Things to do
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Baños Termales La Calera
Thermal pools fed at around forty degrees by springs on the north bank of the Colca, terraced above the river a short ride from Chivay. They are the usual end to a first day at altitude, and the open pools are best after dark when the sky clears over the valley.
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Colca Lodge
A low stone lodge on a bend of the Colca river at Coporaque, with its own thermal pools cut into the bank below the rooms. Guests reach the water down a stair through the garden, and the terracing on the far side is lit at night.
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Cruz del Cóndor
A spur above the deepest part of the Colca where Andean condors ride the morning thermals out of the gorge, often within a few metres of the wall. Mid morning is when the air starts to lift, and the crowd thins sharply once the tour buses leave.
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Las Casitas del Colca
Twenty casitas spread through a working farm above Yanque, each with a private plunge pool fed by thermal water and a view down the valley. The estate runs its own alpaca herd and kitchen garden, and the walk between the buildings is part of the point.
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Maca
A small terraced village on the road west, rebuilt after the 1991 earthquake that came with the Sabancaya eruption and cracked its church. The plaza is a standard stop on the Colca run and keeps a handful of stalls selling knitwear.
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Sabancaya
An active volcano of 5,976 metres that erupted through the 1990s and woke again in 2016, showing a steam and ash plume above the Colca road on clear mornings. Its earlier ash melted the ice on neighbouring Ampato and exposed the frozen Inca burials now held in Arequipa.
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Uyo Uyo
A pre-Inca Collagua settlement on the terraces above Yanque, abandoned when the Spanish moved the valley's people into planned villages in the 1570s. Walls, streets and storehouses survive, and the walk up from the river crosses a footbridge and a working irrigation channel.
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Yanque
A valley village built around a plaza and the sillar church of the Immaculate Conception, whose carved portal is the finest in the Colca. Children dance in the square in the early morning, and pre-Hispanic terracing climbs the slope behind the houses.