Colca Canyon Condors

If you want to see Andean Condors then you have to go to Colca Canyon in southern Peru. The ride along the edge of the canyon from Chivay is spectacular reason alone to come here. The locals claim that Colca Canyon is the world’s deepest but Peru’s own tourist organization says that honor belongs to Cotahuasi Canyon just west of Colca and the Chinese say THEY have the deepest at Yarlung Zangbo in Tibet. It depends how you measure it seems but Colca is breathtaking enough and surrounded by volcanoes in various stages of activity. 

The canyon is intensively farmed with astonishing terraces along every feasible slope and hand made walls that must have been built over centuries.

The main condor hangout is at a location where the canyon narrows and the wind blows constantly. We spotted this guy showing off by effortlessly strafing us. Condors can have wingspans of up to 10 feet and are jet black all over. This one was smaller than that and fluffier and grayer so probably a youngster. They can live to be 50 years old and mate for life.