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.
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.
1 comment:
Nice shot of the valley and the condor. Must have given you goosebumps.
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