We leave Arequipa on our Colca Canyon tour at 9 am. Our route takes us up onto the barren Peruvian altiplano (an area of high plateau and vast plains lying between 11,000 and 13,000 feet) which, litter aside, is starkly beautiful. The grass is golden brown with stunted bushes and rolling hills that culminate in the massive snow-capped mountains of Ampato (of Juanita, the Ice Princess, fame) and Sabancaya.
Along the way, we stop briefly at Reserva Nacciojnal Salinas y Aguada blanca, home to the endangered vicuñas, which are wild cousins to the domesticated llamas and alpacas (and all are members of the camelid family and are therefore related to camels).
The animals are not hard to spot, but we’re not allowed to get too close. Vicuñas give the softest wool (and hence the most expensive shawls, scarves, sweaters etc.). The high point on the drive is 4,800m (15,750 feet), which is also the highest we’ve been in the Andes so far. Before we leave the park we also spot a viscacha (a rabbit-like rodent) hiding among some boulders.
Our destination for the day is Chivay, located high in the Peruvian altiplano (12,000 feet). The town resembles a dusty, deserted Mexican settlement that Clint Eastwood or The Magnificent Seven might ride into to save the inhabitants from blood-thirsty bandits. The reason the town is deserted, by the way, is that everyone is relaxing in the nearby hot springs. Christi and I join the locals for a soothing dip. But the fun does not stop there. In the evening, our guide ‘encourages’ us to join him for dinner and traditional folk dancing. It’s the typical banal tourist fare, until I’m dragged onto the dance floor, and for reasons that are not clear to me, the (admittedly adorable) indigenous lady starts whipping me and forcing me down on the ground. Before I can recover, she is sitting on my face and rotating her butt quite contentedly. Perhaps this is the local version of a lap dance. Christi finds the whole thing hysterical. Fortunately, there are no photos of me getting whipped (at least not by the Quechuan lady).
Blog post by Roderick Phillips, author of Weary Heart – a gut-wrenching tale of love and test tubes.
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