Altitude sickness of the Condor

Several Chileans gave me the sign of the cross and told me to keep my baggage close at all times when I was about to cross into Perú, however it has been safe and enjoyable so far. Lou even found a replacement for our Renault Clio in Tacna, Perú, and here she is taking it for a test drive. It may not do so well on the Motorway though.

Here is another way to get around the deserts of Northern Chile and Perú.

Thankfully, after spending a night in the world's noiseiest guest house, we made to Arequipa. This is a city full of buildings made of white Volcanic stone, and the taxi driver told me that we were at 2300m when I complained about the cold and rain. If this wasn´t bad enough the locals were busy throwing water at each other all weekend in the name of ´Carnival´. Naturally, tourists were also a target and we both got soaked on a Sunday walk. Apparently this is some sort of courtship ritual, however I watched from the hotel roof as a housewife dropped buckets of water over unsuspecting youths in the street. I too had a go and soaked some local girls and a few tourists who will probably get me back.

The cold water and altitude nearly made Lou seek shelter in the local convent, however the temptation of a sinful cake list at the convent cafe was too much for her. The Menu is well worth opening in a separate window.

Close to Arequipa, the Colca canyon is famous for its condors, and off we went to Calmay to be ready for early start to see them the next day. The first part of this drive was a climb to 4900m to cross the watershed. At this point my head started banging and we both felt pretty ill. I wondered why noone else on the trip was having this problem, but they were all fresh from walking to Machu Pichu. I managed to focus my mind on obtaining asprin from a local shop and went to bed for a while before visiting the hot springs bathing pool. Here some Peruvians invited me for to share a Pisco sour, which I had to decline as my head was already reaching boiling point.

At 5am the next day we woke up to a breakfast of pockets of air in bread bubbles and coffee substitute. We headed up the canyon to see the condors and apparently some dancing children in a village sqaure. The children didn't show (would you let you kids out at 6am?) and the condors didn't get up until much later, about 9am. When they did about 5 started circling the Colca canyon and the clouds slowly lifted to see the drop below them. The condors are carrion eating birds and circled the large groups of tourists, presumably hoping one of them might fall into the 4000m canyon. Close up they look like fat ugly vultures, but in flight they are slight and beautiful with silver on the top of the wings. This alone was worth the hammering headache which stayed with me until we got down to Arequipa.