Canyon Country, Cusco and The Scared Valley

From Arequipa we headed North to Colca Canyon. To get to the deepest Canyon in the World (the one next door is actually a little deeper in truth) we went in a taxi via series of little villages. At the first we clambered up a waterfall only to descend down into an old mans trout fishery! He was soo friendly and gave us a peek around. We also went out at 6am to see wild Viscatchas - which are like chinchillas - bounding across rocks in the freezing cold of the desert. We saw different traditional dress including white hats and sequins on the women (one of who we gave a lift to as we passed her village). As is usual in South America each village had a central Plaza de Armas and Iglesia (Church) established since the Spanish Conquision. We eventually got to the Cruz del Condor - a point from which you can see Condors fly closely and possibly the most dramatic canyon scenery ever! It was soo vast and deep its hard to believe and made you feel wably approaching the edge - the sides are incredibly steep and so big that villages exist a regular points along its sides. Most people trek down to the bottom and back, it takes a 5 hours down and more back up... we opted to walk over the rim of it, stopped at an amazing hostel drinking Pisco Sours (incredibly tasty alcholholic drinks) and ventured down a bit, then nipped off to Cusco.

Cusco was pretty touristy and although the streets are cobbled and many of them have ancient Inca walls on top of which the new building are built, it felt a bit hollow as every building was a restaurant or shop. We stayed in a great hostel previously a Tambo (roadhouse) looking over the city. I didnt really like Cusco much until we were suddenly caught up in a parade of dancers that continued for hours. Many tradional costumes and dances were in troups by region and they banged drums and swirled about wearing really bright, decorative costumes. Some oddities were cowboy-types with whips, guys in grass hats, a drunken man and wife fighting song and a gang of men in balaclavas with moustaches on them who whips each others legs then danced off arm in arm- presumably traking the piss out of the spanish who of course conquered the country.

We got a bus out to Tambo Machay - an Inca fountain and walked back to Cusco via another Inca ruin to Saksaywaman (pronounced sexy woman) which was a huge ruin with zigzag walls designed to be the head of a puma - a shape the ruler wanted for the town.

Back in Cusco we headed out for to Machu Picchu.