Cacti, Condors, & Complete Colca Craziness

Ladies & Gentlemen (we heard this ALL weekend), sorry about not writing last night, but this blog should be pretty long to make up for it as we try to share all we learned and saw on our adventures this weekend.  The clinic is not open on the weekends so we had a free weekend to go adventuring and decided to head down to Colca Canyon.  This is the 2^nd deepest canyon in the world (3,400 m deep & 100 km long) and is 2 times as deep as America’s Grand Canyon.  For starters, satan has given up at trying to keep our team out of this country as both Nates got here with zero troubles!!!  And we left literally 15 minutes after they arrived.  Talk about a whirlwind trip for them but we were all very excited to finally all be together again! 13 of us loaded up in a large van and were quickly greeted by our enthusiastic tour guide.  The trip was a 2 day shin dig with 1 day down towards the canyon with numerous stops along the way and the 2^nd day actually going to see the canyon.  On the way down our tour guide was very informative so we will share bits and pieces of all he tried to cram in our heads :-)  

Fun fact of the day:  only 2 countries in the world do not have Coca Cola as their #1 soda.  Peru is one of them and its #1 soda is called Inca Kola named after the Inca heritage.  It tastes like a mix between cream soda & birch beer and is yellow like mountain dew.

Peru Fun Facts: Peru as a whole has 50% of its economy in mining gold, silver, & copper while another 30% comes from farming & agriculture.  There are 104 different climates in the world & Peru has 85 of them!!  Therefore we were driving through many different areas.  The population of the city we are staying in is 1 million and lies about 7,000 ft up.  



Eating Cactus

Yareta

Fun Facts About Plants: Cactus is very common here and they grow at a rate of 1 cm/year so the largest ones are over 1,000 years old. On our way we hacked off a good 10 years worth of a cactus and tasted its yummy gritty bland goodness.  We also learned that if you pick off one of the nearby flowers and stab a cactus spike into it you can quickly get a good game of darts going. Yareta on the other hand, only grows 1mm/year.  It is used to burn as oil and looks a lot like a mossy rock.  



Vicuῆa



Chasing Llamas & Alpacas

Fun Facts about Peruvian Mammals:  One of the most fascinating is called a vicuῆa.  It basically looks like cross between a deer and a llama (i.e.-light brown color and shorter fur but long neck).  They have the finest wool in the world.  Once a year the government comes into the local communities and runs a shearing party.  1 pound sells for about $1,000 and half the money goes to the government and the other half to the local community.  A sweater would burn about a $5,000 hole in your pocket.  And if you kill a vicuῆa you are looking at spending 3 years behind bars.  The next unique animal is the guanaco.  We didn’t get to see one, but they are the only animals in the world that can drink sea water because they live in the desert.  The animals Peru is perhaps most known for however are llamas & alpacas.  Both are domesticated animals and must have shepherds to take care of them.  Llamas are mainly used for transportation because their meat is chewy and not very good.  Alpacas however are a very good meat (only 3% cholesterol) and are also used for their soft wool, especially baby alpacas.  Pumas are the only large cat in Peru and will kill entire herds of llamas & alpacas and use them for food for an entire week since the meat stays cold in the mountains where they graze.  They can run 80 km/hr, jump 6 meters, and have 200 lb of pressure in one bite so they can easily take out the llamas & alpacas.  But one advantage they do have is spitting in their eyes and blinding them for a few minutes while they try to get away. Vicuῆas on the other hand can run about 80 km/h so they can escape from the pumas and also can kick them.  Another animal we didn’t see were weasels which can kill 200 guinea pigs per night which can be a large detriment to farmers to raise them as meat for local people (something we haven’t tried yet but will before we leave).   Yellow grass is the bottom of the food chain and condors are at the top since they have no natural predators, but we will get to more of that later.  



Andean Geese, i.e.-"love birds"

Fun Facts About Birdies:  The Andean geese are nicknamed “love birds” because they only have 1 partner for life and you will always see them together.  Once 1 dies the other one will too.  O yea, they also have flamingos but only in the spring time.  They are red & white flamingos though so are also the national bird (their flag is red & white).  

Interestingly Edible Vegetation: Coca leaves are often put in tea and drank for altitude sickness or by the locals to stay awake on long drives.  Chacocoma is a bad tasting leaf found in the desert and is often used to treat diarrhea.  We all tried both and decided chacocoma is repulsive and we couldn’t wash the taste out of our mouths fast enough, haha.

So if you are not bored to death yet, let us tell you about the rest of our trip.  We made many stops along the way to see gorgeous views and different terrains.  One of the first was driving through the crater of a volcano called Chucura that supposedly erupted 800,000 years ago.  We also stopped by a frozen waterfall along the side of the road (yes, it was really that cold).  We stopped at the highest point along the way which was over 16,000 feet.  We saw tons of alpaca and llama herds and apparently chasing them is frowned upon in this establishment, haha.  But our tour guide told us to go chase them…so we obeyed…but the shepherd yelled at us and charged us 2 soles.  Definitely worth the experience.  

Once we got closer to Chivay (a town in the base of the Colca Valley) we started learning a lot about the cultures that surround the region.  The 2 main people groups are the Cabana and the Collagua.  They migrated here over 3,000 years ago.  The Cabana used to press their heads together when they were babies so that they were pointed and the Collagua used to flatten the tops of their heads as babies.  They don’t do that now, but you can still identify the people groups by the shape of their hats.  Once we got the Chivay we got to relax for the afternoon so we conveniently met up with 2 of our translators for the week that was down there to preach for the weekend.  They showed us all around the town and took us on a beautiful hike!  Later that evening we went to the natural hot springs which are basically naturally heated pools from the heat of nearby volcanoes.  Even though it was literally freezing outside, the hot springs felt absolutely fantastic.



Excited about hot springs in freezing weather!

We had some awesome food experiences too.  Among them were 3 types of cactus fruit, alpaca meat, home made ice cream, banuelos (like a funnel cake with syrup), and home-made sweet breads in all sorts of awesome shapes (including turtle, haha). 

Just a few of the many terraces in the Colca Valley

A male condor

This morning we got up to leave at 6 am to make our way through the Colca Canyon to Cruz Del Condor.  We made a few stops along the way to see traditional dancers, hanging tombs, and many beautiful views of the many, many terraces built by the locals for farming (of potatoes, corn, & quinoa).  They are built with walls of rocks to create a micro-environment of warmth collected by the sun during the day to keep the crops warm during the cold nights.  We finally made it to the Cruz Del Condor where we hiked the last half hour to see the condors.  Now more about these condors.  They are the 2^nd largest bird in the world weighing in at 15-20 kgs with a 3.2 meter wingspan.  They live to be about 80-100 years old and can fly up to 10,000 meters which is why they can cross over the Andes.  The babies nest for 3 years and have to take a running start like a plane when they are adults because they are so heavy.  They don’t have very good sight, but make up for it with their sense of smell which they can smell dead animal from up to 3 km away.  These birds were amazing to see flying all around the 2^nd deepest canyon of the world!  

The entire trip we kept commenting that everywhere we look things are just absolutely gorgeous.  We are amazed by God’s creation and so blessed to have the privilege to enjoy it!

If anyone is actually still reading, You are truly our #1 fans and shout outs to all y’all’s.  The best quote was from Courtney….in the middle of dinner she goes “Um, guys?  I think there is a cactus in my pants”.  And with that we will bid you adieu.  

We are excited to embark on our second week of serving these awesome patients and being so blessed in return by their spirits.  Stay Tuned!!

 
Becca