The Colca Canyon Within the Peruvian Andes
The Deepest Gorge in the World of Peru, South America
Jul 25, 2009
Within an inaccessible part of the Peruvian Andes north of Arequipa, the Colca River has been doggedly slicing through the mountains to form the deepest gorge in the world.
The Andean Colca River in Arequipa
Few visitors venture into this inhospitable place where one could easily imagine a sharp wedge had cleaved through this landscape to create a seemingly bottomless chasm. The mountaintops tower 2 miles (3.2 kilometres) above the Colca River, providing a dizzying spectacle. During the wet season, mudslides and avalanches transform the Colca River into a muddy torrent.
The Valley of the Volcanoes and Collaguata
The people that reside on these rocky slopes eke a living by cultivating the valley into terraces and growing crops and farming llama and alpacas. But according to lore, their ancestors came from a sacred mountain known as Collaguata. In an attempt to emulate its conical peak these “Collaguas” bound their children’s heads to make them pointy or otherwise wore pointed hats. This binding practice was banned when Spain invaded in the 1570s. Collaguata is thought to be one of the extinct volcanoes located on the other side of the canyon within the Valley of the Volcanoes. Here, the Andes flatten out to a strange lunar landscape, punctuated by 86 calderas, some 1000 feet (300 metres) tall. It is a strange and eerie place and the keeper of secrets.
The Mystery of Toto Muerto
As one travels through the valley towards the Pacific Coast, a sandy place known as Toro Muerto will confound the visitor with thousands of strange white boulders, exhibiting carvings of geometric patterns depicting orbs, disks, snakes and strangest of all, what appears to be figures with space helmets. The question of whether they are really astronauts, as much as who carved them, remains a mystery.
Life here is as strange and eerie as these artefacts. Spiky balls known as puya plants offer a deadly shelter for birds that have nowhere else to rest in this barren land and risk accidental death from its sword-like spikes. Biologists speculate that these bizarre plants, which are related to the pineapple, absorb the nutrients from the bird corpses that get caught. Only when the plant is 100 years old, do the spikes yield flowers.
The Andean Condor
A sight to behold is the occasional condor riding on thermals via a wingspan of over 10 feet (3.2 metres). At Cruz del Condor, one can watch these birds at close range in flight. They are best seen early in the morning and late in the afternoon when they are hunting, but since food supplies are always meagre, the condor’s numbers are dwindling. Only when carrion is in great supply, usually every four years or so when destructive storms hit Peru, can these birds reproduce successfully.
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