South America Day 8

We had a very early start today, a 5:30am breakfast, but it was worth it.  We travelled for about an hour and a half through the Colca Valley past old Andean villages and stone terraces built into the hillsides to visit the Colca Canyon.  Often claimed to be the deepest, but is actually the second deepest canyon in the world, it is a haven for Condors so we went to spot the huge beautiful Condors soaring on the thermals above the canyon.  Our guide, Louis, was very knowledgeable and explained all about the history of the canyon and area on the way.  Once we arrived we had to wait quite a while, along with crowds of other tourists, for the heat of the morning sun to warm the thermals and for the condors appear.  They were amazing though and worth the wait.  We saw quite a few and they were flying right above us, adults, ten years plus, with white markings and younger ones, all brown.

The scenery again in the Colca Canyon and Colca Valley was stunning, very beautiful.  Once the condors had disappeared in search of their food for the day we had a short forty minute walk along the top of the canyon back to 'Amber' our truck. Vikki opened the roof seats so a few people had fun riding up there for a while whilst still on dirt road.  They got very dusty!  Back in Chivay we went to a restaurant serving a buffet lunch, all you can eat really nice food again and a great choice, good desserts too.  

We stayed a second night at the same hotel in Chivay.  We had a big thunderstorm in the afternoon which continued into the evening so we had a relaxing afternoon in the hotel and a nice afternoon snooze.  We were quite tired with the early start and we have another 5:30am start again tomorrow.
Lots of photos again today!