LA CRUZ DEL CÓNDOR

Colca’s main draw, the condor lookout, has become touristy beyond belief and teems most mornings with trinket vendors and tour buses. Still this spot, perched 360 meters above the Colca Canyon and about 60 km (1.5 hours) from Chivay, commands a spectacular view over the canyon and is, hands down, the best spot in the world to see the Andean condor. This enormous vulture, with a silver collar and a wingspan of nearly 3.3 meters (11 feet), zooms past the lookout nearly every morning—usually around 8 a.m., again at 10 a.m., and sometimes in the later afternoon as well. At least a pair, but sometimes as many as a dozen, show up nearly every morning during the non-rainy months between April and December, though fewer show up during the September–October mating season. The birds sleep on the canyon walls at night and, after the sun heats the air, ride thermals up into the sky until they are nearly out of sight. Further up the road there is the less mobbed Tapay lookout, where condors fly but less frequently. Any bus headed to Cabanaconde will let travelers out at either of these spots.