To Colca Canyon

The point of going to Chivay and Coporaque was to see Colca Canyon, the world's deepest (it is said), about twice as deep as the Grand Canyon in most places. Colca is some miles distant from Chivay, and to see it properly, without clouds, mist, rain, etc., one must get there early. So the alarm goes off at 4:15, the van leaves at 5:00, and we are earnestly hoping there will be no clouds, mist, rain, etc.

Dawn is relatively clear, and we can see the nearby volcano;
our guide says it is the most worrisome in Peru just now;
Sabancayo is its name, nearly 20,0000 feet; to its left is the
dormant Ampato

The Colca river has cut the canyon; here we are still near
Chivay, miles from the start of Colca Canyon

The stepped terraces all along the river are pre-Incan

Occasional landslide on road

In a town along the way; nice juxtaposition of Sabancayo and
the cracked church tower; the town has been rebuilt many
times since the Conquest

A long unimproved tunnel

"We're marching for freedom today! Yay! Turn on your head-
lights, sound your horn, if people get in the way..."

Ruins below

Another day, another church, and another

Main square in Maca: local woman saving
Spider Man, cleverly disguised as a Peruvian
soldier

Very nicely landscaped

And now we are back in Chivay, having taken a day off,
awaiting our bus to Puno

Another day, another extravaganza, although much smaller,
possibly just for the tourists

Harvest Home/Twirling Extravaganza In Coporaque

So precisely at 6PM, light failing, we could hear the band firing up a block or two away, and we knew we were about to witness something special. Mostly I video-taped it--17 minutes to appear on YouTube pretty soon--but I did get a few stills, far from perfect because of all the movement and looming darkness. The band played just one song, sort of an A-B tune, the procession to the baritones on B, the twirling to the trumpets on A. Endlessly. The only other instruments were percussion. The tempo was, um, very upbeat. Since this was the Friday after Mardi Gras we were a little confused about what exactly was being celebrated. No matter. It was great. Watch the video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFOPhquo1sU. It all stopped about 6:30, and we figured we'd seen enough and returned to the hotel. Before we got back the band fired up again, and, as the hotel manager explained to us, it would last until midnight, with periodic beer breaks. This was the third and final night of the extravaganza. That there were so many people participating, he explained, was because it was a family reunion sort of thing, many coming from Chivay or Arequipa or even Lima.

The dancers are not all women; many are men, dressed as women, commemorating
an old story about a young man, deemed unacceptable by the family, who got a date
with his beloved by this ruse; the men's costume requires a sort of lamp-shade hat

Rebecca, Rachel: Fafner has been reincarnated as a Peruvian Terrier (his karma
is to see the world...first a Scottish Terrier, then a Tibetan Terrier, as we knew him,
now in Peru); he said he is a bit hungry now and then, and cold, and he misses
the swimming pool in Dallas but not the heat; said to tell you hello (OK, it's the
altitude...)

Bathroom designation back at the hotel

The male dancers' lamp-shade hat; not a terribly effective
bathroom designation...

Coporaque

At length, we arrived at Coporaque and our hotel, elevation somewhere between 11,000 and 12,000 feet. No longer gasping, but not out jogging either.

Mountains to the west; what we could not see until the next
morning was the big, very active volcano lying behind the
clouds

The hills and mountains are covered in terraces, pre-Incan, our
guide said

As we drove through the village square, I noticed what
appeared to me to be a full dress rehearsal for a very big folk
extravaganza, big even for this little village of some hundreds

Our hotel, wings branching to all sides

Dinner menu; only one copy

I opted for the alpaca steak; probably it was the altitude and
the long day of fighting between the guide and the Swiss
woman; Vicki had two bites; tastes like a thin slice of over-
cooked beef; very lean and very healthy, the guide said;
another once in a lifetime experience...

With high anticipation, I walked into the village; the band and
the procession had disappeared

Although many costumed people still were milling about

Later Vicki joined me and we explored bits of
the square; the only Gringos around

Not all the bits

The square has eight arched entrances

Communicating with extraterrestrial aliens from outer space