Cotahuasi Canyon

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Cotahuasi Canyon

The world’s deepest canyon is located high up in the Peruvian Andes, close to the town of Arequipa. The canyon measures at its deepest 3354 meters. I have been here twice, and I can't wait to get back here again.

The town Cotahuasi lies just at the entrance of the canyon.

Cotahuasi Canyon seen from the trail between Cotahuasi town and Charcana.

Fields in the village of Charcana.

Edwin Mendoza, a citizen of Quichualla, complains that in these days, due to Alberto Fujimori (president in Peru from 1990 to 2000) and his aggressive sterilization campaign, there are almost no children in Cotahuasi Canyon.
- Only old people... and we will die soon, he says.

The village Quichualla just as the sun rises up from behind the high walls of the valley.

Velinga in the late evening.

A worker from Velinga on his way to the fields in the early morning.

With only a handful of students, the small school of Velinga has the town’s mayor, Ignacio Chamana Buiza, as a teacher.

Elsa Ortega de Lierna in her house in the very small village of Quichualla, deep inside Cotahuasi Canyon.

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