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Cruising Active Transport
We left San Francisco on September 7th 2008 and are off to see the world in our Tayana 37 Pilot House cutter.
Active Transport's Photos - Colca Canyon tour
Photos 1 to 15 of 61 | Cruising Active Transport (Main)
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This was our bus for the Colca Canyon Tour. It turned out to be a big advantage to have a red bus since most of the buses of the other tour companies were white. Over the two days of our $20 Colca Canyon tour we spent around 12 hours riding in the bus.
As we started climbing out of Arequipa we came to an area where the wild Vicunas live. Llamas and Alpacas are domesticated breeds that the indigenous people bred from the wild Vicunas.
These are Vicunas doing their thing, which is mostly eating. As you can see from the surrounding landscape, life is not easy for these critters.
Here are some more Vicunas.
This pic shows the coca leaves that we bought to ward off altitude sickness. You use it like chewing tobacco. The give you a little hunk of dried clay with the leaves. You are supposed to wrap the leaves around the clay and stick the whole mess in your cheek. The clay makes your saliva alkaline so that the coca alkaloids are extracted from the leaves.
This is the mate de coca or coca tea that they serve to ward off altitude sickness. Neither Shawn or I could detect any sort of buzz from drinking this stuff or using the leaves. It requires a significant concentration of the coca alkaloids, by extraction with organic solvents, to get a product with the kick of refined cocaine.
We stopped at a place where a lady had a bunch of Llamas and Alpacas in a pen made from rocks. They pierce the ears of the animals and thread colorful yarn through the holes to make they look pretty for the tourists. The Llamas and the ones that are mostly white. Their snouts are more refined looking than the alpacas.
This is an Alpaca. Compare it with the previous pic to see the differences from Llamas.
Here are a few llamas and alpacas together,
Despite the reputation these animals have for spitting on bystanders we never saw them do it.
Shawn decided to visit the wayside servicios hygenicos.
Hygenico is a strong word to use to describe the facilities.
The town of Civay, where we spent the night, is down in a valley with a switchback road that we followed down the mountain
More views of the Canyon.
The town entry arch for Chivay. The thing running over the top of the arch is a pvc pipe that brings water from mountain streams into town.
 
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