Sam

We woke up at La Granja with the sun starting to shine over the moutains and the hope of seeing condors flying in the canyon, the big attraction here. We got up, and went to breakfast. The dinner table is placed in front of a big glass window from which we can see the canyon. There was snow and there were frozen water falls.

 Whilst eating, we were desperately searching for the biggest birds on the planet. After eating, our driver spotted some in the distance. We could barely see them with the naked eye. Luckily, we were well equiped with powerful binoculars. We counted eight condors gliding above « Cruz del condor ». We then walked down to the hotel’s ‘farm’ where we saw alpacas, kittens, guinae pigs, rabbits and geese. 

We then went to pack our bags. After finishing, we went back to searching for condors. We saw eagles instead. It’s funny how if we had seen eagles in another context, we would have been much more impressed than we actually were, but since we were looking for condors, it felt ordinary to see eagles. 

Anyway, after watching the eagles for a bit, we saw some condors above the mountains. We left the hotel in the direction of Puno. During our ride there, we stopped at « Cruz del condor » where we found no condors. How typical! We then stopped along the road to take more pictures of the canyon. Our next stop was the hot water baths. They were extremely hot (40ºC) which doesn’t seem like a lot on paper but is hard to stay in for long periods of time. We then drove back to the little village where we had lunch. The buffet was very good like the day before. We then drove off where we stopped less frequently to take pictures. We were surprised to learn that the little green sheds outside the houses were actually toilets. I can’t imagine having to walk all the way there in the middle of the cold night. And it’s far from the house! We arrived in Puno safely, and checked into our hotel. I was very happy that we were only staying for the night because I do not like Puno at all. It is not a nice city and the food isn’t good.

Alexis

Vue depuis notre chambre (malgré les apparences il fait très froid).

Lever à 6:30 pour être prêts à observer les condors après le petit dejeuner. Et même si on en voit pas, la lumière sur le canyon me suffit amplement. D’autant plus qu’un couple d’aigles virvolte au dessus de nos têtes, et cela en temps normal serait assez pour nous ravir. Mais bon, les condors quand même… Finalement ils apparaissent, mais à quelques km de l’hôtel. Malgré la distance (et grâce aux jumelles – merci Mimi), nous prenons toute la mesure de leur taille impressionnante. Au total nous en observons une bonne quinzaine (pas de photo ici car j’ai pris avec le reflex).

Notre hotel surplombe le canyon.

Sur les deux jours on a été assez chanceux car nous avons eu la chance d’observer presque toute la faune présente ici (en plus des vaches, moutons, cochons, cochons d’Inde, lapins, lamas et alpacas): les vigognes (vicugna) bien sûr, le fameux colibri géant (et aussi des plus petits), des rapaces en tous genres, le vizcacha (rongeur de la famille du chinchilla, qui ressemble à un lapin avec une grande queue), flamands roses, et même un renard, très difficile à voir d’après Wilmar.

Le fameux colibri en flagrant délit de butinage.

El lagunito, sur la route vers Puno.

Nous rentrons sur Puno après 6h de route et des paysages encore époustouflants (et un arrêt aux sources d’eau chaude de la calera), pour un diner rapide car cette ville n’a vraiment aucun intérêt.