South America

We got up at 5:15am to get a good position to see the condors at Colca Canyon, which fly from 7-10am. As we arrived at 7:45 we saw some huge condors flying over the viewing platform. We hurried off the truck to get some photos but by the time we had got there they had descended into the canyon. Colca canyon is twice as deep as the Grand Canyon and the condors soar on the thermals to look for carcasses. We watched the condors in the distance fearing we had missed our chance to see the largest flying meat eater up close. We got a seat and soon enough the masses of tourists arrived and filled up the platform.

Dee had started to feel sick with a bug that's going around, so she went to lie down on the truck, just as we could see some condors in the distance climbing higher and higher. Suddenly there was a communal gasp from behind us and as we looked up, a huge condor with a wingspan of 2 metres glided a few feet from our heads. A few other condors soon joined and they flew around us for about an hour. The birds are quite ugly but they soar beautifully and effortlessly. One even landed right in front of us and showed off by ruffling its feathers and strutting its chest. The guide that was with us said that he had never seen a display like that before. I must have taken over 100 photos, mostly of the empty sky as they appear so suddenly and disappear down the sides of the canyon.

That evening Dee stayed in bed while I went out to the local hot springs at Chivay, which is just like a heated outdoor pool, but it was good to relax for a while.