Colca Canyon

If Arequipa, Peru´s second biggest city, feels like it is in the middle of nowhere, Cabanaconde, perched on the rim of the Colca canyon, is truly the back of beyond. To get there, we took a bus (ex-Brazilian fleet) for 6 hours on a dirt track watching herds of wild vicunas (savage llamas), an empty train line and the occasional shack with stone corrals for the alpacas on which people´s existence is based in this wild region. The Colca canyon is the third deepest canyon in the world (so they say), but is more impressive for its vast pre-Inca terracing which was unknown to the outside world until 1931. We did the usual tourist things - watching condors soaring on morning thermals (though the people outnumbered the condors 50 to 1), soaking in hot springs and warming ourselves by a fire in the cold evening. We are now back in Arequipa to take a 10 hour bus to Cusco. The honeypot of Peru awaits.......