18th November

FIVE AM START! We have been informed that to see the condors we have to get there early. The journey took about an hour and a half. Colca Canyon differs from Colca Valley like pretty much every canyon/valley. The former is a deep crack in the rock with a river at the bottom, the latter is farmed and can contain villages/towns etc. I haven't been to the Grand Canyon but all I can tell you is that Colca Canyon is twice as deep. I get the feeling the Grand Canyon is more spectacular but when you look at the bottom of Colca Canyon the river looks like a silver thread.

Hilda spotted a condor within 5 mins of our arrival. She said it was a condor but by the time I had unzipped my camera and turned it on it coud have been a crow it was so far away. Bugger.

We headed to Cruz del Condor ("Condor Cross") for a better viewing point. With the tourists it may as well have been called Cruz del Gringo. We waited, and waited. Not helped by the fact that most visits don't end up seeing anything. Partly due to the noise of the tourists. I didn ask one Peruvian woman if she would mind shutting it. Got the feeling like the Sun Gate last week that we wouldn't see anything, and then suddenly I spotted what I thought was a small plane and just for added effect I shouted "Showtime!" and then immediately cringed. The condor is big, very big. It has a wingspan of 3-4 meters and one of the few birds that does flap its wings, it just glides. My photos were pretty good - better than most of the postcards I have seen. I am not a bird-spotter but even I have to say these things were magnificent. Took snap after snap.

The journey back to Arequipa was largely uneventful. Apart from hitting and killing a dog. Our driver wsa a nutter and was over the speed limit most of the time. The dog didn't have a chance. When we stopped for lunch the whole of the front of the grille was smashed in and bits of fur stuck to the number plate.

3 hours later we were back in Arequipa. Said goodbye to Hilda and gave her my contact details. She wants to go for tea at the Ritz if she makes it to London. We have a free day tomorrow to visit the city but on first inspection it is really green and clean. My new hotel room was horrible. Nothing seemed to work and the windows have no locks. We went for a stroll (aka an Orientation Walk) with Paul who joined us after the tour. Indeed Arequipa is nice, good restaurants, bars, churches and the Plaza de Armas is very impressive. We booked a table for 7.30pm at ZIg Zag reputed to be the best restaurant in Perú let alone Arequipa.

A quick shower and a stroll to the restaurant. Rocky and Tony joined us, this is now the last supper with them as they are off to Lima tomorrow night. The restaurant was indeed great. We had a private room and I had 2 beers, wine, water, tomato soup, bread with herb butter, Ostrich with anchovy butter, Alpaca with guacamole and fillet steak with a tomato salsa and chips and ratatouille for... nine pounds 50. OK, the steak wasn't up t Argentinian standards but was pretty damn good.