The canyon rediscovered by accident

Here's a Colca Canyon fact. This canyon runs twice as deep as the Grand Canyon, carved out and terraced by cultures who were farming its slopes long before the Inca empire ever reached them. Even its name comes from the Inca word colca, meaning storeroom, after the food stores built into the valley walls to hold corn and potatoes for an entire region.

Despite its scale, the canyon effectively vanished from outside attention for decades. After its first scientific survey in 1931, it was largely forgotten until the 1980s, when a group of Polish rafters stumbled onto it while roads were being built nearby for a hydroelectric project. Andean condors, the largest flying bird on earth with a wingspan of up to three metres, still ride the thermals above the canyon every morning, exactly as they would have when it was still unknown to the outside world.

I painted the canyon in watercolour and ink, with the high flying Condors riding the thermals. There's a poster with a letter home and a postcard if you'd like one.

Shop the poster here: Colca Canyon, Peru · Travel Poster