Volcanoes, Vicunas and Alpacas !!!

Volcanoes Misti and Pichu Pichu in the background.

   



The beautiful Colca Canyon is approximately 165 Kilometers from Arequipa, Peru. By road, with frequent stops in between, we took around 4 hours to reach the small town Chivay, which is near the Colca Canyon. This is a very interesting region of Peru to travel by road and I highly recommend it. As we left Arequipa, we were leaving behind the 3 volcanoes Misti, Chachani and Pichu Pichu.

Ubinas was still fuming!!! Recently on August 21, there was another massive explosion at Ubinas!

But, very soon we encountered Peru's most active volcano, Ubinas. Just 10 days before our trip, on June 3rd, there was a massive eruption at Ubinas and the ash plume had reached 10 Kilometers above the volcano.

I love the layers of colors in this frame !!!

The drive took us through Peru's National Park "Salinas y Aguada Blanca". The scenery changed from snow capped mountains to dry bushes to the highest elevation we ever reached on this trip. We then rapidly descended to the small town, Chivay where the Colca Canyon starts. On the way, we stopped whenever we noticed the wild animals Vicuna, Guanaco, Alpaca Suri and many different types of birds.

Vicunas

Camels, Llamas, Alpacas, Alpaca Suris, Vicunas and Guanacos belong to the Camelids family. In South America and Peru, the Llamas and Alpacas are domesticated. The Vicunas and Guanacos are wild animals. The Vicunas are identified by soft fur just below their necks.

A Vicuna family!

Vicuna

After few hours on the road we stopped at a rest area to have some refreshing Coca Tea.
At these elevations, one need to keep sipping the Coca tea to deal with "Altitude Sickness"

Rest area restaurant.

Alpacas!

Cool dude, Alpaca! Love the expression on his face :)

From the view point at the highest elevation (16,108 feet above sea level), volcanoes
Ubinas, Ampato and Sabancya are visible.

Volcanoes Ampato (20,629 feet) on left and Sabancaya (19, 442 feet) on right. Sabancaya was smoking :)

Shopping mall at the highest elevation !!!

Colorful hats, Alpaca and Llama sweaters and blankets for sale!

We pulled over to the side again to watch a large herd of Alpacas and Alpaca Suris.

An Alpaca Suri is identified by its long, shiny locks!

Why did this Guanaco cross the road?

So that I can take a close up photo of him :)

It does get very cold here. Brrr!!!

Black, Brown and White Alpaca Suris.

Alpaca Suris.