Editor´s Note: I woke up at 3:15am this morning and realized that I wrote ¨tale bone¨ instead of ¨tailbone¨ in my last entry. No, my friend´s bum is not a storyteller, but yes, apparently my subconscious is a better speller than I am! :)
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The Good News...I am very pleased to report that I did in fact see the Andean Condor this afternoon in the Colca Canyon. The Canyon is gorgeous! We drove south for about an hour passing all sorts of picturesque agricultural and cattle farms, and of course...immense mountains. I took a ton of photos, and hopefully some of them will do the canyon justice. To give you an idea of size, the Colca Canyon is at least twice as deep as the Grand Canyon, and very different in climate and looks. Someone in my group tried to tell me that the Grand Canyon isn´t even a canyon, but technically a gorge. Whatever. I think people just make things up to get pissed at Americans sometimes...
So we arrived at the Cruz del Condor viewing spot, which is apparentely the best place to spot them. I posted up on a stone wall (wow, that sounds a LOT grosser than I meant it to! :)) and waited for 1 hour and 23 mins before I gave up (yes, I timed it on my watch...I´m a huge loser, if you didn´t already know that). My nose is actually a little chapped right now because it was so cold up at that altitude and I sat sniffling the whole time. However, we went on a little trek along the edge of the canyon and to our surprise a Condor flew by us not once, not twice, but about 10 times. It was so cool and so beautiful!! It´s moments like that when I wish I had a bigger/better camera, but mine´s been treating me well thus far. I think I´ve taken about 900 pictures to date. The Andean Condor is the largest flying land bird in the Western Hemisphere and can grow to have a wing span of 3 meters, be 1 meter in height, and weigh 12 kilos. In pictures, it looks like a turkey on roids, but in the air, it was very sweet looking.
The Bad News...Last night when I thought my guide was joking about selecting our guinea pig to eat...yea, he wasn´t! We had a nice meal with a local family - vegtable soup, potatoes, queso, alpaca, and cuy! I tried it because I feel like I should get the local experience, but it was so hard to see the little guy beforehand. Braden went into the pen and picked it out, and then everyone ran away while the mother of the house broke it´s neck (which apparently took a couple tries), boiled it for a minute, and then skinned it. I´m glad I can say I sampled, but I won´t be ordering cuy again in Peru!
So we´re back in Arequipa for the night and headed to Cusco tomorrow. Another 11 hour bus ride awaits! But hopefully they will play some cool movies and right now I´m keeping myself busy by translating a book in Spanish that I bought at at vegetarian joint in Mancora. Progress is...ummm, slow. :) Only 3 more days ´til the Inca Trail! No puedo esperar!
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2 comments:
amazing you will not eat a hamburger but a small little fury pet is no problemo.
Í told you i have rules...no meat ground up in shapes (aka meatballs, meatloaf, meat patties...) and I don´t do meat on bread, only next to it, unless it´s ham, but in that case it must be toasted. Duh KT...please. You know these things. :)=
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