This article is written by Manoj Radhakrishnan, an engineer and a travel photographer & writer based in Pune
The first day in Arequipa found the five of us – the aussies, the Bedfords and yours truly – opting to go on a masochistic excursion to the Colca canyon, which included waking up at 2 in the morning and ascending 2400m along a bumpy road. My body reacted violently to the sudden elevation change and by the time we reached our breakfast stop, I had managed to get rid of my previous night’s dinner and half of my body fluids in three attempts. The famous coca tea, which I drank by the gallon, managed to convince my body that the world was not coming to an end. The primary reason for all the effort was to make it to the canyon, which by the way is the deepest in the world, by early morning to see the the flight of the andean condors, which by the way is the largest flying bird in the world. The condors rise from the canyon floor with the thermals and we were lucky to see a half a dozen of them that morning. The canyon was completely covered by many pre-inca terraces where cultivation is carried on even today. There were some 11th century stone plans of the terraces showing the major aqueducts which irrigate the region. Needless to add, these plans were fairly accurate even today. We also saw the famous hanging tombs of Choquetica, named so because the people used to hang from top of the cliffs to build them and hence the only way to reach them is also from the top! On the way back, we stopped at the high pass, the Patapampa pass which is at an elevation of 4800m and also at various other points to watch herds of grazing llamas, alpacas and the rarer vicunas. During one of the pit stops, we had a llama entering our van and going for our food pack. When I tried to pull the food away, the llama started using its secret weapon : the spit. In order to save us some washing, we fed the llama all of the sugar puffs that Juliet had bought the previous day. We were later informed by the guide that these puffs were known as the Peruvian viagra. Well, in case there is a sudden explosion of llama population in Peru, you know whom to blame!
Llamas