Church revivals: up and down Peru's scenic, Colca Valley, restorers are bringing new life to colonial-era churches that have suffered the toll of time and tremors.

• Author: Conaway, Janelle

In the mid-afternoon of July 23, 1991, a powerful earthquake struck the small town of Maca, in Peru's postcard-perfect Colca Valley. Relatively few people lost their lives--most residents were tending the terraced fields nearby--but much of Maca was leveled. Part of the roof of its landmark 17th-century church caved in, and one of the twin bell towers partially collapsed.

"The bell ended up on the ground," remembers Juana Cayllahua, who was born in Maca some six decades ago. "It was very sad. I've been coming to my church since I was a little girl."

Following the earthquake, she recalls, some people even talked about dismantling the Iglesia de Santa Aria de Maca and selling off the pieces. "We thought, we're never going to be able to replace it."

That drastic solution turned out not to be necessary. Thanks to an extensive, long-term restoration program run by the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID for its Spanish acronym), Juana Cayllahua and her husband, Miguel Chiuche, are able to pray in a church that has been fully restored.

"We're very happy because our beautiful church is still here," she says-then adds that, unfortunately, not that many people seem to be interested in attending anymore.

Whether or not their pews are filled, the Spanish colonial-era churches that anchor Maca and other villages and towns throughout the valley are attracting a growing number of visitors. Located against a backdrop of snowcapped volcanoes, about 100 miles north of Arequipa, the area has seen a steady increase in both national and international tourism. According to AUTOCOLCA, the regional tourism agency, the total number of annual visitors rose by more than 150 percent between 2003 and 2010, to nearly 170,000.

The Colca Canyon, one of the deepest gorges in the world, draws hikers, rafters, and tourists hoping to glimpse the giant condors that ride the thermals along its steep walls. On either side of the canyon, the gentler slopes of the Colca Valley yield potatoes, quinoa, and other high-altitude crops, grown on terraced fields built by Cabana and Collagua indigenous peoples long before the Spanish--or the Inca, for that matter--settled here. (The word colca refers to the granaries they constructed of mud and stone, many of which can still be seen tucked into cliff walls.)

The Spanish first arrived in this region around 1535 and began to mine silver, gold, copper, and zinc for the Spanish Crown. They were accompanied by...