Think Peru and you immediately think of the famed Lost City of the Incas - Machu Picchu. And while Machu Picchu is Peru's leading attraction, the long overlooked Colca Canyon is fast earning recognition as a "must do" in Peru.

 

The Colca Canyon is accessed from Arequipa, Peru's second city and a destination in itself with two outstanding highlights: Juanita, The Ice Maiden, and the Santa Catalina Convent, a city within a city (Arequipa). 

 

From Arequipa the drive to Colca is 3 to 4 hours over ever-improving but not yet totally paved roads. It is a scenic drive, with stops en route at the small but excellent museum and at the highest point, some 14,300 feet high, to view spectacular altiplano panoramas.

 

There are two main reasons to go to Colca - condor viewing and the indigenous peoples, the Collaguas and Cabanas.

 

Here, straddling both banks of the river that splits the canyon, are 14 towns originally founded in Spanish colonial times to gather in settlements the dispersed Collaguas and Cabanas, the original inhabitants. Today the local people still maintain ancestral traditions and cultivate the pre-Inca stepped terraces. All around is breathtaking scenery surrounded by terracing and snow-capped peaks.

 

Condor viewing is an early morning ritual. The condor is the largest flying bird in the Western Hemisphere with wing spans up to 10 feet and one of the longest living birds in the world, up to 50 years. Viewers gather at Mirador Cruz del Condor to wait for these huge birds to ride the thermal currents from the bottom of the canyon where they nest, up and out of the canyon to spend the day hunting, often coming to within only a few feet of the viewers. It's a morning to remember.

 

Accommodations have been limited - until now. On April 15 Orient Express opened Las Casitas del Colca, the original Parador del Colca renovated and enlarged with the addition of 20 "casitas", each almost 1300 sq feet with fireplace and outdoor heated plunge pool. The casitas are spread out down a sloping hill, making for an invigorating walk uphill to the main lodge building housing the reception, bar, dining room and outdoor terrace. Or, if you prefer, you can call for a golf cart transfer.

 

The pisco sours are perfect, the food Andean fusion, the staff attentive, the views across the river to the other side outstanding. There is a small spa, soon to be enlarged, a two station internet center and a heated free-form natural looking swimming pool.

 

Las Casitas del Colca is going to change the length of stay in Colca, from the present average of one night to an average of three nights. And there is plenty to do: cultural visits, condor viewing, hiking, horseback riding, hot spring visits, cooking lessons and rafting. 

 

Add Arequipa and Colca to your next Peru itinerary. Your clients will think you are on the leading edge of Peru travel.  And you'll have a happy client.