We were on the road to Cruz del Condor by about 7:00 am as the condors, apparently, are only visible around 8:00 am and 4:30 pm, and we wanted to be there in time to see them this morning. Apparently so did every other tourist and tourist operator for 200 miles around as the road was busy. It was also rough with the traffic from tourist buses making heavy washboards in addition to the parts of the road that are simply creek beds. But to compensate for the roughness the drive was wonderful. It winds along the side of a very deep steep valley both sides of which are covered with terraced agricultural land, foot trails, and villages (with no road access). The scale of the terracing is hard to comprehend, particularly when one realizes that much of it has been done by hand over hundreds of years of farming.

At the Cruz Del Condor lookout we found a throng of tourists and a dozen or so local ladies, in traditional dress selling souvenirs and food. The place was a buzz with activity until about 10:30 am when all the tourist buses departed and then so did the vendors. By 11:00am the place was quiet.

We left at 11:00 to go further up the road (down the valley) in the hope of seeing some of Canon Del Colca. But alas the deepest and steepest parts of this canyon can only be visited by a multi day hike. Canon Del Colca is 3191m deep (thats 10,530ft, over twice as deep as the Grand Canyon). But it's only the second deepest canyon in the world for in Peru, Canon Del Cotahuasi is 167m deeper. For us this statistic served simply to underline what we had already concluded - Peru does things on its own huge scale.

On our return to Cruz Del Condor we passed through the small village of Cabanaconde (we bypassed it on the morning drive) to discover the narrowest streets we have ever seen - so narrow we could not turn a corner, we had to drive to the main square as the only place we could turn. In the square we met some of the local children who were very keen to pose for photos. Very cute though their modeling skills need some work.

Back at the condor lookout we were surprised to find no-one there. The guide book said that afternoons were a good viewing time, as it proved to be for us. But no tourists, no vendors, no security guards. We had the place to ourselves for the afternoon and night. Wonderful.