3,600m for the last photo near Patahuasi.

From here we head up through Patapampa Pass at 4,910m.

More photos to come when time permits.

 

[Jacques Vert]

Continuing along the "highway" we pass some Vicunas near Pampa Canahuas:





With the Volcano "Misty" in the background:




Then at Patahuasi, the turn-off to Colca Canyon, we stop for a Coca tea with a few other herbs thrown in, near the Rock Forest (sometimes called the Stone Forest):




Our tea house:

 

[Jacques Vert]

We met some of the locals as we headed higher towards Patapampa Pass....

 

[Jacques Vert]

The weather was closing in as we went through the pass...

 

[Jacques Vert]

Then we descend into Chivay (3,646m). Going through the pass, +1 was feeling a little pressure in her forehead/temple area, a mild reaction to the altitude. I was feeling fine. We had done many of the things suggested to help with the altitude: Diamox, Coca Tea, lots of water, no sugar and a day in Arequipa to aclimatise; we even had a few days of no alcohol

Descending into Chivay:

 

[Boca68]

The descent into Chivay is great. We did the same road only last year. I was ok, but my +1 was feeling it in the upper altitudes. You probably already know, but Chivay is meh! The mineral springs about the same.

But when you get to the canyon later, wow!

 

[Jacques Vert]

We had lunch in Chivay:

 

[Jacques Vert]

Then a stroll around town:

 

[Boca68]

We had lunch in Chivay:

View attachment 125068 View attachment 125069 View attachment 125070 View attachment 125071

I think its the same restaurant we ate in when there...

Are you drinking chica morada? I do like it,

 

[Jacques Vert]

By now, +1 had fully recovered and was feeling fine while I had developed a slight headache that only lasted a couple of minutes out of every half hour. Perhaps a combination of the altitude and a lot of early starts, or maybe a lack of alcohol

A few more shots around Chivay...

 

[Jacques Vert]

After a dip in the thermal springs/swimming pool, we headed further down the Canyon to our digs near Cabanaconde in the La Granja del Colca hotel.







That's the hotel on the edge of the canyon:





The meal room...


The view from the back of the hotel...










While the location and views are certainly spectacular, everything else with this hotel was a huge fail. Notice the gas heater in the photo below? Well they never turned it on; instead the kitchen hand serving the meals wore her beanie and scarves to keep warm. I had a windcheater with a woollen vest plus a heavy jacket over the top, and my ski gloves. The bedroom was even colder with only the smallest of electric oil heaters which was totally inadequate for the room. We had to ask three times for a key so we could lock our room. And of course, there was no hot water at any time.

 

[Jacques Vert]

So to our dinner:

We had to place our order in advance. We ordered the tomato soup...what we were served was lukewarm pumpkin soup.

The mains were reasonably tasty...






Dessert was a quarter of a banana, cut in half and served with some blueberry sauce.

 

[Jacques Vert]

I think its the same restaurant we ate in when there...

Are you drinking chica morada? I do like it,

I think that's what it was called.

 

[Jacques Vert]

BTW, I forgot to mention that when we arrived at the hotel I laid down and had a kip for an hour and woke feeling fine, headache gone. No more altitude symptoms for either of us.

 

[Boca68]

I think that's what it was called.

I'm sure that's what is in the photo. Its made from purple corn (choclo morado), cloves and a few other things.... Its quite refreshing. Looks a bit like red wine, but non-alcoholic. You can buy it most anywhere, but most places in the cities just have the coke version, not the real homemade thing, which is delicious. Quite nice served warm too, a la mulled wine.

It's called chica morada, well, because the chicas (i.e. women) worked the corn fields and in days gone by, only women drank it. Or so the story goes.

 

[Jacques Vert]

Next morning after a VERY quick cold shower, we went to breakfast. Nothing special, in fact I can't even remember what we had.

As noted above, the advantage of this place is that it is right on the edge of the Canyon and it wasn't long before we met some new friends...














The photos above, as well as the next few, were taken from the back of the hotel which is literally 2m from the Canyon edge...

 

[Jacques Vert]

As we were leaving there were 5 condors (some adults + a couple of young ones) hovering over the hotel but I wasn't able to get a decent photo of them....if only they would stay still for a minute or two while I sorted out my camera work.

Next stop was at Cruz del Condor where we were joined by some tour groups, but as we were early it wasn't too bad:

 

[Jacques Vert]

We then headed back towards Chivay but made a couple of stops along the way:









Our driver and guide; both of whom were excellent:




Next stop was the town/village on Maca:

Santa Anna...



No Pisco Sour for us, we had to try this alternative...



made from this...




Bloody good stuff, highly recommended.

 

[Jacques Vert]

TKWWA so they called out the dancing girls and the local band to welcome us...





Inside Iglesia Santa Ana or the Church of Saint Santa Ana







Notice anything interesting in this next photo?




Look at the one in the middle of the row of candles. It's seems to be quite a bit higher than the others. I went to investigate and discovered that it had set fire to some of the flowers that had dried out, which in turn had set fire to the wooden frame. The flame was growing quickly as I pulled some of the "fuel" away and I was soon joined by a chap who told me he was a fireman. My new friend picked up that vase in front and emptied the water onto the fire. Mission accomplished! Perhaps this will earn me a few brownie points with you know who

 

[Jacques Vert]

Next stop, another lunch in Chivay, this time is a different restaurant:



On the road again and we make another stop at Patapampa Pass; this time the weather is good and we can clearly see 7 volcanoes, two of which are active.









One of the active volcanoes is Volcan Sabancaya, it's among that bunch in the centre of the photo below. Our guide tells us that it "erupts" approximately every three hours at present.













As we prepare to leave, Sabancaya decides to put on a show: