Here’s how to visit Colca Canyon and Arequipa in Southern Peru.

At first, in that indigo hour, there was just a solitary bird.

Pre-Incan cultures viewed these birds as messengers of the gods, explained Vladimir Canazas, my guide fromSA Expeditions.

Pair of photos from the condor lookout in Colca Canyon peru, including a condor in flights, and tourists on a viewing platform.

From left: A condor soars above Peru’s Colca Canyon; Mirador Cruz del Condor, a popular place to spot condors in Colca Canyon.Credit:From left: Oliver Bolch/Anzenberger/Redux; agefotostock/Alamy

I quickly understood why.

Pierre Lepretre/Getty Images

Despite its beauty, few Americans have heard of Colca Canyon.

For decades, the canyon and nearby Arequipa, Perus second-largest city, were off the radar for foreigners.

A city in Peru, with a volcano rising in the distance

The city of Arequipa, with the Misti Volcano in the distance.Pierre Lepretre/Getty Images

(The grazing animals also serve as the propertys de facto landscapers.)

(Theres even a house museum there dedicated to Vargas Llosa.)

The latter is cartoonishly conical and notoriously feisty.

Pair of photos from Arequipa, Peru, one showing the red walls of a monstery, and one showing casitas at a luxury hotel

From left: An alleyway at the Santa Catalina Monastery, in Arequipa; Las Casitas, a Belmond Hotel, Colca Canyon.From left: Renzo Tasso/Courtesy of Peru Tourism; Courtesy of Belmond

Well become the new Pompeii overnight.

The descent was more than 3,000 feet.

I zigzagged on a single-lane road from the scrub-covered summit into terraced lowland fields below.

Guest room at a luxury hotel in Peru

A guest room at Arequipa’s Cirqa hotel, housed in a former monastery.Courtesy of Belmond

All the while, the setting sun morphed from amber to gold.

In those fleeting moments of free fall, I imagined that I was one with the condors.

I soared, with as much grace as I could muster, and wound my way back home.