After our relaxing time in Arequipa we had an exciting day exploring the Colca cañon and its surrounding territories. The Colca cañon is more than twice as deep as the Grand canyon (just over 4000m deep and the local people maintain their agricultural roots (relying 90% on agriculture and 10% on tourism). The stepped terraces in the cañon are used to cultivate…you guessed it potatoes and maize but also quinoa which we were lucky enough to try. The main local tribes are called the Cabana and Collagua tribes and have very different national dress which is slightly more multicoloured than that of the northern areas of Peru. They still a variant of the quechua language.
We were also able to see beautiful animals including the famous Condors in the cañon (the photos I have are rubbish but I promise it looked much better in real life!) and I finally got to hang out with some real life wild alpaca 🙂
This one is specially for Ogi 🙂 we started the day with some warm pineapple and quinoa juice which was really delicious!
Here you can see the terraces used to cultivate the different products. They still use the same canals which bring water from the rivers and the whole community helps in cleaning them once a year
Whoever spots the condor gets a free Pisco sour
For those who didnt spot the condor here is our personal reenactment
