A Spring Summer

It has been a nice experience to watch the valley change over the last 3 months. The rain started to come into the valley in January and rained for about a total of 16 days that month, and another 17 in February. The rain slowed down in March and was sporatic throughout the middle of this month. But when the sun does come out in the valley, it is very strong because we are so close to the sun, and then the land comes to life as the volcanic mineral-enriched soil is fed heavy doses of water and sun throughout the Peruvian summer. The people in Tuti are quick to say that we don’t have a summer in the mountains because of the rain. I think I would call it more like a spring season experience like back home in Portland, where there is a combination of rain, the sun fighting its way out of the clouds, and the plants shivering themselves back to life through the nights and morning cold. I’ve managed to wear shorts a couple times this season during early afternoon, but I can already tell that at night the winter cold has already begun approaching which forced me to dust off that sleeping bag wool liner and use it for the first time since December. Well, I guess if we don’t have a summer here, it sure was a nice spring. The valley is filled with different shades of green, yellow marigolds, snow capped mountains and hilltops that line the canyons edge, and pastures swollen with growth for the alpacas, sheep, and cows to feed on. This is the time of the year the earth exhales out one big breath, and waits to breathe back in until July.

Pastures

The River Just Below the Dam

Stone Shed for Livestock

Condor flying above me

Condors

I went to the Cruz del Condor, which is a site for watching Condors. A few other volunteers and I were told that sometimes you have to wait up to 2 hours to see one. About 10 minutes into standing around and checking out the depth of the canyon, I started to take some pictures of one of the other volunteers looking at the canyon. As soon as I finished taking a picture, a huge shadow passed over me like the sun was being partly eclipsed. I looked up and it was a condor flying 20 feet over my head. I was definitely fortunate to have had my camera already out and I got some pictures of it. But even though I have pictures of it, there is no way a picture can give you any idea of how huge they are unless you see them as up close and personal like I did.
Cruz del Condor is in a lower part of the valley, and I was told that it is not common for the condors to fly as high in the valley where Tuti is. Well contrary to that, I was teaching summer English class to the kids in the elementary school during the month of February. Every Wednesday we would hop in the back of the municipalidad truck with about 70 people from Tuti (at one point I looked around and noticed that I was the tallest person out of everybody standing up, it was a special moment) and drive to Chivay to use the hot spring pools there to teach the kids how to swim. One day, when we were about 20 minutes from Chivay, we saw 20 (yes 20, it is not a mistype) condors flying in a line above the canyon walls to the north. The next Wednesday, we saw 13 more condors flying in a line in the exact same location. I do believe the locals when they say it is not common for the condors to be in that part of the valley, but I think since it is summer time the condors have to venture in different parts of the valley to find food for their newly hatched baby condors.
Even though the people in the Colca Valley are more accustomed to seeing condors then I am, they still get just as excited as I do when they see them.