Colca Canyon and Chivay

by Sophie · 28th June 2013

Colca canyon is home to a national park where we were able to spot wild llama, alpaca and vicuña. The animals are beautiful and the scenery is breathtaking. We went deeper into the canyon to look for condors and were rewarded with many sightings – apparently the number we saw is quite rare, so we were lucky!

Chivay is a pretty little town with painted walls and traditional, brightly patterned clothing. We enjoyed our first shopping at the market to buy some alpaca wool items for the cold nights ahead! We then enjoyed an evening dip in the local hot springs.

The town is at a very high altitude of 3600m, and we had to climb a peak of 4900m on our way there! Sophie started off feeling fine, but woke in the night feeling like she was going to pass out. It was short-lived but is making her quite nervous about the impending trek.