Early on the morning of the second day (and I mean early, up at 5:30am!) we drove up to Cruz del Condor. Its so called as this is where you go to see the Condors, the largest birds in the world.

You usually see several gracefully gliding and turning over the Andes.

Sometimes they can be only metres from you. And it becomes apparent how large they are, with a wingspan of over 3 metres!

These three landed on a rock a short distance from us, almost as if they were on contract to the Pervian tourist agency. They were close enough that you could see how much they resemble vultures (the two are from the same family).

And they seemed largely unconcerned about the large number of people that had turned out to look at them. This picture should also give you an idea of how large they are when you compare them with the watching people

They whole valley (as with all of Peru) is prone to earthquakes. The road back down the valley was repaired after a pervious quake. But it was still a little steep for some of the tour buses. At least we hadn't failed to take the hill and rolled back off the road like the truck on the left!

Our bus did get stuck for a while. We needed the help of this 4 wheel drive to make it up the slope. The other buses (in the top right) were similarly stuck. So there was a large audience of tourists to enjoy the show.