April 7, 2008

Latin America | Peru | Colca Canyon

Condor Canyon

By Nicole Cotroneo

The world’s deepest canyon gets a touch of the Orient.

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There you are, standing on a craggy precipice fringed with prickly pear. Suddenly, a raptor with a 10-foot wingspan swoops up from the valley. No, this isn’t Jurassic Park (you’ll find that in Dubai by year’s end). You’re in southern Peru’s Colca Canyon, the deepest canyon in the world –- twice as deep as America’s Grand Canyon and home to the magisterial Andean condor. The terrain may be wild, but trekking through this pre-Incan land of terraced farms and sheer cliffs now has comforting rewards: On April 15, Orient Express Hotels opens Las Casitas del Colca.

Sixty acres of fruit orchards and animal paddocks set the scene for 20 tile-roofed villas, each primped with heated stone floors, private terraces and warmed plunge pools. You’ve even got choices for bathing beneath the stars: your outdoor shower or indoor soaking tub canopied with glass. Come May you can also luxuriate at Spa Samay (that’s native Quechua for “rest”). But now you can content yourselves with the onsite trout ponds or the pathways marked with colorful stones leading to Colca River and nearby thermal springs.

To help preserve these pristine aqua sources, Las Casitas plans on sending all wastewater to a treatment plant, as well as turning all organic refuse into compost. Which reminds us: If you get a hankering for ripe tomatoes and fresh basil, Las Casitas welcomes you to pick your own from the property’s expansive vegetable garden and five greenhouses.