Put Out to Pasture (In a Good Way) in Chivay

Where: Peru

All this week, Nathan Paluck will be filling us in on "The Real Peru" outside the capital city of Lima. Any questions or suggestions, send 'em to us here.

When I arrived at dawn to the bus station in Arequipa to leave for El Ca�on del Colca, tickets were sold-out for the 6 a.m. departure and there was already a crowd buying spots for the 9 a.m.

A woman and I went to the bus anyway and eventually convinced the driver to let us stand in the middle. Seriously. But as we learned, there seems to be a lot of local commuting between Arequipa and the villages along the canyon, so we recommend buying a ticket beforehand.

The ride to the canyon is five hours long and passes through a protected reserve, home to vicu�as, the wild, skinny cousins of the llama.

I ending up stopping in Chivay, a small town full of hostels. A couple miles out of town there are mineral-rich thermal baths, which I later walked to. Beyond the baths houses, cow paths lead to small parcels of pasture and farmland. I caught up with a man and daughter walking with two dozen head of cattle.

Marlene, the 25-year-old cowgirl pictured above, and her father Emiliano turned out to be extremely friendly and didn't mind the company and questions from a gringo (although the cows were wary). I helped Marlene get the cows into their stone wall enclosure and left thinking I might actually deserve the dip in the thermal baths.

The hot mineral water at La Calera is distributed into several concrete pools; unfortunately you don't get to bathe in any natural rock formations. But it's worth the visit if you're body is sore and cramped from the walking and bus rides. Vans with foreign and domestic tourists stop at the pools and are a reminder that the canyon is a major tourist route (and also a vindication of the virtues of DIY travel, since it's hard to sidetrack on an hour walk with a cowgirl when a tour van is waiting).

After relaxing for a bit, I got back on a bus to Cabanaconde at 3 p.m. The journey follows a dirt road on the side of the Ca�on del Colca � a slow and jarring ride, though with the steep precipice close to the bus's wheels make you thankful for the slow pace. The canyon itself is dark and imposing, more like two steep mountains up against each other than a vertical carving ala the Grand Canyon.

Along the way are small villages with stone terracing and a lookout spot for condors, which float on air drafts and hunt in the early morning. Farmers got on the bus after a day of working in the fields. The women wear embroidered hats.

I stayed the night for 10 soles ($3.50) in Cabanaconde, a charming and chilly town on the canyon. Any real appreciation for the beauty of the area has to be satisfied with a hike into the canyon, which can be arranged easily at Cabanaconde. The next day for me was a travel day, however, so I was content walking the town's narrow streets in the evening and having a couple beers with the owners of Tequila, a perfectly rustic tourist bar that recently opened.

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