The Colca Canyon is the world's second deepest canyon. In parts it's over 3000m deep, deeper than the Grand Canyon and second – by only 163m – to its less accessible neighbour, the Cotahuasi Canyon. The fertile soil somehow clinging to its less extreme upper reaches also made it the bread basket of the Incan Empire. By carving thousands of terraces into the sides of the valley, they were able to grow grain and fruits which were then transported by llama to feed the masses in important centres like Cusco.

To get to Colca Canyon we took a two day trip up out of Arequipa, over the high Andean plains of the Altiplano before descending down to Chivay, the capital of the region which lies at the head of the canyon's river valley.

The road north west out of Arequipa passes underneath the dormant volcanic mountain Chachani. A massive shanty town has been built at its base, thousands of houses all built from rock hacked from the lava fields that Chachani laid down hundreds of years ago. The town's inhabitants are a mixture of economic migrants from the last 10 years and earlier political migrants who were escaping the machinations of the Shining Path movement in the 80s. Driving through we saw that the upcoming Peruvian elections definitely hadn't missed the shanty towns out. Giant slogans in primary colours were daubed all over the walls of roadside houses.

Once we left the shanty towns, the road wound further around the base of Chachani cutting directly through big rollers of solidified lava, and slowly up towards the altiplano. The plants of the Andes are specifically adapted to certain elevations, so you drive through bands of different coloured grasses, desert and scrub until you find yourself on the high plains at last.

Once there you're no longer alone. Vicuñas, Alpacas, Llamas (and even the odd migrating Flamingo) all call the Altiplano home. It can be hard to tell these cameloids apart, so here's a bluffer's guide:

1. Vicuñas. Deer like creature with a loping run, a long neck and fine fur. They only come in one colour, a sandy brown. Vicuñas cannot be bred in captivity as the males are too violent. This is a shame as their fur is finer than even human hair, and one jumper made from vicuña wool currently retails for around $1500.

2. Llamas. The favourite animal of the Incas. Used for food, transporting goods, for clothing, for candles and for sacrifices. The llama is much heavier-looking than the vicuña and has coarser wool. They come in many different colours, from black to brown to piebald. Llamas are known for their strong personality – load one with more than 30kg and it will simply lie down and refuse to move. Kick it in the hope of making it get up and it will spit at you.

3. Alpacas. Descended from wild vicuñas, these now look more similar to the llama, but have a smaller head, narrower body and finer wool. Alpacas tend to have a more consistent colour than llamas. Alpacas can also spit, but tend not to.

The altiplano is around 4200 to 4900m asl. To combat the altitude our tour guide handed us all a wadge of coca leaves to chew on the bus. The raw ingredient of cocaine, unfortunately there's only about 1mg of the opiate per 10kg of leaves. They do have about 14 other active ingredients though, all of which help alleviate the effects of altitude sickness. Interestingly, one of these chemicals is a mild anaesthetic so as you chew your mouth goes slightly numb. This had the unfortunate side-effect of making me dribble out of the side of my mouth like I'd just come back from the dentist. Considering that the leaves turn your teeth and spit a lovely dark green colour too, this may preclude my enjoying coca amongst polite company.

The end of our bus ride was the town of Chivay which sits near the start of the canyon. Shortly after arriving we went for a hike to see the actual 'colcas' which give the canyon its name. Colca means storage house in the Incan Quechua dialect. The colcas of the canyon are unique in that they were built into the walls of the canyon itself. This made them very difficult to get to, but had the benefit of keeping them in wind and shade for most of the day. Down in the canyon their temperature stayed sub zero even in the height of the Andean summer – perfect for storing fruit, meat and grain.

We hadn't really driven all day just to see a 15th century refrigerators though. The main reason people come to Colca is to see the condors. Further down the valley where the canyon reaches its deepest, strong thermals form in the mornings and evenings which are ideal for the lazy cruising flight of these birds. Many nest in the canyon walls and soar around the area in the morning before heading further down the valley (even as far as the coast – over 100km away!) to hunt.

We woke up early to drive out to Cruz del Condor for 8am when the young condors are most active. We were lucky. After 3 hours of gravel roads, we arrived to find 3 young condors soaring around the canyon which were soon joined by several more. They were a complete joy to watch. In the hour we stayed they wheeled around us, diving and swerving seemingly for the sheer fun of it. The younger birds were more curious, and occasionally one would do a 'fly-by' just over the tops of our heads, eliciting shrieks of delight and fear from the tourists.

The only thing taking the edge off the experience was our finding out, a few minutes prior to seeing them, that condors are actually vultures and exclusively eat dead things. And not newly dead things either. Once they spot a dead animal, they wait for about two weeks until it's semi-decomposed before eating it. This is not the noble creature I learned about from Mysterious Cities of Gold. Speaking of which...