This is a short post for this day. It was a long bus day with not much of interest happening.
Quechua is an Amerind language with about 8 million people in Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia and Argentina. Quechua was the language of the Inca empire which was destroyed by the Spanish in the 16th century.
We checked out of our Hotel the Kuntur Wasi, which I have since learned is “Condor House” in Quechua. They present each one of us with a Diploma of Honor for visiting the Colca Canyon which they claim is the deepest in the world. I have read that it is the second deepest. But oh well 😉
How deep is the Colca Canyon in Peru?
Slicing through the High Andes like a giant fissure for more than 100km, Colca is the world’s second deepest canyon, approximately 3,400m at its deepest point — a shade shallower that the nearby Cotahuasi Canyon and nearly twice as deep as the US’ Grand Canyon.
We are picked up by the small bus that brought us here. It is filled with young US college students in Peru volunteering to teach English. They have come to trek the Colca Canyon on their weekend.
As we climb up out of Cabanaconde we look back at the switchback mountain roads.
Back in Chivay we have about 30 minutes before the bus to Puno leaves. They are very organized at the bus depot. Leslie and I check out the mini markets close by to find some snacks to get us through the 6.5 hour bus trip.
We load up on the big bus and we’re off. We have a couple of stops along the way. One for snacks and tea, and another for some photographs. At about hour 3 of our trip the skies ahead turn dark and ominous and we start to see lighting. Then the rain. comes. A lot of rain and from a report from a young lady at the front of the bus, slushy rain!.
We make a stop at lake that has flamingos. I take this photo from the bus. If you click and make it large you can see some light coloured birds, they are the flamingos. There are dark ones that I believe are ducks and some type of gull. Too blustery out there for me.
Not for Greg, Leslie and Stu though. They are out there in the wind, listening to the thunder.
We have a number of hours to go on our journey and the only exciting / incident was me dropping my phone down the side of the seat by the window. It seemed to just disappear. Eventually our Hostess Susanna found it for me. It seems it slipped down the wall, stayed vertical, did not fall flat to the floor, and with the movement of the bus slipped forward to the seat ahead. Disaster averted!!
We arrived in Puno all very tired. Susanna helped us get a taxi to our hotel. 5 Soles, ($2 CAD) got the four us right to the door of our hotel. No Happy Hour, no dinner, the snacks on the bus were all we want. We all head to bed just after 8:30. Real party people!!