24-9-2010: Day 14, Cruz del Cóndor, Cañón del Colca

Me at a jam-packed dusty truck on the way to the Cruz del Cóndor at 6:30am!

With the other travelers and locals who went there to lay out their goods for the tourists.

Cóndor, here it is!

The beautiful bird glided through the canyon like airplanes!

A nector-eating bird resting after feeding itself.

Some friends glided together in the sky.

This cóndor has a white ring on its head.

I was lucky to have this picture taken by chance! A white-wings cóndor flew pass the camera while I just wanted a picture of myself!

Of course, this is the most touristy place in the Cañón del Colca, but once you are there, you can totally ignore the touristy stuff and enjoy watching the cóndors floating about.

The majestic cóndor at a very close range of us!

The splendid view of the canon on the way back to Arequipa.

Ok, I didn´t plan to go to the Cruz del Cóndor, as I thought it´s gonna be so touristy that I would hate it. But since I bought the tourist ticket two days ago, I might as well go and see what´s the fuzz all about. I woke up at 5:45am, getting ready to get when the bus left at 6:30am. The bus didn´t come, instead came a big truck. All the locals started to load their goods into the truck, and it almost seemed like there wouldn´t be any space for me or other travelers. After consulting them various times, we finally managed to squeeze in, and really we ´squeezed in´! It was a rough 1.5 hour ride, very dusty and very cold. When we got to Cruz del Cóndor, the locals tried to charge us 3 nuevo soles, when the bus only costed 1. Here it goes again, the Peruvians tried to rip us off again. Fortunately, all the travelers refused to pay 3 and we all fought over it. We finally got through, but it was ugly.

So really I still didn´t know why I was there, until after standing in the mirador for 15 minutes or so, I saw a cóndor gliding through the sky, and I screamed, "Cóndor!" The second time when I saw one, I screamed again! And in the next 1.5 hours, I was intoxicated by the smooth and relaxed movements of these Andean kings, who by the way seemed to be quite used to tourists and weren´t afraid of us. In fact, sometimes they flew very close to us that I felt a bit freaked out. One turned its head and looked at us while flying. It was quite funny. The time passed quickly with these majestic birds, and soon it was time to take the next bus and go back to Arequipa, where I will pass the last couple of days and chill out before heading back to Cuzco and fly out to Lima. On the way, I saw a lonely vicuña standing in the middle of the National Reserve. It´s a very skinny and slender animal, which in not many ways looked like its related families, llama and alpaca.

It has been a growing experience, in which I had seen so many wonderful things and been to many amazing places. Now I´m ready to go back to the orphanage and see my boys and girls. I miss them so much, and can´t wait to give each one of them a big hug and kiss!