@Night: Colca Canyon, Peru

The Colca Lodge { web link }, where we stayed during our trip to the Colca Canyon is a beautiful Spa and Resort with expansive grounds and awesome facilities. Located in the middle of no where, it is the perfect place to stay and explore the Colca Canyon. Reaching the Colca Lodge itself was an adventure with our van negotiating narrow, curvy, unpaved single lane roads. The Colca Lodge has three Thermal Baths at the river level for the guests to use. After a long drive from Arequipa, it felt so good soaking up the tired muscles and bones in the Thermal Bath surrounded by beautiful mountains.

Colca Lodge

Colca Lodge

After dinner, I stepped out of our cottage to survey the night sky. Of course, the Milky Way was shining bright and brilliant.
Even the elusive dark clouds of the Milky Way were easily visible to the naked eye.
Right above the center of this image is the center of the Milky Way Galaxy.
June 19th, 2014. 8:32 PM.

The Milky Way, right above the cottages!
June 19th, 2014. 8:24 PM.

Stitch of 3 images of the Milky Way, covering almost 180 degrees. Why does the image has the odd shaped edges?
I didn't want to crop the Southern Cross and the Coal Sack (the dark cloud) towards the right edge of the image.
June 19th, 2014. 8:42 PM.

At the center is the constellation Grus.The small blob above the tree is the Small Magellanic Cloud,
a companion galaxy to our Milky Way galaxy. 
June 20, 2014. 4:57 AM.

The bright object is Venus rising early in the morning.
June 20th, 2014. 4:48 AM.

Flight Of The Condor !!!

Cruz Del Condor, Colca Canyon, Peru.

We had a very early breakfast and started from from the beautiful Colca Lodge for the hour-long drive. Our destination was the Cruz Del Condor view point overlooking the Colca Canyon. The plan was to watch the Andean Condors soaring over the rising thermal air currents at the Colca Canyon. Swetha and Shreya were protesting having to get up so early on vacation but the Condors are most active between 7 and 9 am.  On the way, we made several stops to enjoy the early morning Sun slowly lighting up the beautiful landscape. 

Colca Canyon.

Running as deep as 13,650 feet in some locations, the Colca Canyon is twice as deep as the Grand Canyon!

This old lady had set up her shop early in the morning and was waiting for tourists to stop at this view point.

I gave her couple of Peruvian $$ (Sols) and with her permission took the photos

The road to Cruz Del Condor was completely unpaved but it was a smooth drive without ditches and bumps.
Can't imagine this road in the rainy season!

Very often, the wheels of the van we were riding were pretty close to the edge of the canyon.

Cruz Del Condor!

We were one of the earliest tourists to arrive at Cruz Del Condor.
These ladies were just about to setup their shops!

Ready to shoot the Condors :)

The Andean Condor has a wing span of 10.5 feet and can weigh up to 28 pounds!

This Condor, with the distinctive white feathers surrounding the base of the neck is a male Condor!

It was a wonderful feeling to watch the massive Condors gliding effortlessly in the cool and crisp morning!

Because of their large size and weight, these Condors flap their wings only to get off the ground.
Afterwards, they depend on thermal air currents to soar.
They prefer to roost at high cliffs, so that they can launch without much effort.

This one was coming right at me :)

Bye Bye Birdie !!!

The Incas worshiped the Condors. Since the Condors soar from the earth to the sky, the Incas believed the Condors were the connecting link between them on the earth and their ancestors' souls in the sky. In Machu Picchu (link to the blog post), they built a Temple for the Condor. It is not surprising that many other cultures around the world (Indian, Native American and Asian) worshiped Eagles and Condors !!!

Chivay, Peru !

The Town Center (Plaza de Armas) of Chivay. The main attractions are
the Church and the local market just steps from the town center.

Traveling from Arequipa to the Colca Canyon, Chivay is a must-stop-and-visit small town for all tourists. It is where the Colca Canyon starts. We had a nice lunch buffet at the local restaurant - where I had the opportunity to "taste" Guinea Pig. ;)

The 18th century, colonial style church at the town center.

The local market. It was just like visiting a small town/village market in India !!!

Is it black or dark blue ??? :)

I heard that there are more than 3000 types of potatoes in Peru !!! I was able to capture at least 4 of them :) 
I tasted few types of the Peruvian potatoes during breakfast, lunch and dinner.
They are definitely tasty but very starchy!

Look at the differences in the dress and the hat these women are wearing.
Each type represents the village they come from!

Visiting the historic, world famous places like Ollantaytambo, Machu Pichhu and Cusco is a truly inspiring experience. In those places, we mostly encounter other tourists and locals associated with selling something for the tourists. But, if you really want to experience the life and spirit of the natives in their own environment, there is nothing more rewarding than visiting a small town like Chivay!