ABOUT THE COLCA CANYON


The Colca Canyon is an amazing geological formation created by erosion from the Colca River over thousands of years in which the abrasive affect of the water that flows through the mountains carved the rock and gradually turned into one of the deepest natural canyons on the planet.

The Colca Canyon is located in the north-eastern side of Arequipa, about 4 hours north of the city of Arequipa. This canyon reaches depths of 4160 meters and is more than 120 kilometers long.

In 2005 an expedition led by the Polish researcher Andrew Pietowski performed several measurements using modern high-precision devices, including a "Global Positioning System” (GPS), obtaining accurate data on the height of this natural wonder.  And it was on the 24th of August, 2005, in the city of Arequipa, during a press conference, that they revealed that in the district of Huambo the profundity of The Colca Canyon reached 4160m on the north side and 3600 m on the south side. This makes the Colca Canyon the deepest Canyon in the world and approximately twice as deep as the Grand Canyon.

THE ANDEAN CONDOR: “ETERNAL” BIRD

Known as the largest flying bird on the planet, the Andean condor is a bird of great importance to the Andean territories, symbolizing magnificence, strength, and freedom.

The Andean Condor (Vultur Gryphus) belongs to the new world Vultures and Cathartidae family whose members are characterized by feeding on carrion and rarely on vegetables or small animals. It lives in the highest Andean mountains, distributed along the Andes from Venezuela to the Tierra del Fuego.  The Colca Canyon is one of the sites, recognized worldwide, as the condor’s habitat where you can observe the flight of this magnificent bird.

MOUNTAINS, ROCK FORMATIONS, WATERFALLS, GEYSERS AND HOT SPRINGS


ROCK FORMATIONS CALLALLI

Along the 120km of the Colca Canyon, there are rock formations, mountains, glaciers, waterfalls, hot springs worthy of consideration as natural wonders.

YARETA
Article published in "Atlas Departmental del Peru: Arequipa - Moquegua, 2003" by La República.
In the middle of the desolated Andean “puna” grasslands, some curious green forms have caught the attention of many travellers, they are known as “yareta”, an almost miraculous plant that has managed to colonize an environment where other plants die.
This plant belongs to the umbellifer family, the yareta (Azorella yareta) is a species so adapted to life in stunning conditions that any other plant would perish.