Termas de Colca

Termas de Colca nestles beside the Colca Canyon, one of the deepest canyons on Earth — its walls descending over 3,270 meters from rim to river in a geological spectacle carved by the Colca River through the volcanic highlands of the Arequipa region — and one of the world's premier destinations for observing the Andean condor, the largest flying bird on the planet, which soars on thermal updrafts above the canyon with such reliability that the Cruz del Condor viewpoint has become one of Peru's most visited natural sites. The canyon is also home to some of Peru's most ancient terraced agricultural landscapes, built by the pre-Inca Collagua and Cabana peoples over a thousand years ago in patterns still visible and in some areas still cultivated, testifying to the extraordinary agricultural engineering of Andean civilizations in this extreme landscape. The bicarbonate thermal pools of the Colca, set beside the roaring river at the canyon floor near the village of Chivay, offer bathing with a combination of geothermal warmth, Andean altitude clarity, and the possibility of condors circling overhead that makes them among the most dramatically situated hot springs anywhere in South America.