We were up early again for a minibus ride over the mountains to the Colca Valley. This journey took about five hours and got steadily higher up to a height of about 4700m above sea level. At the highest point there are thousands of tiny cairns left by all the travelers who have been there before. Thankfully my body seems to handle altitude well, but some of the others had pretty severe headaches.
The valley and the surrounding mountains are very beautiful, and the region has a very stark contrast of barren land as far as the eye can sea with strips of green wherever a river flows.
On this journey we learned to tell the difference between llamas and alpacas. I could go into details on the differences but would not wish to insult any readers by assuming that they didn't already know. The primary difference in my mind is that alpacas look ridiculous. A close second would be that llamas aren't particularly fond of strangers as when Rob went to pat a domesticated one it turned and spat accurately into his left eye.
When we arrived at Coporaque, the village we were spending the night in, we had lunch and then went for a short hike. In the evening to recover from our exertions we went to the nearby hot springs which was wonderful. I'm sure you'll understand why I don't have any photographs of this, however.
The valley and the surrounding mountains are very beautiful, and the region has a very stark contrast of barren land as far as the eye can sea with strips of green wherever a river flows.
On this journey we learned to tell the difference between llamas and alpacas. I could go into details on the differences but would not wish to insult any readers by assuming that they didn't already know. The primary difference in my mind is that alpacas look ridiculous. A close second would be that llamas aren't particularly fond of strangers as when Rob went to pat a domesticated one it turned and spat accurately into his left eye.
When we arrived at Coporaque, the village we were spending the night in, we had lunch and then went for a short hike. In the evening to recover from our exertions we went to the nearby hot springs which was wonderful. I'm sure you'll understand why I don't have any photographs of this, however.
No comments:
Post a Comment