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Cañón del Colca (Colca Canyon)

After a few days in Arequipa, we arranged an overnight excursion to the Cañón del Colca, located about 100 miles to the north. Our hotel put us up at the Casa Andina affiliate in Chivay, which boasts its own p lanetarium.

Reserva Nacional Salinas y Aguada Blanca
	The highway from Arequipa to Cuzco passes through a nature preserve. The park, established in 1979, offers views of volcanoes and vicuñas — a species of wild camelids related to llamas and alpacas.

	The road to Colca Canyon climbs through the Andes to an elevation of 4,910 m (16,105 ft) — the highest point in our Peruvian travels — before descending quickly to Chivay.

	Chivay
	The capital of Caylloma province is the gateway to Colca Canyon, and the largest of the 14 villages established by Viceroy Toledo in the valley during the 16th century.

	Colca Canyon
	Although it is twice as deep as the Grand Canyon, the Cañón del Colca is not even the deepest in Peru — that honor belongs to the nearby Cañón Cotahuasi. Nonetheless, it is still an awfully big hole in the ground.

	Arequipeño author Mario Vargas Llosa famously described Colca Canyon as the "valley of wonders".
	It is remarkable not only for its depth — at one point measuring 3,191 m (10,466 ft) from its floor to the adjacent peaks — but also for its cultural heritage.

The river derives its name from the many small holes in the cliffs (colcas), which were used in pre-Columbian times by the indigenous peoples to store food, or as tombs for tribal leaders.

The native inhabitants of the canyon have left their mark on the canyon — literally — over the centuries. The Quechua-speaking Cabana tribe and Aymara-speaking Collaguas terraced every available surface, and to this day their descendants cultivate maize, quinoa, and other crops along the canyon's steep irrigated slopes.

The two tribes used to ritualistically deform the heads of their children to resemble the shape of their respective holy mountain.			Nowadays, descendents of each tribe are distinguished by the shape of their hats — flat-topped for Collaguas, round among Cabanas.

Cruz del Cóndor
About 30 miles west of Chivay is a popular spot for observing Andean condors in their natural habitat.


		These enormous vultures, whose wingspans often exceed 10 ft, soar on the updrafts from the river located 1,200 m (3,940 ft) below.

This page was first published 30 March 2008, and last updated 17 August 2008.