Colca Canyon

Today, we spent the day exploring the Colca Canyon - one of the deepest canyons in the world. We got up fairly early to drive deeper into the canyon to Cruz del Condor - a popular place to watch the Andean Condors soaring. These birds are huge, with wingspans around 10 ft! It was awesome to watch them soaring through the canyon and swooping down over us, all in complete silence (condors don't make any noises).

I also spotted a humming bird visiting the flowers while I was waiting for the condors to reappear.

On our way our of the canyon, we stopped at a couple view points to admire the Inca terraces that are still being used by farmers today. It was the end of the dry season so there wasn't much growing, but it was still beautiful.

We arrived back in Chivay in time to watch the locals celebrate the patron saint of police with a small ceremony where they gave bread and flowers to the police, followed by a parade around the main plaza. Many of the older women were dressed in traditional clothing.

After a relaxing soak in the hot springs, we went out for supper were we were given a show of traditional music and dancing. Our group was the only one to join in the dancing, and K and I were also pulled in to the dance "I love you because you hit me". I this dance, one partner makes the other partner lie on there back on the floor with their face covered. They then WHIP the person on the floor a few times, pull them back onto their feet, and continue dancing. K got whacked pretty good by the girl a few times, but the guy just hit the floor beside me :) Sometimes it pays to be a girl!