The way of life in the isolated canyons of the high altitudes desert in southern Peru has changed little for thousands of years.

These verdant valleys fed by glacial runoff were attractive to the conquering Incas for their productivity and to tourists today for their avian treasures.

Funding for the Desert Speaks was provided by Desert Program Partners.

A group of concerned viewers making a financial commitment to the education about and preservation of our desert areas.

♪ music ♪ Much of the Peruvian Andes is high, cold desert.

Here and there in profound canyons there's enough water for people to irrigate and subsist, in many cases unchanged, since before the time of the Incas.

Here we see people well-adapted to desert living and, if we're lucky, we'll catch a glimpse of that potent symbol of the Inca god, the Andean condor.

My Argentine archaeologist friend Axel Nielsen has volunteered to take me back in time.

To get to the Colca Canyon we climb into the towering Andes, the Cordillera as it is called in Spanish.

We follow pre-Incan roads past sacred places where llama caravans once plodded to get to the fertile canyon below.

I know we're pushing or at least almost at 16,000 feet.

Gosh.

Among the places that a traveler finds along the road in the high mountains of the Andes, the mountain passes are no doubt the most important and sacred places.

The mountain passes mark the end of very strenuous parts of the trail.

They bring you closer to the mountains, which are, the mountain spirits are the ones that protect you on your journey.

All the Andean peoples perceived these places as sacred but at the same time as dangerous, as transitional spaces.

And for that reason probably, they developed a lot of rituals and ceremonial ways of dealing with these dangers.

This is another thing that I've seen traditional caravan travelers do, when they get to a mountain pass, they make this little rock pile and they call each rock the wishes.

This is what they wish they can bring in their exchange trip they are going in.

And in the old days, we have some 16th century accounts of other ritualss that were played in the old days and one of them was to pull out some of the eyelashes and offer them to the apacheta and also sing some songs that have been lost now.

Today most travelers what they do, they will do libations and they will offer coca leaves to the apachetas in the mountain pass.

Axel, it strikes me that this is not just sacred because it's a high pass but from here you can see every volcano, every range, for maybe 200 miles around.

Yeah, that's true.

Well, you know, when you're going up a slope and all of a sudden you reach the pass, a totally new view of the landscape appears before you.

And it's also the place where you can make sort of eye contact with the apus, the mountain spirits that protect you on the journey.

The apus, huh?

Well, I can certainly understand that.

They stand out.

I don't know how far away those are but it's as if they're maybe a couple miles away and staring at you.

That's an affect of the air being so clear that it's as if they are personally keeping an eye on whatever you do.

We're at a place called Patapampa, which means the plains above in Quechua.

We're at 16,100 feet above sea level.

That's 1500 feet higher than any point in the continental United States.

We're following an old Inca and pre-Columbian trail.

It was a special place for them.

It's cold.

But around here you can sense an era of a sacred place.

We know that these mountains around here were very important for the Incas because a few years ago the Sibincaya began to erupt the volcano so the heat melted the snowcap of the Ambato and uncovered the remains of a young lady that had been sacrificed by the Incas.

She'd been covered by snow all those centuries.

Yeah, and that snow had preserved her, intact with all the textiles and the beautiful garments that she wore for the sacrifice.

We stay on the ancient road as it drops 4,000 feet into the Colca Canyon, who's thousands of terraces were so productive that the conquering Incas claimed it for their own.

The Colca Valley is a typical example of what happened to many of these Andean peoples, highland peoples, when the Incas expanded.

How they had developed their basis of their subsistence and how when the Incas came in somehow this infrastructure was expanded greatly.

Colca is a Quechua word that means a granary or storage room.

The Incas used to build groups of these colcas or storage rooms in various parts of the empire to concentrate the production, especially in agricultural areas.

Some of these terraces are so tall that to go from one to the next they left these stone stairways.

And here, this is a colca.

It's a granary where they used to save part of this year's harvest to use as seed for the next season.

These are the ones that give the name to the canyon.

We know for sure there had been people for at least 1200 years in the Colca Valley.

In the case of the terracing of the Colca Valley, we can see that it is the result of the work of many peoples during many centuries.

Probably the Incas expanded this terracing system but they did not start it at all.

When the Incas conquered a valley like the Colca, they would impose a labor tax on the local population.

Taxes were paid in labor.

People would have to work a certain amount of time every year for the empire.

So the Incas would never take the people's say crops but they would take their labor and make them produce crops for the Inca empire.

We have lots of chollas in the Sonoran Desert but I have never seen them planted in fences before.

Yeah, I think they planted them here to keep the cattle out of their fields.

You know, it's cheaper than barbed wire and you really need it next to the road.

We can guess that some of this terracing would be used to support the local population, whereas other parts of this terracing would be state terraces, state fields, whose products would be used by the empire to supply the Inca road system for instance and other resource poor areas like the southern coast of Peru, for example.

So when the Incas came, they didn't bring more innovation really but usually they expanded what already was there.

When the Spanish conquered the highlands of southern Peru, the Colca Valley was used as a source of agricultural production to finance the conquest.

The populations here were assigned to Gonzalo Pizarro initially, who was the brother of Francisco Pizarro, the conqueror of Peru.

By the middle of the century, of the 16th century, the population was reduced into few populations and that's the origin of many of the towns we see today in the valley.

And that's why we have these fine churches, is they mark the places where the Indians were taken from their original towns and reduced so their labor could be easy to control.

There are towns and villages scattered throughout the canyon but nature remains close at hand.

He found this young and it was hurt and you hope that the bowel training is in good stead and the talons have not yet destroyed my hat.

But these are a very large bird and fairly common in the Andes.

In the early 17th century the Spanish discovered silver in the headwaters of the valley in Cayoma.

The mines of Cayoma became the second most important source of silver in South America after Potosi.

From then on all the economic structure of the valley shifted to mining.

So the population of Colca, instead of devoting themselves to farming primarily, were used through mita, as temporary workers for the mines.

Many people tend to think that the Incas were the creators of all Andean civilization and this basically reflects the Incas own propaganda.

When the Spanish came to the Andes, the Incas would say they invented almost everything, even agriculture and claim that they taught agriculture to all the people in the empire.

Archaeology has demonstrated that this is not true.

Most of the elements that conform Andean civilization were in place at least 2,000 years ago; this is 1500 years before the Incas expanded.

The Incas and their predecessors had their columnar cacti and cactus fruit just as we did in the southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico.

This is a rather short form of a very tall cactus and as is the case with most South American columnars, the sancayo has vicious spines that make collecting the fruits tricky at best.

To get to them I've got to reach over behind and try to scrape off the spines on the fruit.

If they fall off, it's ripe.

It's ripe.

This is bigger than any cactus fruit we have in the United States.

The real test though is how it tastes when I open it up and find out what the pulp is like.

Since there are no poisonous cactus fruit, so I know this won't hurt me, it may not help, we'll see if I can get it into my mouth without it falling.

And, oh, sour.

Somehow along the way in evolution it got off in the sour parts and everything else got off in the sweet parts.

But sour's good every once in awhile.

The rainfall where this cactus grows is about the same as that in the Sonoran Desert, about twelve inches.

But here we're at 12,000 feet and this cactus grows up to 14,000 feet, which is probably the highest columnar cactus in the world.

It's able to survive numerous frosts and still produce more fruit than any other cactus in all of Peru.

The fruits have been used by native peoples, the Incas and their ancestors, for thousands of years.

Colca Canyon wasn't conquered by the Incas for its wild plants like the cactus fruits, coveted the fertile terraces that gave bumper crops of potatoes and still do.

This is actually a break in the action between the harvesting, which is very hard work.

So the community kitchen comes up here, it's a mobile kitchen.

Everybody sits down, the women in one place and the men in another place, to eat.

So it's actually a provincial custom that the women and men eat separately.

Even in the house, the men and women eat separately.

But everyone gets the same amount of food and my observation here was that the women get served first.

So what, the main course, the soup course here is a soup of rice and alpaca meat.

So it's really a hearty soup.

It's got onion, it's got carrot, oh, oregano.

It's got peppermint.

But most basically it's got alpaca and it always compliments the potatoes that are native to the Andes and are the basis of the entire diet.

The potatoes that we are eating are gathered from this field and they're a local variety called conchon.

They're a red potato, small, very tasty.

So this much bigger one is called perlichole.

This one is bigger and has more flesh but this one has better flavor.

The coca leaves are a very good aid to digestion.

If you're eating potatoes and chew on a coca leaf, it helps in digestion.

You don't get gas.

This bag is called the chuspa, it's especially made in design with a wide opening to carry coca leaves.

And it has been recommended to me strongly that because I just ate a meal, generously offered by these people, that I also chew just a couple of coca leaves to aid my digestion.

So just two leaves.

The coca leaf has always been a part of all Andean civilizations.

Not just for digestion, but also to fight off altitude sickness and fatigue, and for ceremonial purposes.

Fashions on the other hand were more regional.

We've got three different hats here representing three different people.

The black hat is actually worn by a young woman who is from quite a way up near Lake Titicaca.

The others are from two different groups who make the demarcation point at Chivay; those that live above wear one kind of hat, sort of like this one, and those who live below wear a hat like this one.

So four hours of work in the morning, then lunch, community lunch, and then three hours in the afternoon and everybody goes back to their houses.

Well, I think if I were at sea level it might be easier, but 12,000 feet is kind of hard.

I don't think I'd want to make my living this way.

I have a deep respect for the workers who have to do this every day.

This bag can weigh up to 150 kilos, about 330 pounds or so.

We stitch the top of the bag and then they are taken out of here early tomorrow morning so they won't spoil.

Potatoes are exclusively a high altitude crop of the new world, as is the grain quinoa.

This is real old grain in the Andean culture, right?

Yeah.

There are records of quinoa over 3,000 years ago, so one of the earliest grains to be domesticated.

It's more than eleven percent of the grain is proteins which is much higher than any wheat.

Yeah, or corn.

And they make candy, they make soups, they make bread.

Well, I know they make flour out of it, too.

Yes, that's right.

So they make bread and all kinds of things.

In the Andes it only grows, what, maybe above 12,000 feet or so?

Yes.

It can go up to, I would say, 13,000 or 14,000 feet.

And that's higher than any other grain.

Yeah.

It's very frost resistant.

The preparation of the quinoa is labor intensive and it's usually viewed as women's work.

The stalks have to stomped, then the grain picked up with all of the crud in it and winnowed.

And this will take them all day, again and again lifting it up, letting the wind carry away the chaff, which they serve to their animals.

And then again and again until there's no more chaff in it.

Then they take it home and they have to wash it in a special wash to get out the soapy element.

Then and only then can they eat it.

This quinoa is the way it looks boiled but the pieces up here are onion and chile.

It's for two to four persons, this will make one meal.

The Colca Canyon is not just home to indigenous crops but also to wild terrain with desert plants and animals so unusual that people come from all over the world to see them.

This place called Cruz del Condor, or it's condor.

Condor.

They supposedly live down in the valley and if you get here at the right time of day, you can look down on them.

And I certainly.

Oh, there's one.

Look, another one, there.

Oh, my gosh.

Thank you guys.

The condor has the greatest wingspan of any flying bird in the world.

Yeah, I think it's over three meters, right?

Yeah.

It's hard to believe if I'm almost six feet, so add almost two of me and you've got a wingspan of a condor.

They identify by sight and up to two miles away they can see, for instance, a rabbit.

Their vision is the greatest of any bird.

But they also have an acute sense of smell.

The condors are in this area because it is a preserve for them where the condors know they are safe, so they build their nests here.

We estimate there are around thirty birds.

Their wingspan ranges from eight to nine feet wide, from tip to tip.

The condors live here year round.

It is the only condor preserve in the world.

Before all the tourists started to visit the area, the condors were taken for granted.

There was even a time when they were threatened with extinction.

Now, we value the condors, not just the ones here but also the ones found in the mountains.

The condor was considered a god called Kaypachac in Quechua.

They named their three gods Ukupacha , the underground god represented by the snake and the Akapacha, the god of the earth represented by the mountain lion and Kaypachac the god of the sky represented by the condor.

When you see them flying, you understand why so many cultures took the condor as such a powerful symbol.

They're represented in pottery and rock art and their textiles.

Even today the word malcu in Aymara means condor but also means the chief, the authority, and also means the mountain or ancestors.

That's about as high as you can get.

That's a big complement.

Yeah.

So it's this symbol for authority and for mountain.

Right.

Hey, here comes.

Alright, here comes a male.

Okay, he's just below us and he's probably going to pick up the thermal.

Here, take a look.

And they control their flight with those feathers at the tips of the wings just like an airplane with the movement of flaps.

And they barely move their wings.

They barely move their wings.

And that's why they like the thermals because they can soar until they see the prey.

Here, take it.

Look, it's right down, about, straight, now below.

There you can see the white, see the white, there it goes.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, okay.

I heard they live about 70 years, just like a human being.

I didn't know they lived that long.

Is that right?

You know condors are a real concern for herders because they feed on the young llamas during the summer.

There's a pair of them.

There's three of them.

There's actually, I haven't seen three of them together before, coming back.

Coming back.

And now right, okay, below the other one there's two of them together.

Yeah, let me.

Now turn.

See if I can do this without falling over backwards.

Yeah, that's that male.

He must be 3,000 or 4,000 feet above us now.

Yeah, I can see it.

That's the most magnificent bird I've ever seen.

It's just majestic, that's all you can say.

The people of Colca Canyon have worked hard to protect the Andean condor.

Due to their isolation, their way of life has changed little since pre-Incan times despite increasing numbers of tourists.

Most people here prefer to keep it that way.

The creatures found in the desert along Utah's Green River vary from the immense and old to the minuscule, young and pesky.

They also represent past cultures and present thrill seekers.

All are a part of the journey through one of the most isolated places in the wild southwest.

Join us next time on the Desert Speaks.

Now the tourist literature says that the Colca Canyon is the deepest canyon in the world.

There is a dispute between the Cotahuasi and the Colca as to which one is the deepest, yeah.

And you can never settle the point because it depends on where you measure from.

I mean, they say it's deeper than the Grand Canyon.

If you measure from the top of the 20,000 foot peaks up here down to the bottom, which is probably about, oh, 7,000 feet, it is.

It's terrific.

But you've got to take into consideration the chamber of commerce affect.

Funding for the Desert Speaks was provided by Desert Program Partners.

A group of concerned viewers making a financial commitment to the education about and preservation of our desert areas.